Food, Glorious Food

OK. So I'm not sure if it seems like it to you, but it seems to me that I am always writing about food. And in this posting, that's not going to change. I guess that food is just one of those keys to culture, so...
Friday night, we cooked our first Shabbat meal in this apartment. It was the first time we had cooked for Shabbat in over three months, since moving out of our house in Brockton on Memorial Day. Sidney has made a new friend at shul: Yehuda, 6 feet tall, mid-forties--the candy man.
Sunday was Sidney's first full day of gan. In the states, she was used to going to a full day, but there that meant 9-3. Here a full day is 8-4:30, so we weren't sure how she would handle it. She got dropped off fine, but I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked her up. When I walked in, she was all smiles and had a certain brown something on her face...could it be chocolate? Hmmm. The afternoon teacher said that again she was "maxima," and we left. So I asked her how the afternoon was. She told me about what they had for lunch: tomatoes and cucumbers, carrots ("I tried them, but they were too sweet."), cous cous, and schnitzel. She loved it, and I sighed a huge sigh of relief. "Eemah, do you know how to say schnitzel in Hebrew? Schneetzel!" Already speaking like a true Israeli. And what about the chocolate face? Oh yes. That was from afternoon snack--a sandwich of chocolate spread. If you've never had Nutella, you can find it in the States--definitely a cultural icon, worth a try.
So a return trip to school has not been difficult to persuade. While Sidney has been at school, Josh and I have been unpacking boxes. On Monday we needed a break, so we headed out to Tel Aviv for a little while. Lunched at Yotvata on the beach and then walked a bit in the water. So great!
That night we had a parent's meeting at Sidney's school. It was good--long. Parents are parents wherever you are. It was good to hear Sigal's (that's the teacher) philosophy. The focus is really on play, on developing social, motor, problem solving, etc. skills. She does some work on counting and letters, but that is really secondary and according to the child's pace. She described the theme of the year as well as the post office project that they will be doing. By the way, there are 29 kids in Sidney's class, average for a municipal preschool. There is one ganenet, the head teacher, and one sayaat, the assistant teacher. These women keep those 29 kids in line--as well as their parents. Sidney is in pre-K and since 1st grade is really the start of school here, there is much less pressure than is perhaps felt in States--it's really preschool. With exception of language, length of day, and the sheer number of classmates, Sidney has found this school to be a wonderful continuation of the excellent experience that she had at the Striar Hebrew Academy of Sharon. By the way, when we mention SHAS here we do get strange looks...most people think: Shas, the ultra-religious, powerful political party not the preschool in Sharon, MA.