Weeks Two and Three

After all the excitement of the first week, the next few weeks have been much easier. The kids went to new olim camp in Efrat and they took a whole bunch of exciting field trips.  We found the parks in our neighborhood and the kids are enjoying being able to go to the park by themselves!

We spent our first Shabbat in Efrat.  We were hosted by two super nice families.  One is fairly new in Israel like us and are finally getting acclimated. They have a few little tiny kids.  Very nice.  The second family has been in Israel for over 20 years and all the kids were born here.  They have kids my kids ages, which is amazing. Rivka has become a great friend with their daughter.  She even had a sleepover last night.  Rivka and Chava basically hang out together everyday after school.

The kids got to go to a science museum in Beersheva, Ir David in Yerushalayim, a bee farm, and so many other places.  Even though there were some complaints (especially in the mornings), they had a great time overall.  Yesterday was their last day of camp and they made a little show.   

Our first Shabbat in Efrat, Rivka went to Bnei Akiva with her friend Chava.  It's in the next neighborhood from us, called Tamar.  She had a nice time and we got to meet the leader who signed me up for all the whatsapps for Rivka and Sima.  Of course, they are all in Hebrew so I have no idea what's going on.  Well, earlier this week, he texted me to tell me about an event they were doing on Thursday for the girls going into 7th grade.  They all were getting together...So Sima went with some cookies and nail polish (he told me she should bring some girl stuff, but since he didn't have sisters he wasn't sure what she should bring).  She had a great time!  Even though there was only one other English speaker.  The girls gave her their numbers and she got added to the Whatsapp group! I'm so happy that she is finding friends.  Now she is even more excited to learn Hebrew so she knows what they are saying :)

Since the kids started camp, it left our mornings free to get other stuff done. We were able to:

1. Buy a car.  It is a little Ford Focus (that's a  mid-sized car in Israel!!) 
   
2. Buy some shelves - There is an Ace in Yerushalayim, which is very similar to an Ace in America.  They were helpful and friendly and they have sales! 
   
3. Get the kitchen set up, got the gas turned on, and bought a hot water maker!
   
4. Get to the misrad haklita and get our paperwork finished.  Yay!
5. We finally got checks from the bank (after she forgot to order them when we opened the account).  She only ordered one pack, even though we requested 3...oh well.  Eventually I am sure that will all work out.
6. Buy a printer and got it set up
7. Get my desk all set up.
   
8. Daniel went to the Misrad Hachinuch a few times.  They need to approve and validate all his degrees so he can get a job.  They are only open on Monday and Wednesday...Bureaucracy is complicated here.
9. Get all the kids registered for school, for the buses, bought their school supplies, and most of their books.
10. Get signed up for health insurance and the supplemental insurance. 
11. Buy new candlesticks, since our broke on the plane (don't worry...not the nice silver ones, a cheap leichter I bought about 5 years ago).  The new one is beautiful and everyone here uses colored lamp oil. 
    

Also, I started working again.  Technically, that was at the end of our first week, but so far it is going well.  I work US hours (so about 3PM to 11:30PM).  That gives me the morning to get stuff done, which is nice, but it does leave me a bit tired :)...It's worth it though.

Hopefully, I will be starting ulpan in a couple weeks. That is definitely going to leave me exhausted, since I'll have to leave my house around 7:15 AM learn for 4 hours, come back around 2, then start working at 3...The next five months are going to be tough, but I really want to learn Hebrew. I am sick of feeling illiterate and having to rely on other people to translate everything for me.

Oh, also in the past two weeks, Aryeh has decided to become an Israeli. He wears shorts on Shabbat and even bought himself a pair of sandals!  The horror!!!!

The best thing that happened in the past two weeks is that the Eisens came back to Israel!  It's so nice to have them here.  They know so much of where to go, how to get things done, and it's just so nice to have a friend nearby.

Last shabbat the Eisens had us (and other guests!!!) for both meals, even though they only arrived in Israel at about midnight a few hours before.  We had an amazing time, the food was great, of course, and the company was even better.

This shabbat we are going back to Yad Binyamin, which is making my kids very happy.  I was worried that Binyamin would not want to go, since we still haven't had a Shabbat meal in our house, but even he was excited.  I hope everyone has a Shabbat Shalom!!!