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