Our third day in Israel was shabbos. We were in Yad Binayamin with some friend we hadn't seen in years. We had such a great time, and most importantly, our kids had a great time. They found friends that they connected with. Sima even went to B'nai Akiva.
On Shabbos afternoon (late afternoon) we went for a walk around the yishuv so we could see it and they kids could play at some parks. We met a lot of friendly people. One man told us a story of his colleague who was visiting Israel for work. His colleague said,
"I grew up in Dubai and this weather really reminds me of my childhood."
The Israeli man replied, "sure, but it was hotter there, right?".
"No, no," said the man from Dubai. "It was just like this."
Yes, Israel is in the middle east and we did not yet have any air conditioning!!!! Well, despite the lack of air conditioning, we did head back home after shabbos.
Sunday, August 5
The next day was Sunday. Remember, in Israel, Sunday is the start of the week. Everyone works. It is not like America. The air conditioning guy was supposed to come on Sunday, so we sat around most of the day waiting for him. In the end, he called me around 6 and said he couldn't come until the next day. That was sad, but what can you do.
Well that night, once we knew he wasn't going to make it, we decided to take a trip to Ikea. Ikea in Israel is amazing. It is JUST LIKE in America, except the signs are in Hebrew. Well, and there are a few other differences. They sell kosher wine! All the snacks are kosher. And the food is kosher. They have hotdogs and falafel at the fleishig food counter. And they have a separate dairy cafeteria that I didn't get to see. They even had soft serve ice cream, and it was only 2 shekels.
Ikea is packed full of large, religious families and we think that it is partially just to be able to feed your family for under 50 shekels. The hotdogs and the falafel were only 5 NIS. Pretty cool. We ended up getting all sorts of stuff to organize our house. Since this is a new house, there aren't any towel racks, or toilet paper holders, or mirrors! The lack of mirrors has made me resort to putting on my makeup using a web cam. It's pretty hilarious.
Monday, August 6
Monday was a super productive day for us. Daniel went into the city to visit the misrad hachinuch to try to get his diplomas recognized. They, of course, wanted some form from the midrad hapanim, so he had to go back again another day. And they only take walk ins on Monday and Wednesday. OK.
While Daniel was in the city, I took the kids to our local 'mall' to get RavKavs (bus passes) and Israeli Sim cards. This shopping center is like a mall, in that they have several stores. It is also where the grocery store is, so that is also a thing.
Anyway, we went upstairs to the RavKav booth. The lady there is very nice and speaks no English. Despite the fact that we could not communicate in any way, I was able to get bus passes for me and all the kids with our pictures on them! Yay for us.
Next door to the RavKav place is a store called Hello. They sell cell phones, plans, and accessories. That is the only reason that they exist. So, I go in and tell them I want to get 5 sim cards. He asked to see the phones. I only had a couple of the phones with me, but he needed to know the size of sim cards we needed. Then he told me the bad news, he only had 2 sim cards...the rest would come the next day. Well, OK...I guess that's fine. So I left with no SIM cards.
After that fun, we decided to go into another part of the mall (that is inaccessible from the part we were just in and from the grocery store...) The main part of the mall has a couple restaurants, a store called Fox and Fox Home (clothes and home goods) and a judaica store and a couple other small stores. I bought a couple clothing items at Fox and then the kids and I went to try the sushi restaurant called Japan Japan.
Now, when I say "sushi restaurant" don't worry, it's still a Jewish restaurant that has to serve other stuff. But unlike in the US, where that other stuff might be mexican food, or pizza, or some completely random cuisine, at this restaurant everything is Asian. I got a delicious thai style soup, we got some super yummy schnitzel (like chicken katsu) and we got some sushi.
Everything was super yummy and we all had a great time!
Monday afternoon, we went to Tzomet haGush (another shopping area) and looked for appliances. When Daniel was in the city, he looked at appliances at a large, well known appliance store, so we would have something to compare against. The prices at the Gush appliance store were almost exactly the same as in Jerusalem and best of all, they were able to deliver the refrigerator that night! Yay. We bought a refrigerator, 2 ovens, and a washer and dryer. Another great part was the ovens each came with a 1000 NIS gift card for Fox Home. So we also have money to get extra stuff that we need.
The refrigerator got delivered around 8:00 PM that night.
While we were buying appliances, I walked across the parking lot to a store called iGush. Happily, it was another cell phone store. The man who owned the store was SO helpful. He had SIM cards (luckily) and he was able to get us numbers that matched our US numbers. In the US, my phone number was 720-878-5980. In Israel, it is 058-678-5980. Sima and Rivka got numbers just like mine, but 5981 and 5982. Daniel and Aryeh got numbers that were just like their US numbers. So at least we can remember those!
I'll continue later...
You can hear about our adventure getting the appliances installed. Spoiler Alert: we still don't have an oven!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment