A new beginning

So three months ago, we packed up all of our belongings-- it felt like our life--and stored it in a warehouse. Well on Wednesday, like a gift, we received it all back. It was more (a lot more!) than we remembered. How, if we have been able to live out of seven suitcases for the last three months, could we need all of that stuff? We probably don't, but the comforts of our home came, and we're already feeling better. Now our life begins anew. The unpacking stage is going to be difficult, but with time we'll get there and it will all be worth it.

That was Wednesday morning. We had a crew of 5 men helping to unload our container. 40 feet of container. We live on the first floor, which here means up 15 or so steps. The movers didn't use dollies or any assistance but instead carried each and every box up the stairs and into our apartment on their backs--even the appliances.

Four hours later, boxes stacked into every nook and cranny of the apartment and both of our outdoor porches, our movers left. We then met with a representative of the government absorption department so that we could begin to receive our new olim benefits. These benefits include housing stipends (small), living expenses (smaller), discounts on Sidney's schooling (not so small-- 90% off tuition), and tax benefits on major purchases-- all this for a limited time as we adjust to our new lives. Dinner was shared with Hillary and Alex at their home where Sidney was happy to play with their two daughters, Penina and Yael. They are new immigrants too and had not yet received their shipment so while some of us got chairs, Sidney sat on the garbage can (it had a lid!) and Penina sat on a box. The food was great and the friendship even better. Of course, the walk home took us through our favorite park, so Sidney got a late evening visit to the park--very out of the ordinary for American parents to allow such a thing, but school doesn't start until next week so...

Thursday we found out what gan (preschool) Sidney will be attending and then signed ourselves up for ulpan (the free 5-month Hebrew immersion program that every new immigrant receives). Then the unpacking commenced. It's amazing what we have been able to accomplish--and how much still remains.

In the middle of our unpacking, we took a break for a few hours on Friday for a celebratory adventure. We took the bus to Ramla (no, not Ramallah--the difference being that the former is a nice sized Israeli town in central Israel and the latter is the headquarters of the PA and across the green line). Ramla is the nearest big town, if you can call it that. Josh had been there once before to meet our friend Yaron, but this was a first for me and of course for Sidney. For those scoring at home on the map, Modiin is right in between both Ramla and Ramallah. Our destination was the Ramla shuk (open air market).
It was awesome. Similar to the Mahane Yehuda shuk in Jerusalem, the one in Ramla is a bit smaller, maybe a bit busier. It was hopping with the pre-Shabbat rush. Every fruit and vegetable looked beautiful. We had the fresh litchis (or lychees if you go by Josh's spelling) as a snack on the spot. Josh said he wished that we could use smellevision for the blog, but in the absence, I'll have to try to describe: the floral smell of peaches and nectarines, fresh roasted nuts, the mixture of cumin, paprika, and other spices. We bought lots of fresh produce, some sponges and soap so we can wash dishes (yes this is a change, no more dishwasher--well that's not true. Our dishwasher has a good name--Josh.) We also got Sidney a new backpack for school. Before leaving, we stopped for lunch at a little shwarma stall in the market--a couple of tables, a shwarma spit, and a refrigerated case. Sidney and Josh got the house specialty, but I was happy to make a meal of pita, hummus, and the 15 or so salads that came as part of every dish they sold (those being two: felafel or shwarma). Fast food in Israel is so wonderful-- free all-you-can-eat salads with every meal-- not quite like fast food in the States.

The bus took us directly back to our house where we got back to the business at hand. Now we are about to start Shabbat--our second here, but somehow it feels like our first. We begin this life anew. Tomorrow, Josh and I celebrate our tenth anniversary. It's a new beginning, together, with Sidney.

Shabbat Shalom!

Sarah, Joshua (and Sidney)

Our first week

So it's been almost a week since we arrived. Here's what we've been up to in the last week.
Thursday:
1. Woke up on deflated blow up mattress
2. Succeeded at opening a bank account
3. Paid for our health insurance at the post office ($9 for the whole family for the year)
4. Took our receipt to the insurance office to find out that the office was closed for summer hours, that is closed Mondays and Thursdays and wouldn't reopen until Sunday.
5. Forbade anyone in family from getting injured or sick in the meantime.
6. Ate lunch in the mall (actually pretty nice food choices) where Sidney discovered the joys of schnitzel, fries, and catsup
7. Played at the park directly across the street
8. Ate dinner at Yossi and Jen's (2nd night in a row)
9. Slept on blow up mattress

Friday:
1. Woke up on deflated blow up mattress, again
2. Borrowed mini-fridge from a nice family we had never met so that we can actually have food until our shipment arrives
3. Went to nearby shopping center to buy food to fill fridge
4. Ate lunch at Pinati where Sidney again had shnitzel, fries, and catsup--I had once thought that Sidney was an "undeclared fish eating vegetarian." Must have been wrong
5. Went to Friday night services at our local minyan where we were warmly and publicly welcomed
6. Ate a lovely dinner at Yossi and Jen's (3rd night in a row) along with their family and Hillary and Alex and family (friends from Chicago who also made aliyah on our same flight)
7. Got rid of defective blow up mattress and slept on white leather couches left by previous residents (don't worry; they will go when our stuff arrives)

Shabbat
1. Went to local shul (well at least Josh did) where the whole family was again welcomed
2. Ate lunch at Yossi and Jen's (4th day in a row for those keeping track at home)
3. Played all afternoon with their kids
4. Had dinner at Reuven and Shira's with their family and Hillary and Alex and family
5. Josh went to see "GI Joe" and Sarah passed out on the couch/bed

Sunday
1. Finally got our health insurance and let out a big sigh of relief
2. Went to meet with the local absorption counselor who is our major resource in the city. She was great.
3. Found out from her that because of a fight between two braches of the government some of our services are being held up...but once they make nice...
4. Ate lunch at the mall where Sidney had schnitzel, fries, and catsup (noticing a pattern? )
5. Played at the park

Monday
1. Got up early and drove to Haifa to sign for the release of our shipment.
2. Drove from Haifa to Jerusalem to the Nefesh b'Nefesh offices where we picked up our teudot zehut--Israel indentification cards, maybe closest to a social security card but also lists pertinent information like birthdate, parents' names, spouse and children's names and has a picture. Made me realize that in the U.S. we really had no way to prove that we were married (outside of carrying around our marraige certificate) or that our child was actually our child.
3. At Nefesh b'Nefesh also had the chance to check out cell phone plans--still haven't gotten them but progress
4. Played at the park
5. Ate pizza at the place next to the park and of course had a popsicle like every other good Israeli child

Tuesday
1. Got phone and internet connected
2. Picnicked in the park
3. Registered Sidney for school with the help of our absorption counselor--will find out in the next day or so which school, since it's municipal it should be the one closest to our house.
4. Found out that our shipment (i.e. all of the stuff that we haven't seen since Memorial Day Weekend) will be arriving tomorrow!!! Hurray! Can't wait to sleep in our own beds and cook our own food!
5. Ate dinner at the mall where Sidney again ordered (can you guess?) schnitzel, fries, and catsup but actually ate our beans and purple cabbage salad instead--that's my girl! And that's also why you have to love food in Israel...the sides are all fresh vegetable salads.

We made it!

Hi everyone,

We made it! Our friends so kindly saw us off at JFK with hugs and cake and a few speeches at a nice ceremony. After an exhausting 10 hour flight that was delayed an hour and on which no one slept a wink, we arrived in Israel at about 8 am local time. Our aliyah documents as well as passport control were processed on the plane. When we got off there was a massive celebration (some of you might have seen). We were blessed to have our good friends Yossi and family as well as Rueven and my cousins Ravit and Tovah there to greet us. We even ran into a teacher from my old school in MA who was there greeting other friends. Everyone was singing and dancing. Sidney was struck by the female soldiers who gave her a flag to wave. It was overwhelming and exciting.


We then moved inside the old terminal building (if you flew to Israel before 2000 or so, that's where you would have gone). There we heard speeches from representatives of Nefesh b'Nefesh as well as the government, most notably Natan Sharansky who is now head of the Jewish agency. Josh then headed upstairs to the absorption offices where after a bit of a wait he received our initial package including our Teudat Oleh (identification card as new immigrants), a voucher for the car ride, a voucher for our health insurance, some helpful information about what we should accomplish in the next few days, a little pocket money, among other things. We then joined the crowd from our 747 in finding our luggage. That took some time, but finally it all arrived. We then headed outside where we were paired with a driver--his car usually seats 7, but we had it all to ourselves; each family got a mini-bus to themselves, and given the volume of luggage...thank God.

After about a 20 minute ride, we arrived in Modiin, to our new apartment (about noon). It's much bigger than we expected and really nice. It will be even better once our stuff arrives. Sidney then crashed big time--hungry and tired not being a good combination. So we walked across the street to the little shopping center and got pizza and nectarines. We then headed back to the apartment for a little nap and planned to take care of health insurance and bank account. It turns out that the post office (where we needed to go for health insurance) was already closed for the day. Very Israeli:>. We decided to try the bank instead. For that we needed to bring our citizenship numbers (kind of like Israeli social security numbers), but when we got to the bank we found that although we had the numbers, they had not yet made it into the system. The people at the bank were super nice and we've arranged for them to take care of it in the morning--hopefully we'll be in the system by then. One warning that we got before we arrived was that Israeli time is a little more relaxed than we are used to. So we're taking all this in stride. No rush. It will get done. If not today, then tomorrow. So we have a few projects for tomorrow.

After the bank we walked over to the park that is basically directly across the street from our apartment. Sidney was thrilled. We then continued on to our friends Yossi and Jen's house where we are now and where we will have dinner. So we are happy and exhausted and looking forward to a good night of sleep.

Once we get phone numbers, we will send out all of our contact information. For now, email is the best.