Jim Davis in Israel

I have always been a huge library fan and when I heard we had a library in town I was a bit nervous about what we might find.    This is after all a relatively small town.  Nehemiah and Ariella and I walked over the other day and the whole way there I was prepping N.  I didn't want a  speech about the great libraries of Kansas once we got there.  As an aside, if any readers from Kansas bump into Governor Brownback anytime soon please let him know that I have a great PR guy for him right here in Mazkeret Batya, Israel.  Seriously, I mean Kansas was a great place to live but the way N tells it you would think we left Shangri-La.  Anyway, when we arrived we were all pleasantly surprised.  It is a little gem.  Quite similar to the library we left behind in Leawood but just on a smaller scale.  N got super excited b/c he now feels as if he has an office to work on his comics ("The Adventures of Super Someone" and his new "novel" about---here's a shocker---a young man trapped in a horrible world and trying to escape).  So when the librarian saw that he was interested in comics she started pulling out books from the English section on how to draw comics etc.  Turns out they have almost the entire Garfield collection and N is a big fan.  What a find!  I have no idea why on earth some small town in the middle of Israel has decided to stock such a large collection of Jim Davis--but I don't ask why.  I am only thankful.  Best part is it is so close to home that N can bike/walk there whenever he wants to.

Meanwhile, the teenage daughter of one of our new friends volunteers every week at this library.  She came up with the idea to make Lital her "library helper" so that she could covertly teach L some Hebrew in an unofficial capacity.  What a score.  L is so excited because she thinks she has a job at the library.  Tuesday will be her first day.  Little Ariella does not need any such help b/c she is picking up Hebrew so quickly that today when I asked her something she replied with "ani rak midaberet ivrit (I only speak Hebrew).  That little plan of hers didn't last long after I told her that I only speak English and of course since half of her Hebrew is still gibberish she should probably wait a day or two before making such declarations.

And just to keep you up to date we have been approved for ulpan hours in school!!   Supposed to be 6 hours per child and they approved 6 hours total.  N to get 4 and L to get 2.   No, it doesn't make any sense to us either and of course we'll have to start the whole phone call chain again but we are making progress and progress is good.