First year - Sima

Sima has had the hardest adjustment of all the kids.  It's hard enough to be in 7th grade, without having to move to a new country, make all new friends, and learn a new language.  Some days, when you talk to her, it seems like Israel was the worst thing in the world.  But other days, especially when we sit together and talk about all the things that have happened, even she can see that there are some good things about this new country.

For one thing, for the first time ever, Sima has her own room!  Israeli houses are very different from houses in the US.  We have a lot more bedrooms here than we did in America, with smaller square footage.  However, we have a correspondingly smaller amount of communal living space. We have the one room that is living room, dining room and kitchen.  We are very fortunate to also have a small sitting area upstairs that the kids can use as the TV room.  But that is it.  There is no other space to sit around, do homework, hang out with your friends.

couch in the living room

Sima has taken on a lot more responsibilities since we have come here. She cooks for the whole family now.  She helped make doughnuts for Chanukah and she had to sift the flour before we used it.  That is another thing that takes some getting used to.  We are trying.

This winter we had some real excitement here in Israel.  We got snow!  Now to those of you who live in Denver, or Maryland, or New York, this is not so exciting.  But for us, it was amazing. Everyone put on their snow clothes and went outside for a few  minutes.  It didn't stick for too long and luckily we didn't have to shovel or anything, but it was very exciting.

There are a lot of things to complain about when you change schools in 7th grade, but there are also some really cool things about coming to a place where you get to go to a regular school.  Sima was able to join the robotics team and the gymnastics team at her school.

The robotics team had a multi-month project of programming a robot to do a course, plus doing a research project about how astronauts are affected by being in space.  The girls worked on their projects once a week and then at the end for several days straight. They went to compete in the regional competition in Jerusalem at the arena.  They didn't advance in the robot portion, but they did win a medal for their research.  Next year we hope they will have better luck.

The girls on the robotics team became friends, which is amazing.  What a cool opportunity.

Sima and her coach doing the splits

The gymnastics team was another exciting part of the year.  While gymnastics in Israel has been a bit of a dissappointment (more about that later), the gymnastics team at school was pretty fun. They had a competion at the end of the year and Sima won a medal for her banana hold that she held for 5 minutes!

Another awesome part about Israel is being able to go out to eat.  For Sima's birthday, we went into Jerusalem. We got breakfast at the coffee bean and lunch at Sushi Rechavia.  While we all miss Brooklyn Pizza (seriously, the pizza in Israel is blah...), we do not miss having only one or two choices of restaurants.

Right after Sima's birthday, it is Purim. Purim in Israel is slightly more fun than Purim in the US. Those of you who really know me, know that Purim is my least favorite, most stressful holiday. It is a little easier here. You can buy the stuff for mishloach manot (the bags, the candy, everything) at literally any store in the country.  Costumes?  Also everywhere.  Want to go to a Purim Carnival.  Well the parade passed right by our house, and someone set up cotton candy and popcorn machines on the street.




So gymnastics.  We miss coach Dave SOOOOO much!  We still have not been able to find any normal bars anywhere in the country.  The gyms are all multi-use, so there aren't any regular spring floors.  The competitions are odd, and mostly about dancing around as a group or with a partner (or doing strength competitions).  But Sima has been working on her floor fundamentals, and I have seen a lot of progress.  Very excitingly, she learned to do a back tuck by herself!

It's been hard not to have the ability to have a normal gymnastics team, and Sima would really love to have the chance to come back to America and work out at a gym. I wish I could find a good gymnastics camp that was shomer shabbat. 

Since Sima came in 7th grade, she missed the bulk of the bat mitzvah's, but still got to go to a few.  They are fun here.  Pretty much everyone has some type of meal and dancing, although she did go to a sleepover or two.

Birthdays are a big deal here too. Everyone is assigned a partner, and on your partner's birthday, you have to make a cake and share it with the class.

All in all, Sima had a pretty great year. She is not ready to speak Hebrew yet, but she is understanding more every day.  She is making great friends and most of the time she is pretty happy. I'm just happy she let me write this about her and post pictures!  Thanks, Sima.