Invasion of the body snatchers

This year I wanted to do some serious research for my blog so I decided to conduct an independent study on where to find the best sufganiyot (Hannukah doughnuts) in Modiin.  I knew it wouldn't be easy because there are so many fantabulous bakeries here and only 8 nights, but I felt that in this time of dedication (read another blog for the Hannukah story) I could show some dedication of my own.  After all, if you find yourself in Modiin some Hannukah I want you to get the absolute best sufganiyah out there.  I really only had your best interests at heart when I started, but dear readers I quickly learned that it was no mission for amateurs.  I mean I can put away some chocolate chip cookies and I can eat a pint of chocolate chocolate chip ice cream like nobody's business but these doughnuts were an entirely different matter and I'm sorry to report that I had to abort the mission after only three nights.  Sometimes, as it turns out, there really can be too much of a good thing.

And how do you burn off the calories from little fat bolus donuts?  Local runs in Modiin!  Last week Nehemiah ran in a local race.  Modiin has a yearly 5/10K, with shorter races for kids.  He qualified to run the 1500M on behalf of his school, instead of having to register independently.  It was a lot of fun.  There were 500 runners in his age group.   You might be asking how I burned calories standing on the side lines, so let me tell you-- since none of the parents knew where the finish line was, we cheered our kids on at the beginning, walked half way to the point that we thought was the finish line and then turned around and walked back to the start since it turns out the start and finish were the same place.  We had to move kind of fast too because this is only like a 7 or 8 minute race.  Afterwards the kids played in the olympic village the city set up.  All in all, lots of fun.

Poor Michael injured his foot so even though this was to have been his first official 5k it looks like he is sidelined for a bit.  No worries, he is shadow boxing while he waits for his foot to heal.

Last Friday, our neighboring city (the border of which is one block away from us) had their own race.  This was just a show up and run deal, and N and L both ran and then played in their bouncy/craft/play area.  The girls designed dreidels and N and a buddy made their own fun.

Now the kids are on break from school to celebrate Hannukah.  We planned some day trips and part of the blog experience is chronicling them so we can look back and say "Hey, remember that time we went to the Alexander River to see the sea turtles and that guy rode up on horse back, tied up his horse and walked away?"  Yeah, that actually happened while we were at Nahal Alexander.  I thought it was more a beach where we could swim but it was actually a big grassy park and you can watch the turtles come up on on the banks of the river.  Not sure where he came from.

We took a day to harvest fruit for poor people.  We joined up with an organization called Leket Yisrael.  We learned there that 1 in 4 Israelis lives below the poverty line.  Fortunately, great organizations like these are working hard to help.  One of the many ways they help is to have actual fields where they grow fruits and vegetables that are donated.  Our day we were assigned to pick clementines.  Our group was about 50 people, some from a bat mitzvah group that do mitzvah projects each month in preparation for becoming bat mitzvah, others from a school group from a town in the South, and a handful of families like ours.  We worked for about 90 minutes and the leader told us that we picked about 1000 Kilos of fruit, or about one ton.  He told us this would be donated to about 250 families.  We felt really good about that.  The other thing that we felt really good about is that sometime during the harvesting there was an invasion of the body snatchers.  I don't know if was the manual labor, or hearing about hungry children, or knowing that our work made such a difference, but our children spent the next several hours playing so nicely and treating each other with such love and respect, that I felt like we had become a family from an old-style TV show, like Leave it to Beaver, or the Brady Bunch.  I did not want to change the channel.

I'm not really that familiar with Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the film), so I don't know how to wrap up the analogy, but basically in the movie you're totally rooting for the "good guys" to get back to themselves but in this version I was rooting for my kids to keep up the charade.  Anyway, by morning the 'pod people' seem to have left and our children were back.  Today we went to the old city of Jerusalem on a tour organized by our city.  It was great because we went by bus, so there was no need to worry about parking etc.  Ariella sang songs about Jerusalem the whole way there.  She wanted everyone to join in but it was a group of Olim and she couldn't understand why they didn't also know the songs from school.  At one point she switched to "Adon Olam," because she said every little kid learns this one.  She was a bit confused as to why the announcements on the bus were being made in English.   Our first stop was the generations museum outside of the Kotel (Western Wall).  Apparently it took the artist 6 years to create the glass sculptures that he uses to depict the generations over thousands of years that have been in or have yearned to be in Israel.  Nehemiah got pretty excited when he saw his name etched on one of the sculptures.  The tour is done with a headset that is programmed in many languages.  Ariella chose to listen in Hebrew but I chose English.  She turned to me and told me that if I want to learn Hebrew I can't just to go to ulpan-- I have to also choose Hebrew.

Afterwards, we took a tour through the tunnels underneath the Kotel.  Nothing like thousands of years of history to put things in perspective.  What an awesome feeling to stand in such archeological sites and feel so connected.  And to be reminded how glad I am that I wasn't born a Roman soldier.  King Herod (who made a number of additions to the Temple area) did not mess around.  I'm not sure when it developed, but there is a custom to write a note and leave it in the wall with your prayers.  Lital put a note in asking for my dad to get better.  It was very sweet.

Time to make the doughnuts

Hannukah is rapidly approaching and for the last few weeks, major department stores have all things Chanukah related.  I love walking in and being greeted with Hanukiyot (Hanukah menorah), candles, matches, oil lamps, cooking oil.  Seriously anything you can think of that is somehow related to the holiday will greet you on the shelves as you enter the stores.  I saw mesh skimmers and tongs for deep frying, cake and doughnut decorating utensils.  In fact, my challenge to you dear readers:  Name a Chanukkah related item that you think is NOT on the shelf ready to be purchased at my nearest grocery (well, okay, no Channukah bushes--oy).  In the meantime, the doughnuts have come out in full force.  Everywhere you turn is another doughnut, more decorated and frosted than the next one.  No need to worry about overeating during the Hannuka season, because seriously the grocery carts are so hard to push in a straight line that you easily burn an extra 100 calories every time you go to the store.  (I said I wasn't going to complain about them anymore but note that I'm giving an upside--not a complaint!)

It's a super fun time to be here with all types of parties and events.  We went to Ariella's class party and I am still such a newbie.  I teared up seeing all those kids dance and sing about Chanukah and living in Israel.  It really is miraculous and to be part of it can just hit you all of a sudden.  After their performance we made Hanukiyot.  Since this is Israel it wasn't just glue some parts together it was the full organic experience.  A potter came in with his equipment and the kids got to spin clay on the wheel and then make clay Hanukiyot.  Messy but fun.  Naturally we were the only parents who forgot to bring the clothing for craft time but that's nothing new.   At least I understood the e-mail that had instructed us to bring the clothing.

On the school front, a classmate of mine in ulpan was an ESL (English as second language) teacher in the US and she told me that on average it takes 3 years to gain Academic fluency.  So my kids, at year two, are in the middle.  If you have school aged children and they struggle with any subject, imagine how much more difficult it would be for them if they didn't fully understand the language of instruction.  Modiin does seem to have incredible schools and thankfully they are set up to work with olim.  It is a lot of effort but we are charging ahead.  And sometimes I wonder what fluency even is.  Today I told someone in English that I could see an item under discussion even with my "blind eye," which she politely reminded me is actually called the "naked eye."

I celebrated a little success this week that I might have thought a year ago at this time would have been a miraculous event.  One of N's closest friends from KS called to Facetime.  So they're chatting and continuing their cartoon series when I overhear them talking about when they might be able to actually see each other.  His friend is likely moving to Colombia (the country) at the end of the school year.  I mentioned to N that perhaps they can see each other in KS before the friend moves and N responds with "But I want D to come to Israel.  I want him to meet my all of my friends and see how great it is here."  Well, I knew things had been going well, and life here is so amazing for kids, but you could have knocked me over with a jelly doughnut when I heard that one. 

Special welcome to readers from Yaldah magazine.  I felt so honored to be mentioned.  I do hope you enjoy the blog, clearly Leora W. has exceptional taste!

Meanwhile back on the ranch, Bubbie woke up one day, sold her house and moved into a retirement community.  OK, maybe not that fast but it was pretty impressive.  The other day I called to see how she was adjusting to her new surroundings.  Even though Bubbie left Russia 70 years ago and has been in the US over 60 years, people usually ask where she is from.  Even though she knows what they mean, her usual response is Leawood (the town in KS).   Well apparently when the members of her new residence started asking, she told them she had arrived from Sweden.  This is technically true because they were in Sweden for a few years before emigrating to the US.  The best part is the responses she gets are usually along the lines of 'Yes, I thought that was the accent".  Thank you Bubbie for reminding us that it is never too late to reinvent yourself.  

And even as I adjust to all the inventions of our new lives, I wasn't quite prepared to hear Lital on the phone with one of her friends in Hebrew.   It's not that she's never spoken Hebrew before in our presence, it was the comfort and the fluency--wow!  I don't know the right word to describe how it feels to watch your child converse in a new language.  A word that would combine "strange, but mixed with pride and inspiration" would be close to the word I'm searching for. 

Down by the schoolyard

So last week we received a letter from one of our children's teacher.  The teacher expressed serious concerns that her young pupil, while bright and enjoying school, was clearly not working to maximize potential and was not doing the homework.  She explained the steps she wanted us to take and we had to sign at the bottom of the note to prove that we had seen the missive and were in agreement with the corrective steps.

The child:  Ariella

The teacher:  Lital

Wow, home ulpan can get pretty intense when an older sibling bathes in the luxury of authority.  Frankly, I'm a bit nervous about how parent teacher conferences are going to go...

At my own ulpan we are improving our vocabulary daily.  I again notice the ulpan trend of assigning themes to remind current immigrants that no matter how challenging things may be there is no comparing to those with real hardships.  For example, today's assigned reading is about the founding of a town called "Petach Tikvah" (the opening of hope).  Apparently, the founders left Jerusalem in the 1870's and discovered a town that was swamp land and most of the inhabitants were sick with malaria. They brought a Greek physician to the town and he told them that it wasn't fit for human life.  In spite of all of this they named the town "Petach Tikvah" and got to work.  OK, I get it I'll stop complaining.  OK, I'll stop complaining after this one line:  Why are all of the grocery carts built in such a way that they tilt as you push them?  This can make getting your groceries to the car quite a workout.  Between the obstacle course of other shoppers and cars, Oy!

In her regular Kindergarten class, A is learning about tzedakah (charity).  The other day she told me she wants to make sure to bring money for tzedakah every day because that way old people can get food and drinks and have a place to live.  "Though," she commented, "they will still be old."  I'm really not sure if that was a translation issue or the philosophy of a 5 year old.

Another thing I learned in ulpan is that the number of continents in the world is apparently not an agreed-upon fact.  Seems that since I am American, I was taught that there are 7 but for much of the world there are only 6 because they count North and South America as one.  I am proud to report that we have students from 5/6 or 6/7 continents:  Africa, Europe, N. America, S. America,  Australia and Asia (stretching with this one as the teacher is from Israel).  Everyone has to give a 5 minute talk about themselves in Hebrew and it it quite interesting hearing about the different parts of the world that my classmates lived in before moving to Israel.

This morning N's school started off the morning with a run and healthy breakfast.  It was loads of fun.  Each class wore matching color shirts and they all carried banners and torches exclaiming things such as "5th grade 2 is my family".  The 1500 meter run was less a race and more a promoting healthy habits event, but N came in 2nd place for his class.   As I watched him interacting in Hebrew with his friends and classmates I felt that I was watching a type of transition. . .

Hannukah is not the only miracle

Let us begin with a poem:

There is sand in your hair
There is sand in your toes
There is sand on the floor
There is sand in your nose

There is sand everywhere

There is sand on the ground
There is sand all around
There is sand on the stair
Gotta spread it around if we want to be fair

There is sand everywhere

I dedicate my poem to all families of children in Gan in Israel.  I am only slightly exaggerating when I tell you that when Ariella comes home from Kindergarten I pour a quarter cup's worth of sand out of her shoes. There are 34 children in her class so you do the math.  I have no idea how the playground still has sand after two months of school!  In honor of the upcoming Hannukah holiday I will compare it to the miracle of lights.  These kids are schlepping home 3 gallons of sand every week and yet the sand lot is still full.

And whether you empty the sand from their shoes before you enter the house, after you enter the house, in the little trash that exists in every meeting room where kids have to take off their shoes, no matter.  You will always find more sand.

Fortunately for us, after kindergarten the sand lot disappears so this should be our last year of sand in our hair.

Meanwhile, this week we had municipal elections.  Politics in Modiin seem quite friendly from where I'm standing.  There are a few cities that had very difficult elections and the campaign tactics were beyond the pale.  Unfortunately, in one city the scare tactics used were successful enough that the minority faction trying to control the majority was successful in electing their mayor who did nothing to help lessen (and maybe even worsened) the very high tensions in the city.  Ick.  But here in Modiin things were good.  My father joked that I am so happy here I should run for city council.  I actually don't know about city council in U.S. cities but here it is an unpaid position and it has been rewarding to see all the different candidates with incredible ideas and thousands of volunteer hours spent dedicated to this city.  One of the campaign posters in our neighborhood was in English, and I noticed when I went to Ramla to get my polio shot (actually had to drive on Dr. Salk street to get there!) that there were many signs in Arabic.

Lital learned from one of her good friends who is from Australia that if you don't vote in Australia you get fined.  She also told Lital that voting happens on Shabbat.  Though I've previously mentioned how amazing the "children's information network" can be I usually double check things that I hear from 8 year olds so I asked some of the Australians in my ulpan.  Turns out it's true.  It's about $300 per person if you don't vote.  Apparently, you can go in and draw a smiley face on the ballot if you are so inclined, just so long as they check your name off.  It was described to me as "You will be free and participate in your freedom, wether you want to or not".  Also, they do vote on Saturday but you can turn your ballot in early.

This  Shabbat we have a special visitor, our friend Hannah who made aliyah this past summer.  Our families have been the types of friends that merge into family so it is only fitting that now Hannah has become like our niece/cousin some type of family here.  Especially great for our kids to feel connected. Hannah is super fantastic but one really great thing about her---she likes to sponga!  Sponga is the process of mopping your floor clean.   I've already talked about the sand...

One of our neighbors told us that they've started looking forward to Ariella's nightly courtyard fashion shows.  She loves to dress up in costume and parade around the courtyard.  They were impressed with how many costumes she has.  Truthfully she doesn't have so many it's just that her combos aren't always the most self evident.  Not everyone does "bridal ninja" or "Super Snow White" and trust me, no one does strung out pirate as well as she does (no costume necessary).

So far treadmill desk off to a good start.  26 KM during the first week, and counting.

Technical difficulties

The post I wrote last night about the Wizard of Oz Museum disappeared today.  I was able to cut and paste (thanks to my most loyal reader---Mom!)  Any bloggers out there that can explain what might have happened.  A friend even commented but since the post disappeared her comment is no longer attached to an actual page so I couldn't actively reply.  Ideas?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Follow the yellow brick road...but bring your wallet

I started my new ulpan today.  It seems like it will be a really great class.   For starters it's less than 10 minutes away.  That beats taking two buses and 3+ hours of round trip travel any day of the week.  Looking back I can't believe I did that for last year's ulpan.  This time the make-up of the student body is also pretty different.  I'm in a bit of a comparing mood because we spent much of the morning learning comparison words.   I learned that while my apartment in Israel is much smaller than my house in the U.S. that is not true for everyone in the class.   The folks from Paris said that 800 square meters is considered a large apartment and could be yours for a couple of million dollars in Paris.  Though I also learned from them that if you are Jewish you would not want to live in Paris right now unless you like being afraid all of the time.  When we told people in Kansas that we were moving to Israel we often got "but is it safe?" type of questions.   The French students said that the children in France only feel safe once they get to Israel. 

The rest of my class is from different parts of the U.S.---including a retired surgeon who after 50 years of dreaming about aliyah finally did it!,  England, Australia, Mexico, Belgium and two women from Russia.  One of the Russian women, upon learning that I was from Kansas started to tell me all about how popular "Dorothy" is in Russia (where apparently she is known as Elly).  When she asked me if I had been to the "Dorothy museum" in Kansas I was torn between making up a really great story for this woman and shattering her illusions about the midwest.  Her face fell when I broke the news that we didn't have such a museum in Kansas City.  I suggested speaking to someone from a place called Hollywood, California.  Of course, when I got home and told Michael about this, he used his special Google power and discovered that while there is no such museum in Kansas City, there is, in fact, a special museumdedicated to all things Oz in Wamego, Kansas, several hours away.  It seems that not only did I crush the dreams of my fellow student, but I did so needlessly.  I think even if I tell her, she will never fully recover the magic.

I am hoping to improve my vocabulary and general Hebrew ability.  I can still feel the sting from a couple of weeks ago when it was "aleph" day at Ariella's kindergarten.  Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and she was supposed to bring something in that started with the letter aleph.  Well didn't all those kids with "arnaks (wallet)" "avatiach"(watermelons) and even a real "arnevet" (yes, a rabbit that stayed all day in the class) look smug.  I sent Ariella with an "iparon (pencil)" which I now know starts with an ayin and not an aleph.  Sort of like sending your kid with a Kite on "Letter C" day.  Not gonna impress too many people that way.  But not to worry, I returned with an "agas--pear" so all was copacetic.

Little pieces of paper

The other day, during the pre-Shabbat clear-away-the-scattered-junk-fest, Michael stumbled upon a plastic bag full of little notes, on each of which Nehemiah had written his name.   Michael asked what they were, and Nehemiah answered that they were good behavior notes-- notes that the teachers give to the students as a reward for said behavior.  Whoever has the most at the end of the year, Nehemiah explained, gets a very big prize.

"Wow," Michael responded, "Have you gotten any recently?"  Nehemiah answered, "No, the teacher stopped giving them out a few weeks ago."  Then, Nehemiah continued: "The only way to get more of the notes now is by gambling."

Yes, you read it correctly.  In typical fashion, this enterprising group of fifth graders realized that since the notes can be converted into valuable goods, that they are effectively a form of currency.  Look out, Bitcoin, there's a new currency in town!

And of course, once the demand for the good behavior notes cannot be met because of the dry-up in the supply chain, a gambling market sprung up enabling the notes to continue to circulate.

It makes sense.  Unless, as one friend of ours pointed out, the reason the supply of notes dried up was because the teacher simply forgot about it or decided to quietly end the program.  I don't even know how economists would describe what would happen to the little 5th grade economy when the currency loses all of its value.  

Anyway, speaking of numbers games, it is a good thing that L likes math because she has a great deal of math homework, made more challenging by virtue of its Hebrew presentation.  And before you start rolling your eyes and thinking, "how different can math be?"  try doing long division backwards yourself.

And naturally, since I set up a home study program for Hebrew with my easy newspaper and found a partner to practice conversational Hebrew with, the ulpan has decided to let me join.  I suppose I'll never know why they had a change of heart but my guess is the phone call I made to the government branch that advocates for immigrants.  Anyway, even though they will be making a space for me they can't let me start the class just yet because that would be too obvious.  There are many adjectives one could use to describe this process but "obvious" would not be one of them.

The most exciting news of the week is the arrival of Michael's treadmill desk.  Yes readers, we are that cutting edge.  Hats off to Michael who did all the research (this article is interesting) and then found the one Israeli company that makes the treadmill desk.  A few months ago as part of his health revolution M started the couch to 5k program and now he is running 5k a few days a week.  He and a friend are hoping to train for a 10k race in the spring.  I will keep you posted how the desk fits into the overall health picture.