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