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!