Hi All,
A week in Israel and we're still here! Some things are still the same: still living in the temp apartment, still looking for a real apartment, it is still hot... Other things have changed: we have our official teudat zehut (Israeli ID cards), we opened a bank account, got phone plans (with unlimited calling to the States!), Matt finally met his professor in person and has received his first writing assignment that will hopefully be published (we'll keep you posted).
We are meeting lots of people, mostly Anglos at this point, but will hopefully break into the Hebrew speaking social circles in no time. There have been very few people so far that we have met that we didn't already know somehow. We had one meal where the husband was a student at Penn when Matt worked at the Hillel there. Another guest at their table was a roommate of a friend of mine and we had actually had a meal at her apartment about 4 years ago. The list goes on.
As it turns out we got even more than we bargained for with our temp apartment... we also got a cat. Now, thankfully this cat does not live IN our apartment, he lives outside. He has a collar, but seemingly no home. He escorts us when we go out and he leads us to the door when we get home. If we stand in one spot too long, he begins to rub up on our legs and curl up at our feet. For those of you who are cat people, you're probably thinking, "Oh, how sweet!" But for any of you that have spent time in Israel, you know that cats are like squirrels here. They are dirty and live in dumpsters and are probably disease ridden. That being said, our new pet cat is a cross-section of adorable and gross and I have named him "Mr. Cat" (I know, real creative).
We made a quick trip to Jerusalem this week to pick up our ID cards. We got to see a few people, but not as many as we would have liked (for those we did not see, we'll hopefully be back in J-lem soon). When we went to the Nefesh b'Nefesh office, guess who we saw? Airplane seat kicker man! (For those of you who don't know what that means, see previous email reprinted below.) There was thankfully no direct interaction between us, however, when we left and got on the bus, he sat down in the seat right in front of me! This was truly a test of my character and as it was Elul (the Jewish month where try to be on our best behavior) and I refrained from kicking his seat as hard as I could (which was not an easy thing to do).
We are staying this weekend with a family in another neighborhood we are considering living in. Of course, we know numerous people in common, including her son-in-law. So it goes in this tiny country.
Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend!
Stef and Matt
A week in Israel and we're still here! Some things are still the same: still living in the temp apartment, still looking for a real apartment, it is still hot... Other things have changed: we have our official teudat zehut (Israeli ID cards), we opened a bank account, got phone plans (with unlimited calling to the States!), Matt finally met his professor in person and has received his first writing assignment that will hopefully be published (we'll keep you posted).
We are meeting lots of people, mostly Anglos at this point, but will hopefully break into the Hebrew speaking social circles in no time. There have been very few people so far that we have met that we didn't already know somehow. We had one meal where the husband was a student at Penn when Matt worked at the Hillel there. Another guest at their table was a roommate of a friend of mine and we had actually had a meal at her apartment about 4 years ago. The list goes on.
As it turns out we got even more than we bargained for with our temp apartment... we also got a cat. Now, thankfully this cat does not live IN our apartment, he lives outside. He has a collar, but seemingly no home. He escorts us when we go out and he leads us to the door when we get home. If we stand in one spot too long, he begins to rub up on our legs and curl up at our feet. For those of you who are cat people, you're probably thinking, "Oh, how sweet!" But for any of you that have spent time in Israel, you know that cats are like squirrels here. They are dirty and live in dumpsters and are probably disease ridden. That being said, our new pet cat is a cross-section of adorable and gross and I have named him "Mr. Cat" (I know, real creative).
We made a quick trip to Jerusalem this week to pick up our ID cards. We got to see a few people, but not as many as we would have liked (for those we did not see, we'll hopefully be back in J-lem soon). When we went to the Nefesh b'Nefesh office, guess who we saw? Airplane seat kicker man! (For those of you who don't know what that means, see previous email reprinted below.) There was thankfully no direct interaction between us, however, when we left and got on the bus, he sat down in the seat right in front of me! This was truly a test of my character and as it was Elul (the Jewish month where try to be on our best behavior) and I refrained from kicking his seat as hard as I could (which was not an easy thing to do).
We are staying this weekend with a family in another neighborhood we are considering living in. Of course, we know numerous people in common, including her son-in-law. So it goes in this tiny country.
Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend!
Stef and Matt
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