Thanks for Asking . . .

Hello Friends,

Thanks to you who have asked – noodged, even – for news.  I am just feeling like I can concentrate long enough to put some stuff down.  I have never blogged, and barely do I ever even post on Fecebook, so this is new for me.  Of course, when I decided to blog, I spent too much time designing my page and finding “gadgets.”

So anyway: We are having an amazing adventure here in Israel.  Haifa is beautiful, the San Francisco of Israel, full of hills and valleys and wadis and cliffs.  The city is on Mt Carmel and most homes and apartment buildings are perched on the edge.. Everywhere you go you see either the Sea or the mountains or the valleys.  

Andy and I have spent our time in the following activity categories:

1. Errands and getting our life going
2. At our girls’ school
3. Exploring/hiking
4. Eating
5. Working (me)

We have had social time and some family hang-out time, too, and some really nice Shabbats.

In the first 2 ½ weeks, we have spent a fair amount of time getting set up.  First we lived in a temporary apartment for 10 days in the Mercaz haCarmel – the center of town which is on top of the mountain.  Then, about 10 days ago we moved to our permanent-temporary home, on Rehov Beit Lechem.

 

The Beit Lechem house is a sweet, old stone house nestled among apartment buildings.  It is owned, as many of you know, by the grandparents of one of Halleli’s best friends, and the parents of our good friends, Orna & Jonathan, who are now our friends, Ronny & Al Siegel.  It is both cozy and bright and felt like home immediately.  And we have not broken anything yet!

From here we can walk to school – 20 minutes downhill, with a view of the Sea almost the whole way.

School:  Leo Baeck is a school associated with the Reform movement, but lest you think that means it is full of NFTY kids, let me just say that there are NO English speaking students in Raizi and Hallel’s classes.  The LB primary school is about 5 years old and is in a building that houses a middle and high school, a library, community center with a pool, and offices for Leo Baeck’s many social service projects and institutes.

Our kids received the warmest possible welcome, as did we. On the Friday of the first week we were here, we took them to meet their classes at 10am, and when the elevator door opened on the elementary school floor, there were swarms of small children waiting to greet us.  Immediately, Halleli's new classmates took her by the hands and escorted her to her class.  Raizi also was greeted, especially by her penpals -- sure enough, Hilah (in white) had saved her a seat next to her in her class, and had even baked a cake to celebrate her arrival.  The girls (and we) are lucky to have great, warm, patient teachers.  The two teachers brought the two classes together for a little welcoming ceremony in which the LB kids sang songs, and gave them each signs and welcome booklets they had made with a message or drawing from each child.

Raizi jumped right in with her Hebrew, though she said it's hard to understand the other kids speaking so quickly.  On Friday, the school goes to its synagogue and has a Kabbalat Shabbat at 11:15am with singing; the girls got their kippot (the whole school, boys and girls, wear them in the synagogue space), and they were introduced to the whole school before Shabbat candles.  Then, we went to a store to buy shirts with the school logo on them (mandatory, but they can get them in any color); the girls were excited and proud to wear them.

Since then, both kids have been doing well, but the novelty has worn off some.  Raizi has been using and acquiring Hebrew at an alarming rate.  She has taken a few tests voluntarily and is trying Scouts (Tsofim) today for the first time.  She has also been blogging, if you want more news . . . http://raiziblog.blogspot.com/

Halleli has had two playdates and is working hard to speak Hebrew as well.  It is definitely easier one-on-one than in a group.  One problem with this country, as far as Halleli is concerned, is that most of the playgrounds don’t have monkey bars.  Today Andy took Hallel to one that does, down by the beach.

 I think R and H are exhausted but happy.

Andy and I have done some exploring and hiking.  We seem to alternate between days where we read and go to coffee shops and I work, and days where we go on an adventure.  One day we went to Wadi Nisnas, a largely Arab neighborhood where the best falafel in town is located.  Another day we walked down a million stairs through neighborhoods and past the Bahai Gardens to the German Colony, to meet our friend Monica.  After lunch, we hiked back up.

We have taken some beautiful hikes.  One was along a path from Haifa University into a wadi called Hai Bar.  At one point we entered a part of the forest that had been burnt by the forest fires just before we arrived.

Sunday, we took another one above Kibbutz Yagur.

Other than that we have taken a cable car to the beach

Enjoyed shmying around (as the Vogels say) in the Hadar market

And lots of other stuff.  We are really lucky that our good friends, Jenny & Golan, Ely & Keddy, live across the street and we are spending good time with them. My oldest friend, Ruthie, lives an hour away and we went to her art show opening, and have seen her and her family.

Last weekend we went to Jerusalem, saw Jay & Emily and their kids, stayed with Yossi & Susan and their kids, and went to thebar mitzvah of Niv, son of Roly & Dalia, Andy’s friends from Kibbutz Lotan.

Tomorrow we pick up my niece Shana at the airport and will spend a few days with her before she begins her program in Nes Tziyona. 

This is all the good news.  There are challenges, too, but those are not for blogs . . .