Back to School As Israelis

For better and for worse, our lives are starting to fall into a routine - which means less craziness in our lives, but also fewer crazy stories for you all.  Nevertheless, there were still some noteworthy things that happened this week.

Since the country more or less runs according to the Jewish calendar, university classes don't begin until after all the fall holidays have ended (plus a couple added weeks of recovery), which means that Matt started school this week!  While he has already been working for many weeks leading up until now, starting this past Sunday (which, for those who don't know, is the first day of the work week here), Matt has been spending his days on campus.  He will be auditing a few courses, but for the most part will be researching and writing from his very own office (well, his work-station within the larger lab).  Matt is also getting to spend more time with his advisor and the other students in the department.  While casually discussing the deal he got on buying his new beard/hair trimmer and how he was excited to go home and try it out, Matt's advisor chimed in "No! We need more bearded people like you in our department. You have to keep it!"  I guess Mr. Lion-Face is sticking around for a while...

The start of the academic year also meant the start of Ulpan for me (Stef).  Ulpan is an intensive Hebrew course designed to bring people to fluency (or at least competency) in the language and for new olim (immigrants), it's free!  I made a promise to myself that I would look earnestly for work, but if nothing came up, I would go to class and work on my Hebrew instead (until I get a job, that is).  Ulpan brings together a wide range of people.  The majority of my classmates are Russian immigrants, second comes French and then a smattering of North and South Americans and a few random other Europeans.  The mix of nationalities means that the common language we all share is Hebrew so we are forced to practice our Hebrew even during the breaks from class (except that almost everyone also speaks a little English).  Being in class has made me begin to think a lot about language acquisition and language barriers for immigrants... but more on that another time.  

This week also brought our first overnight guest to our new apartment!  We worked really hard to make sure the guest bedroom was livable, the living room was presentable and the apartment was generally clean (which has been hard to maintain with all the dirty boxes coming in and out).  When we finally had the apartment looking respectable, we got a phone call from the air-conditioner repair man, who we had been expecting for over three weeks now.  Our air-conditioning until is on the wall above the couch.  In order to access it and fix it our entire living room needed to be moved.  The once tidy, organized living room now had couches and tables strewn about and the floor under the AC unit was covered in built up dust and dirt that fell out of the unit when it was opened.  The cover and filters of the AC unit also needed to be cleaned and the process of washing them in the tub lead to water and dirt dripping everywhere.  All our previous hard work was for naught!  And of course, in the middle of all this, our friend calls to say she'll be at our place in 15 minutes.  Thankfully we got most everything back together and as the good friend she is, she didn't judge us for our slightly less that pristine apartment.  

Having a friend in town gave us a nice excuse to go out and explore a bit of Haifa.  We heard that there was going to be a big street party in a neighborhood called Hadar, so we headed down to check it out.  When people have described Hadar to us, the two most popular things to say are 1. there are many Haredim (ultra-orthodox Jews) and 2. it is the up and coming place for hipsters.  This lead us to dub Hadar - "the Brooklyn of Haifa."  We had been in Hadar a couple times before, mostly to shop at the shuk (the open air market) and we had seen the Haredim, but we had yet to encounter the hipsters.  But, at the street festival, we found them.  There was performance art (namely a guy walking around slowly wrapping his whole body is masking tape), jugglers, street art (literally, painting ON the street), music of all different varieties, food (none kosher, sad face) and of course beer.  People set up tables selling their art, second hand clothing and funny elf-hats.  People in wild clothes were dancing on the dumpsters or standing completely still like statues.  All in all, we had a great time, even when in started to down pour.

Rain, in this water-starved country, is a blessing and we have been having many blessings this week (some of these blessing have been leaking into our laundry room window and waking us up in the middle of the night).  The rain has also brought some cold weather for the first time since we arrived.  Finally the sweaters and socks are making an appearance!  After the rain let up, we continued our Hadar adventure by riding the Carmelit - the world's shortest and most inclined subway.  The Carmelit only has 5 stops and because it goes straight up and down a mountain side, functions more like an elevator.  The subway cars are even tiered to make sure the riders can sit straight without feeling like they're falling forward or backward.  After taking the Carmelit all the way down and then all the way back up to the top, we got out to go find some food.  As we were exiting the station we met a stranger who was visiting his great-aunt and was in Israel for the first time.  We invited him along to dinner and he accepted - its so easy to make friends!  

Now that the cold has set in, it seems a bit ironic that we finally have a working air-conditioner, but lucky for us, it also works as a heater!  The rain has continued to come all week and while we're learning to see rain, like Israelis do, as a true blessing, we are hoping for a little respite so we don't get soaked as we walk around this Shabbat.  

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend,

Stef and Matt

First Home-Cooked Meal As Israelis

(I know last weeks email was long, so I will try to keep this one short)

We are writing to you now from the beach, one of the perks of living in Haifa, wireless internet and the weather is beautiful.  At times I miss fall clothing - boots, sweaters, warm scarves - but I guess wearing sandals in October isn't so bad.

The highlight of our week, as hinted at in the title, was that our lift finally arrived!  We received a phone call Sunday morning to let us know that the movers would be at our apartment Monday afternoon.  When we received this much anticipated news, we were still in Jerusalem where we spent Shabbat.

In addition to a lovely Shabbat with friends, we also had the opportunity for a few special visits.  We got dinner with Matt's aunt and uncle who were visiting from their kibbutz and his cousin, their daughter, who lives in Jerusalem.  When we received the previously mentioned call, we were visiting with Jake Slabiak, a law school buddy of Matt's dad, who also recently made aliyah.  We got lunch (funnily enough at the same restaurant)  with some second cousins on Matt's mom's father's side who came to British Mandate Palestine in the 1930's.  Much of the meal was spent figuring out the complex family tree.  

As we left the Jerusalem in our rented car full of all the boxes and furniture we stored at different people's apartments around the city when we left in 2009, we headed north to meet friends who live in  Kfar Pines (pronounced: pee-nes. insert all inappropriate jokes here).  On the final leg of our drive back to Haifa we got a phone call from an Anglo family that lives near us who heard we were new in the neighborhood: "Do you guys need couches?" Instead of going home we drove straight to their house and sealed the deal - we were now the proud owners of two free leather couches!  As per Israeli hospitality, they also invited us for Shabbat dinner.  

On the morning of our delivery, we were told by the moving company that we should block off 6 parking spots for the moving truck.  When we called around to see how we were supposed to go about doing this, we could not get a straight answer.  The closest thing to an answer we got was "stick something in the street."  We called back to double check with the moving company and they assured us that even 4 spots would be enough.  We scrounged through our belongings, found some boxes, bright colored things and string and blocked off the 2 1/2 spots that were open in front of our building.  When we checked a bit later a third spot opened up - we were almost there!  When the truck driver called to say he was on his way, he confirmed that 3 parking spots should be sufficient.  If that was the case, we were all set!   When we finally went down to meet the truck we noticed our makeshift barricade was strewn about and someone has parked in one of our saved spots - the nerve!  Turns out, the truck fit perfectly in just 2 1/2 spots.  So much for blocking off 6 spots...

The movers did an amazing job carrying up all our boxes and furniture with their fair share of complaining: "oh, this is so heavy.  atem lo normalim!  you guys are crazy!"  One mover got so sweaty, he asked for some soap and then essentially took a shower in our kitchen sink.  Another mover told Matt, with a completely serious face, that one of our cabinets didn't fit in the door and we would have to hire a crane to lift it through the third floor window.  A few minutes later he came back, "Stam!" "Just kidding!"  Miraculously all of our boxes are accounted for and not a single thing was broken in the move.  We even ended up with two boxes that aren't ours.  When we told the head mover that we found items that don't belong to us, he said, "of course they do."  We said: "nope these are not ours."  He said: "I've moved lots of people.  Think about if for a few days, you probably just don't remember that they're yours."  We said: "these things are DEFINITELY not ours."  He said: "just think about it."  We're not totally sure if he actually thought they were ours and that we'd soon remember these items that were just temporarily unfamiliar or if he was trying to tell us: "don't be idiots. Take the free stuff and never look back!"  Needless to say, we're still in the process of tracking down the proper owners.  

The rest of the week was spent unpacking, building bookshelves and arranging our new-old stuff (altneu-stuff?)  Opening each box was like getting a present and then realizing the gift is your old friend.  Slowly, slowly the apartment began to look like livable space.  This unpacking also lead to the title of this email - our first fully home-cooked meal in our new place.  The arrival of our pots, pans and dishes plus a previous trip to the shuk (market) made this momentous event possible.  It is finally starting to feel like we're settling in.   

Last night at around 9:30pm we opened the front door to hang our hang our mezzuzah (really, to replace the plain old plastic one that was on the door when we moved in) and to our surprise found our neighbor from the building next door standing in the hallway.  Matt had met this neighbor earlier in the week when he was hanging out downstairs with the moving truck and now he was standing at our front door with a homemade, still-hot-from-the-oven, chocolate cake that his wife made.  "Shcheinut" "neighborliness" he called it, when he handed us the cake (which even I ate despite my chocolate intolerance and which we both agree was the best cake we have ever eaten).  We have been welcomed to this country, city and neighborhood so many times over and we truly feel blessed.

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend,

Stef and Matt  

"Achrei HaChaggim" as Israelis

In Hebrew, Matt's name sounds extremely similar to the word for "dead," met, מת.  This was first brought to our attention years ago in Jerusalem when my 5 year-old neighbor would chase Matt around the backyard yelling: "Matt atah met ?" "Matt are you dead?" Most adults, however, don't seemed bothered by this, expect, that is, for our friend's father.  Since moving to Haifa we have spent much time with said friend's father.  He and his wife fed us when we had no kitchen, he helped us navigate the apartment search, even meeting with our landlord and writing up our lease contract.  All the while, we noticed, never quite getting Matt's name right.  Sometimes he was Matts, sometimes it sounded more like Max, but it was never Matt.  This past shabbat, my friend was in town visiting her parents and we were invited over for dinner.  As we entered the house we were greeted by a booming voice: "Shalom, Stef!  Shalom, Mitch!"  Mitch?  Who's Mitch?  We all laughed.  "Dad, his name is Matt," our friend corrected.  But for the rest of the evening, Matt was Mitch, there was nothing anyone could do about it.  After a great meal, it was time to go home: "Goodnight Stef, goodnight Mitch," to which Matt replied: "If you're going to change my name, at least call me chai," (Hebrew word for "life") - we'll see which name sticks.

As soon as Shabbat ended, we rushed out of the house to begin our evening activities.  Stef had made plans to roam around the art fair that was in conjunction with the Haifa International Film Festival with a new Haifa friend.  During which time Matt would hang out with her husband and kids. Then we would switch kid duty and the men would go to the final basketball game of a pre-season tournament being held at the newly renovated sports center.  This was the plan until right before Shabbat when we made a deal to pick up some cabinets and a desk from someone we met while searching for a couch (sometimes you're looking for one thing and something else just falls into your lap), who said we could either pick up the furniture Saturday night or we would have to wait until they got back from vacation.  Luckily for us, the friends we had plans with have a big car, so we hired a babysitter for them and while Stef and friend went off to the festival, Matt and friend loaded up and delivered cabinets to our still unfurnished, but slowly getting there, apartment.  They even made it to most of the basketball game!  

8am Sunday morning we met the movers who would help us move the fridge and stove (that we acquired for free) from the neighbors down the street to our apartment (we weren't going to be able to do this move on our own).  Watching two men move a huge fridge using a long strap slung over their shoulders and barely using their hands as they navigate three flights of stairs is a pretty amazing sight to see.  Another amazing sight to see: the amount of sweat that this one mover produced.  It literally looked like he just got out of the shower and I had to follow his around the apartment wiping up small pools of sweat that were accumulating all over the floor. In just over half an hour our kitchen was now equipped with a fridge and stove, which was great, except for the fact that they were utterly disgusting.  Not only had they been sitting in a storage unit since April, it looks like the previous owner never once cleaned them.  The fridge was basically covered in a thin layer of grim, both inside and out and the stove was streaked with grease, all the crevices filled with greasy food remains.  BUT, they were free, so we put on our rubber gloves and started scrubbing.  Actually... before we started cleaning, we popped over to the film festival and saw a really interesting film about an haredi (ultra-orthodox) family and issues of marriage ("Fill the Void").  After many hours of work, the stove looks almost brand new and the fridge still looks old, but really clean.

Sunday afternoon we headed back to Ahuza to spend Simchat Torah with the same family we spent Yom Kippur with.  Even though this chag (holiday) is supposed to filled with fun and dancing, we were both feeling pretty "holiday-ed out" so we took it easy and had a relaxing day.  As Simachat Torah ended on Monday night, we entered a new phase in Israeli life: "Achrei HaChaggim" ("After the Holidays").  From a few weeks before Rosh HaShana throughout the month that comprises the fall Jewish holidays nothing much gets done in this country, everyone uttering the common refrain: "It'll get done after the holidays" "Be in touch with me after the holidays" "Your lift with all your worldly possessions will get delivered after the holidays."  Now that this elusive time has arrived, let's see what happens...

Back in our apartment we were excited to put our new appliances to work!  First load of laundry, success!  Second load of laundry, mostly towels, another story... Until our lift arrives, we only own three towels, all of which were in dire need of washing.  It seems, however, that our washing machine can't quite handle that kind of load.  After watching the machine struggle to spin our water-soaked towels around, I (Stef) decided to lighten the load and take out two of the towels. This didn't help as much as we hoped and the machine continued to huff and puff.  At the same time we decided it was a good time to plug in our newly cleaned fridge.  Within minutes, the power was out.  We found the circuit breaker and flipped the electricity back on.  Less than a minute later, pop! lights out.  Convinced that the fridge (which is about as old as we are) was causing the damage, we unplugged it in a hurry, but before we knew it, lights out again.  Our poor washing machine was so over worked it was completed over-heated and was causing the power to shut off.  Long story short, we have clean towels and have had a few successful loads of laundry since with the fridge and electricity all in working order.

As if all the holidays weren't enough, the day after the holidays are over is still kind of a holiday - the kids don't have school.  To enjoy this non-holiday holiday, Stef accompanied her friend and three small children to a farm to pick onions to donate to charity.  This experience only confirmed that Stef's destiny is to be a farmer.  You heard it here first people.  

Turns out the cabinets we had bought were in less-than-great condition - one missing foot and doors that don't close properly.  Luckily for us, the man we bought them from is a carpenter and offered to stop by and fix any and all problems, for no cost.  This man, a virtual stranger, stopped by our apartment Wednesday morning, tool box in hand and fixed the cabinets right up.  He even gave us some advice on other fix-it projects around the house, insisted that we keep the wood glue and some plastic wall anchors in case we need them and told us to call him if we ever need anything.  Everyone here really does treat you like family, for better and for worse, whether their actually related to you or someone you just met.  

On a serious note, this week also brought the last day of Kaddish (the mourner's prayer) for Matt's dad.  For the last 11 months, Matt has been attending services three times daily to say the mourner's kaddish for his dad, an experience which has profoundly shaped each and every day.  As Matt noted at the unveiling we held in Los Angeles before we made aliyah, saying kaddish in a minyan every day has allowed him to take his dad with him everywhere we went.  From our community in Chicago to our childhood homes in LA and Buffalo to camp in Wisconsin, vacations in Florida, Boston, Maine and Panama City and finally to our new home in Haifa, his dad's memory has traveled with us.  We are now entering a new chapter as we prepare for his first yahrzeit (the yearly anniversary of his passing) in one month's time.  Thank you all who have supported and comforted us in this past year, may we have only happy times to come!  

We're off to Jerusalem for the Shabbat to meet up with Matt's uncle, aunt and cousin who we haven't seen since we got here.  

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend,

Stef and Matt

First Holiday Season As Israelis

Chag Sameach!  Where to begin... 

We moved into our new apartment last Thursday, but realized shortly after that we couldn't actually stay in the apartment yet.  Why?  Because the pipe that runs out of our bathroom was broken.  And by broken, I mean not connected to anything... which means that running the sink, shower or flushing the toilet causes all the water to come pouring down the side of our building (along with anything else that goes down the drain).  Luckily we made friends with our neighbors down the street who were out of town and told us we could crash in their apartment for as long as we needed (until they come home).  We picked up the keys from a friend of theirs and were able to shower and sleep there Thursday night.  We returned the keys Friday morning and went to spend Shabbat in Ahuza with the same family that hosted us for Yom Kippur (Ellen: "I knew I shouldn't have washed your sheets").

Over Shabbat we celebrated a new friend's birthday, learned to play the game "Settlers of Katan," and found out from another new friend that they had and extra washing machine that they were trying to get rid of and would give to us for free if we could figure out how to get it out of there apartment.  Yay, our first major appliance!  

We returned to our apartment Saturday night and slept there so we could be ready for the plumber, Tony, who was coming early Sunday morning.  Tony, who turns out to be South African, came and told us that "yes, this is a problem" and that "I didn't bring my tall ladder, so I'll be back Tuesday morning to fix it."  (Sunday night to Monday began the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, where one cannot do any work).  

Great... We called our friends who were still out of town and they were more than happy to let us stay in their apartment again, however, there was a glitch... their friends who had the keys were about to head out of town.  So began the "Great Key Scavenger Hunt."  By the time we called the friends-of-our-friends they were already out of the city, but thought that their neighbor might have a key to their apartment and then we could get the key from their neighbor, go into their apartment, take the keys to the other apartment, return their keys to their neighbor and all would be good.  To begin this operation, they needed to call their neighbor to see if she indeed had the key and when she would be home.  In the meantime, we called other friends to see if maybe we could crash with them in case this great plan didn't work out.  Unfortunately they too were out of town, but were pretty sure that their friend had a key to their place, so they would check and call us back.  While we waited we heard back from the friends-of-our-friends (from the original apartment) and their neighbor had a key!  The plan was on!  Off we went to the neighbor-of-the-friends-of-our-friends.  We got the key, went into their apartment, found the other key, and returned the their key to the neighbor.  The neighbor upon hearing that we were new immigrants said: "hold on." She then ran back into her apartment and produced a home-made honey cake insisting that we take it, "for you, chag sameach (happy holiday)!"  Only in this country does one give cake to complete strangers.  

With all the balagan (craziness) of moving we still needed to prepare for Sukkot.  Matt bought our lulav and etrog for a whopping 70 shekel (about $15), which was not the even the cheapest one, but still a great deal compared to the $40-50 we paid the the US (its good to be local). Unfortunately, we were unable to build our own sukkah this this year, but thankfully we got about a million invitations to other people's sukkot, so our life this week has basically been one giant sukkah hop (so far, 9 different sukkot). It was a little weird and also really nice to only have one day of Yom Tov now that we're Israeli.  But in case we missed America too much, we got a taste of the old country when in rained on us in the sukkah!  A great blessing in this country where it doesn't rain at all in the summer months.  

The plumber came Tuesday morning, fixed everything and we officially moved in!  When our friends returned and we gave them back their keys, they remembered something important.  When they moved into their current place, the kitchen had a fridge and stove in it, but they already had their own.  Their landlord told them to just get rid of them, but they decided instead to put them in their storage unit and they would give them to us for free!  Now we have all three major appliances, and all for free!  Sweet!   

The rest of the week has been filled with lots of cleaning (mostly scrubbing paint on the floor and light switches from the sloppy paint job we inherited), but also a little bit of fun.  We did some shopping for things around the apartment, visited friends and tried to take it easy and enjoy the holiday atmosphere.  A highlight was our trip to the Shoresh/Source Outlet.  Right before Shabbat last week, Matt's favorite (and only) sandals broke.  Luckily for us we found out that Israel's largest manufacturer of sandals has a big outlet sale in their factory right outside Haifa during chol hamoed Sukkot.  We left with three pairs of sandals for less than the regular price of one!  Stef got the best deal, two pairs of sandals for 80 shekel ($20).   

We started this week with nothing and are ending this week with a fridge, stove, washing machine, plus a day bed, a bedroom closet and desk.  All in a week's work.  

Shabbat shalom, moadim l'simcha, chag sameach and have a great weekend,

Stef and Matt