A Busy Week Has Passed and an Exciting Week to Come

This week was pretty routine aside from a few hiccups here and there (literally and figuratively).
On Monday I had an interesting experience at my doctor's office. To make a very long story short - I had to go to her office in the more charedi area of Bet Shemesh because that's where she has morning hours. I basically waited an hour and a half for my 10 minute appointment and RIGHT before it was finally my turn to see the doctor, a woman walks in with her doctor saying she NEEDED to see the doctor and it would only be "shtei dakot". Well it wasn't "shtei dakot" and, needless to say, I was grateful to finally get out of that office half an hour later (after my 10 minute appointment was over).

On Tuesday I finally decided to try to get in touch with Tipat Chalav again. For those of you who might not know, in Israel your child gets their vaccinations and "check-ups" (kinda) at a place called Tipat Chalav. Every neighborhood has one. The doctor's office is for sick visits and flu shots which are the only shots not done in the Tipat Chalav (very confusing, I know). Anyway, I called them about a month ago ready to say my whole shpiel about being a new oleh, wanting to make sure my son's vaccines were all up-to-date, etc. The woman who answered the phone immediately cut me off, asked me for my name and number and said someone would call me. One month later, I decided it was time to try again. I was told by everyone here to ask for a woman named Dina who is the very nice english-speaking nurse that I would be taking Netanel to see. I finally got in touch with her and she was, indeed, very nice. She gave me an appointment for this coming Tuesday but told me to drop off his immunization card (from the states) before the appointment so that she could get his file started and see what he will need. I went to drop off said card on Thursday and it didn't go as smoothly as one would have liked (one meaning ME). Dina, sadly, was not there when I got there so I had to try to communicate with the hebrew-speaking nurses who, I can only assume, didn't really care. I tried explaining (several times) that Dina told me to bring in the card in advance and they kept insisting that THEY would not be able to open my file, something about not being "accepted" (still trying to decide exactly what that means - is my son not good enough for the Israeli vaccines?) I told them to just leave the card for Dina and she would deal with it. Finally, one of them switched to english and said - "Well I guess I can just leave this on Dina's desk" - brilliant! Why didn't I think of that!? We'll see what the story is when I get there Tuesday morning....stay tuned.

Still on the topic of Netanel's health, thank G-d he has been very healthy since we got here and we have not had to see the pediatrician as of yet (poo,poo,poo). However, seeing as my son is generally in the doctor's office once every 6 weeks, I was getting antsy having not seen the inside of a pediatrician's office in 3 months, so we decided to just make an appointment to meet the doctor and get Netanel a general "checkup" (it's in quotations because they don't really do check-ups here, another story...) Thankfully, the doctor has Friday hours so I was able to have Elie come with us. We took him this morning and he is, thank G-d, very healthy and we even got him a flu shot (woohoo!) The only hiccup (I said there were a few) is that the pediatrician's office is not really walking distance from our apartment. Thankfully, the Tipat Chalav is very close but the doctor is not. This is when we are the most thankful to have Elie's family right around the corner. David, Elie's brother-in-law, picked us up and took us there on the way home from his food shopping and Sara, Elie's sister, was able to pick us up afterwards and take us home - THANKS GUYS!!

The third (or is it fourth?) hiccup in my week was my shopping experience on Thursday morning. I went to Supersol (the big supermarket here) with Sara to do my usual Thursday shopping. When I was in Supersol 2 weeks ago, I decided to give in and sign up for the stupid Supersol credit card basically because I was so sick of being harassed every week when I go in. It also has some perks, like I was happy to experience this week - basically, in every aisle, there were several products that were 10% off if you used your Supersol card - yay for me! Or so I thought....We got to the checkout line and it was getting a little late (I had to get Tani at 1 and it was about 12:35). Something important to note before I go on - I have not yet received the actual Supersol credit card yet but I have gotten some other info about it in the mail. In the meantime, I was told I could just give them my Teudat Zehut number and that would find me in their system. Or so I thought....The cashier asked if I had a "kartis moadon" (rewards card=Supersol credit card) and I was very excited to finally answer YES! I told her, in my fantastic hebrew (insert sarcasm here), that I did not yet receive the card but I gave her my teudat zehut number. She proceeded to tell me that I was not in the system and I have to open a new card - it's as if I never signed up. I knew this to be impossible because I had already received lots of info in the mail so I was obviously in the system. Basically, the rest of the story goes that the lady who sits in the tiny kiosk to sign you up for a new card and my cashier were yelling back and forth as the minutes quickly ticked by. I'm still not quite sure what happened but I did get some kind of temporary card and was able to take advantage of all the sales (phew!). I don't know what the situation will be next week when I go...stay tuned.

As I mentioned in the title, this coming week is very exciting because my parents are coming on Friday!!!! We are really excited to see them and look forward to all the goodies they are bringing us...I mean we look forward to spending time with them and showing them around. See you soon, Momz and Dadz!

One Week Later, Not Much to Report

Well this has been a pretty routine week and that is a very good thing. On Shabbat, Netanel was a little under the weather and we thought it may be strep so we called over "Dr. Sabba" and he brought his otoscope-shmotoscope thingy and an instant strep test. We all waited on the edge of our seats for the results and we found that it was negative - yay! It took about 2 days for Netanel to be totally back to himself but with no fever he was able to go to gan - double yay! We love Dr. Sabba. (Side note: It is extremely helpful to have a pediatrician who not only lives right around the corner, but just happens to be my father-in-law, what a perk).

While Tani was singing his heart out in gan, I was in ulpan trying to understand the difference between "orez" and "orayz" - spelled exactly the same in hebrew but the first one means rice and the second means to pack - go figure.
I skipped ulpan (hehe) on Thursday to do some grocery shopping and to make an emergency visit to the eye doctor. For those of you who don't know, since about a month after we got here I have been having on and off irritation in my right eye. I kept trying different things and it would go away for a few days to a week and then suddenly flare up again - redness, pain, itching, etc. I had an eye doctor appointment for Friday but, after seeing my bright red eye in the mirror on Wednesday night and Elie telling me as soon as he walked in the door from work - "That's disgusting", I decided to call today and get an earlier appointment. I found out that I am actually allergic to my new contact lenses that I switched to at the end of July (the allergic reaction was gradual). I didn't think one could be allergic to a contact lens but, hey, you learn something new every day. To cut this story short seeing as I'm sure you're all falling asleep at your desks right now - I am getting new lenses and my eye should be back to normal within a week or so.

Another interesting happening from this week, if this post wasn't already riveting enough, is that the city elections took place this past Tuesday, November 11. While it has been interesting to observe how local elections and campaigns are run in this country, I can't say that it was the most pleasant experience. For starters, all last week and this week leading up to Tuesday, the signs and posters that we were already seeing everywhere were now literally plastered every place you looked. However, worse than that was the way the city looked the day after the elections were over. The building that we have ulpan in was one of the polling places so we didn't have ulpan on Tuesday. But when we came back on Wednesday, it was actually impossible to see the steps leading up to the building because they were covered with the signs and posters from the day before. While I know that this kind of campaigning goes on in other countries, it was kind of sad to see that there was no effort made whatsoever to clean up the city once the elections were over. The building where we have ulpan was littered with papers, soda cans, tables, chairs, and garbage. By midday on Wednesday, they had one guy slowly cleaning it up. Maybe things will change with a new mayor, who knows.

To finish on a good note, countdown until "Momz and Dadz Come to Visit" = 2 weeks!

Winter in Israel - This Should Be Interesting

I figured I would write a short post now about something that has really been on my mind for the past few weeks.
So immediately after Sukkot, as I wrote in one of my first posts, it got rainy and actually quite "cold". At first I was pretty amazed that the seasons could change so drastically but I was really happy about it because I'm not the hugest fan of the freaking hot weather here in Bet Shemesh so the cooler air was quite a relief. However, in terms of Netanel, I had not really planned on this cold weather coming on so quickly. When I was planning Tani's winter wardrobe before we moved, well let's just say I basically didn't plan anything outside of buying him a zip-up sweatshirt from Target. I knew my parents were coming at the end of November and I kinda figured the warm weather would hold out until then. So now, that sounds like a really dumb plan but at the time, it sounded reasonable (look at the big picture, people - I've never lived here before and all I know of Israel, and Bet Shemesh in particular, is that it's hot, always). As the weather was turning slightly cooler over Sukkot, we took advantage of still having our rental car and went to a few stores to buy some long pants and long-sleeve shirts for Netanel to tide him over until Bubby and Zaidy come laden with Old Navy goodies. These purchases have been quite good and were extremely useful during that first cold and rainy week.
Here's the kicker, though - yea, it got warm again. It's kind of cool in the morning and it can get cool once the sun goes down but, during the day, it is really and truly warm (sometimes even hot!) outside! While this fluctuation in the weather has occurred, I have begun to notice some very interesting things about Israelis (or people who have been living in Israel for more than 3 years).
For example, last Shabbat it had to be in the mid-80's. It's wasn't broiling but it was definitely not cool. However, as I was pushing Netanel in the stroller to meet Elie at shul, almost every single woman I saw was dressed in long sleeves, black tights, boots, turtlenecks, etc. I even saw men in long sleeve button down shirts with sweaters on top! Throughout last week and this week I have been seeing even more of that, even though the temperature has stayed at a steady 80-85 degrees during the day. It's as if that one blast of cold air for a few days declared the beginning of winter and there is no going back. I'm convinced that in that week everyone changed over their wardrobes from their summer to winter clothes and now people are too lazy to change back so they act like they're all comfortable in their turtlenecks and Uggs in 85 degree weather when really they're sweating like pigs. Beauty is pain, I guess. Or laziness is......

"Momz and Dadz Visit to Israel Countdown" - 3 weeks!!

Forgot the Countdown!

I apologize but in my previous post I forgot to include the countdown for "Mommy and Daddy are Coming to Visit". As of tomorrow, Nov. 4 - 24 days!!!!! Oh, and go vote.

Update Time

I know it's been a few days since I've updated but things have been pretty status quo here.
On Thursday I went with my mother-in-law to a kibbutz about 15 minutes away called Netiv Halamed Hey. Just like every kibbutz has something that they do, the job of this kibbutz is to cook. During the week, aside from feeding the kibbutz, they also feed the army. On Thursday and Friday, they are open to the public. Basically, you walk into a medium sized room that has more food than you could ever imagine, it's really amazing. Literally, any kind of chicken, meat, fish, salad, or side dish that you can imagine is there. You take containers (they have varying sizes) and you fill it up with as much food as you want. I had been there before but this was the first time that I went and I was buying food for my own home. Let me tell you, it was very overwhelming (in an I love to eat but it's impossible for me to take home one of everything kind of way). The prices are great and the food is delicious. If you are ever going to be in the Bet Shemesh area, I highly recommend visiting this great kibbutz.
Shabbat was nice and relaxing and on motzei shabbat Elie's sister and brother-in-law took us out to celebrate Elie's new job. We went to a very nice dairy restaurant here in Bet Shemesh. Truthfully, the food was really good but Israelis sure do like their cheese. I don't think I ever realized before how celebrated cheese was in this country. Elie ordered what we thought would be a baked potato with a nice cheese sauce on top (kinda like that awesome lunch from the Stern caf...), but what came was a mountain of cheese with potatoes hidden inside. I'm starting to think that maybe it was supposed to be like a bobbing for apples game that they have at carnivals. Anyway, the food was actually delicious and we had a really nice time.
Then came Sunday and Elie's first day of work! He really enjoys it and is being given a lot of responsibility which is really great. It's nice to hear that people are respecting the amount of experience that he has and the talents that he has. It's a relatively predictable schedule - he starts at 9 and ends at 6. However, because there are no subways here and the only mode of public transportation is the bus, he is out of the house at 7:30 and comes home around 7. It's a long day but, again, predictable (whereas in the States, it was always a toss-up as to when Abba was going to walk in the door and whether or not he would be doing Tani's bath and bedtime).
Netanel and I have gotten into a nice routine although, I gotta say, I definitely miss having Elie around. I take Netanel to his gan in the morning then come home and either get a ride or take the bus to ulpan. Afterwards, I either get a ride or take the bus home just in time to pick up Netanel at 1. After his nap we try to figure out ways to fill the afternoons until Elie gets home without either of us going crazy....it's only been 2 days but it's been interesting.
I would just like to make a shout-out now to Sari Wittlin who was the best afternoon buddy EVER. I never had to worry about filling my afternoons because we would always do something together - usually that meant hanging out at her apartment, watching the kids play and feeding them snacks - but it was predictable. I miss you, Sari!

A few things I noticed while grocery shopping in the past few weeks that may be of interest to anyone thinking of aliyah (or to anyone else, really):
1. There is no frozen squash in this country. If you want to make squash kugel, muffins, etc. you either have to buy chunks of fresh squash, cook it in the microwave FOREVER until it's soft and then mash it up...or decide to make broccoli kugel instead.
2. There is no pareve condensed mushroom soup. It's not something that I thought I used that much but lately, I have felt it missing from my life...
3. One can learn a lot of hebrew simply by walking through the aisles of the local grocery store. While this can be very informative, it can also be very frustrating when you come home thinking you bought one thing while really you bought the opposite product.