Safari

Dena, Grandma, Grandpa and the little girls went to the Safara (5 dec) and had a great time. Everybody loved the animals -- the elephant family, the tigers, the lions, etc. It's even better than a real African Safari, because you don't have to drive around looking for animals -- they've all right there up close. The Ostriches even came and knocked on the car windows.

Nitpckers

We'd been warned, but somehow we had avoided the problem for 4+ months, and I was beginning to think maybe it was all urban legend. Nope. It's true. Maybe you've seen the book, "Kids love Israel". I'm now writing a new one, "Lice Love Israel".

Yarkon take 2

Having Mom and Dad visit was great not just because we got to see them, but also because they let us take off for a quick 24 hour vacation in Tel Aviv (Dec 4th). Dena and I stayed at the Rennaisance Hotel on the beach. In the evening we walked to Jaffa, had a snack at Abulaffia's, and then walked back to each at a cafe on the tayelet. In the morning we had a great Israeli style breakfast at the hotel looking out over the mediterrenean ocean. Absolutely beautiful.






After leaving the hotel we drove to the Yarkon Park (as Dani and I had done), and biked the Yarkon, only this time we explored much further off road making it all the way to Hod Hasharon before turning back. Along the way we passed by the Zoo at the Yarkon park, almost ran over some geese on the path, and biked through acres and acres of oranges and grapefruit orchards. Finally we returned to have lunch on Rechov Habarzel near Atidim. There Dena decided that we should ditch the Prius and get a SMART car. They're really cute! Small is beautiful.

Hiking the Carmel

Grandma, Grandpa, Margalit, Dani and I set off to hike Mount Carmel (Dec 7th), and explore some caves. We drove up to Haifa University on top of mount carmel, and parked in the nature reserve -- along with hundreds of students who were hiking across the street to class. We didn't see the trail head when we pulled into the parking lot, but with a little exploring, a good map, and a very detailed description of the hike, we were able to pick up the trail just little further along.


Despite being written up as a hike suitable for "ALL", the trail very quickly being rather difficult. The descent was steep, and the ground, although dry, was very slippery. It was hard to walk without falling, even with the walking sticks we found in the brush. The slippery terrain did not slow down Margalit and Dani who were constantly waiting for the slower members of the group. Eventually we made it down the worse part and to a spring called Ein Kedem. There was a cool cave there that Dani and I explored. Meanwhile Grandpa was speculating that the cow dung was bear poop. He obviously does know from shit. That was enough to get us and especially Margalit slightly spooked. Lest we run into a bear, we backed out of the cave and hiked on.

It wouldn't be a hike in Israel if we didn't see some trash along the way. After passing 4 tires in the river bed, we didn't know what to expect next until we crashed into it.

Continued the hike through some ancient olive groves, finally found the cows, and made it all the way to Tira Carmel at the bottom of the mountain. From there we hailed a taxi to take us back to the top of the mountain, the great views of Haifa Bay, and Coast, lunch and return trip home.

Biking the Golan

I went on a 48km bike ride in the Golan Heights yesterday. It included total climbing of 680 meters, but overall we went from 900m down to 400m, so there were a lot of great downhills. It was all off road, which is new for me, and I wasn't totally prepared. They best part was biking down at break neck speed over rocky terrain. The worst part was sliding off the pedals at break neck speed and landing with a thud on the seat. Ouch. It's okay, I've been looking for a new means of contraceptive. Before the next trip, I'm going to get cycling shoes and clipless pedals.

Actually, one poor guy broke his seat while riding and fell backwards onto and off of his rear tire. He got back and rode seatless to the next stopping point. Soon after though they took him away with a neck brace in an ambulance. I sure hope he is alright.

I haven't yet decided what was scarier -- rolling down hills over rocks and bumps too afraid to loosen my grip to squeeze the brakes, or the 7 wild boars that suddenly ran out of the brush just 20 feet in front of me.

I've been hearing a lot about snow in Boston. Still none here in Ra'anana. From the Golan bike ride though I got a good view of the snow capped peak of Mount Hermon.

Biking Ra'anana

I set out on Friday to make it to the beach -- this time I even took my camera so I could take a picture of the great view. I also wanted to explore to see if I could find the shortest way to the beach, in the hopes of taking a kid (or Dena) with me the next time. I wanted to avoid having to bike either in, or on the sidewalk along, a busy road. I headed straight down Ahuza to Park Ra'anana, and then tried to take a left into the fields just south of the Park. Dani and I had biked past the fields once before and seen people racing tiny remote control cars. We'll this didn't turn out so well. Pretty soon I was stuck with just fields in front of me, no clear dirt road, and zillions of ants.

So back to the main road, I headed in the direction of the dirt road that I've taken before. On the way there, I saw another promising path -- with another biker on it. I tried that, but after going in a long circuitous route, I ended up right back at my normal dirt road. So much for a short cut to the beach. I followed the dirt road until it crosses a ditch -- only today, the ditch was filled water. Another biker was stopped by the edge of the road looking at the water and contemplating what to do. I watched two or three cars splash through and judged the water to be a couple feet deep. Nope. I can mountain bike, but I can't river bike. So I followed the path of the river until it dried disappeared (dried up?), and found myself parallel to the train tracks. Not a bad place to be if you like trains, and since there is a dirt road along side the tracks, it is a pretty good place to bike.

To make a long story short, I never made it to the beach, but had a great time biking around the fields of Ra'anana & Herziliya. Next week I'll see if I can find a way to the beach.

Still at the beach

It has been unseasonably warm lately, so while Sarah tells me it is 27F in boston, it is just about 27C here. On shabbas we took vacation from Shul and headed to the beach at Bayt Yannai. It was a gorgeous day and the water was pretty comfortable. Not quite warm, but temperate enough that all the kids dunked their heads. Dani was dropped on Friday at Yaddin's in Hofit so he could celebrate Yaddin's birthday and spend the weekend there, so he missed our day at the beach, but he had plenty of fun with Yaddin. Dena, Margalit and I (though not all together) walked along the Cross Israel Trail (see also Biking the Yarkon), up to נחל אלקסנדר (the Alexander River) and followed the river a little ways too.

Biking the Yarkon

Being thanksgiving day and all, I figure the kids shouldn't be going to school. On top of that the weather was unseasonable warm. I talked to Sarah who said it was 27 degrees in Boston. Well in Ra'anana it was almost 27 also -- but Celsius. On Thursday's Dani has two periods of Math, two of English and two of science. All the classes are taught by someone other than his homeroom teacher, because today is his homeroom teacher's day off. I figured, if she has the day off, then maybe Dani should too.

As a digression, it is an interesting system here. The kids go to school 5 days a week, but the Ed. department recognizes that it would be too much to have the teachers teach 6 days a week, so teachers get a day off in the middle of the week. (Actually today was also Miriam's teacher's day off. I dropped Miriam off at 8:05 -- late, and the substitute was still not there. I tried to convince the class that I was the substitute for about 5 minutes, but had a hard time grabbing their attention. 30+ kids, that's too many for me. Eventually I left, just as the real substitute arrived.)

Anyways, on Tuesday after exercising at the Gym together, Dena and I stopped by the bike store to get her a bike. Being there I noticed a book on mountain biking trails for kids in Israel. Even though it was in Hebrew, I couldn't resist. So book in hand, I plotted out a route near Zichron Ya'akov in the hills, down to Binyamina along the shore. Dani though said he would prefer road biking to off-road biking. So we decided to just wing it. I'd heard that there is a nice trail along the Yarkon river in Tel Aviv. Searching on the Web I couldn't find much information, and my new book didn't have an info either. Just the same, we threw the bikes into the car, and headed for the parking lot at the Tel Aviv power plant where the Yarkon river dumps into the ocean. So far so good. We even saw painted bicycles on the sidewalk near the parking lot. It was no problem finding the path a long the Yarkon. It is paved for the first 8km or so, and made for great biking. Actually, as this is part of the Israel Trail (a hiking trail from the northern tip of Israel all the way to Eilat) for much of the 8km you can choose to ride either on the pavement, or on a dirt path along side the pavement. I tried both. The tail reminds me of the path along the Charles river in Boston.


At the end of the huge Yarkon Park, we got to a huge traffic intersection undergoing construction. Nobody seems to have explained to the government that more you pave, the more traffic you produce. (I just hope the projects here are cheaper than Boston's big dig). We lost the trail after the intersection and started biking along city streets. I was getting lost and we could not longer see the Yarkon river. All of a sudden though, we passed a statue of Raoul Wallenberg, and I started to recognize the place -- hey, we are in Attidim -- the industrial park where EMC is located. Wow. Then we passed a bike store. We popped in and got directions to the bike trail. We really were not too far off course -- though now the trail was all off road. We went through quite a bit of mud, crossed Kvish 4 (route 4), and followed the river for awhile, until we decided we'd had enough of the off road trail. Turned around had lunch in the Yarkon park, and finally back to the car to drive to Ra'anana. All in all maybe 18 km, and lots of fun.

One neat thing that we saw along the path was water fountains that had a special place to fill water bottles. That's pretty nifty!

Dani makes the shot

Here's a few pictures of Dani's latest basketball game. Elitsor (Dani's team) was playing the other Ra'anana team which is known to be the best in the league. Second quarter, Dani was on the court. They started the quarter down 10 to 4. With 43 seconds left, the score was 20 - 18, and Elitsor had the ball. The fans were wild hoping to tie the score for the half. Then the other team stole the ball, and somehow managed to score 2 baskets in 43 seconds. Boo! Ended the quarter down 6 points, and then game final was down 18!

The highlight of the half (for me) was Dani scoring his foul shot as shown in the two pictures (bringing the score to 14-12).

Pictures

Nice Hug! Margalit and the duck!

Rosh Hanikra with Nusha

Miriam in face paint after Appolonia Sukkot Festival.

Culture Shock

I'm not sure if it is culture shock, or just Dena and I finally getting a life. The other week I was walking down Ahuza with Allan on our way to a Synagogue Board meeting (more on that later), and I passed a sign that said, "David Broza and his guitar". It was pretty impressed with myself, because normally walking past a sign board in hebrew I miss everything. Perhaps the few words (3 in hebrew) made it easier to read. Dena and I had seen Broza in concert this spring at the JCC, and I was really excited to see him here. He was playing at Barby in Kfar Saba (the next town over). True it wasn't going to start until 10pm, and that's a little late, but since it was on a Thursday night, and we already had a sitter booked, I figured we had to go. Alan was of a similar opinion. I agreed to call and get the tickets. Next morning, I called, and asked for tickets. They asked my name, "Jason", and how many seats, "4". Bye. What??? He said show up by 9:45. You mean I don't have to pay in advance by credit card?? Alan, said he would drive, and I overheard him discussing with Dena what time to pick us up. When he said 9:10 Dena thought he was crazy, but I convinced her that we should get there early to make sure we got good seats and to make sure there wouldn't be a problem with the tickets.

Thursday night, get there at 9:30. Okay, a little early. There are a few other people hanging around, but the doors to the club aren't open yet. At least the ticket counter is. I pickup our 4 tickets, and Dena asks, "Is there smoking inside?", to which the answer was of course, "yes". Dena expressed her opinion that that was the wrong answer, but I don't think the ticket seller cared too much. On the way over Alan explained that Israeli singers often have two gigs a night and we should expect Broza until 11:00. Well, it turns out, we shouldn't even expect the doors of the club to open until 10:30. The club is a small place (200 seats?), and we start walking around. Every table seems to be reserved -- then I realize, oh, our name must be somewhere. Sure enough it was. Alan had the right idea, Broza showed up around 11:30. Alan & Lisa's friends really had the right idea. They met us at the club at 11:15! If only I had known -- we could have gone out to dinner first :-)

So, at our bedtime, Broza takes the stage and plays a great concert until past 1. It was well worth staying up for -- or at least I think so. Dena fell asleep for a few songs. I'm keeping my eyes open for more concerts.

Jewish Basketball

It's real hard to get a good photo of Dani playing basketball with my little digital camera. The zoom isn't strong enough, and the lighting is such that everything is either blurry or too dark to see. Nonetheless, I thought you all might like to see Dani (or his back) playing basketball for Alitsor Ra'anana with the Israeli flag in the background and the kippah on the head. He's the kid on the right hand side without a number on his shirt.

Here's the short story. His team is 2 and 1. The first game (at home) I attended and watched Dani play the 3rd quarter. They play with small basketballs, and low hoops. I can practically touch the hoop. So this is a little different that what Dani is used to in the States. Dani had a good game and scored 5 points (or 7) in a game that they won 40 to 30. The second game was an away game at Kochav Yair, which as Dani tells it, is practically in the West Bank. What he means is that it is next to the security fence. It is not actually in the West Bank. I missed that game, and they lost, 60 to 50, though it seems like there were some irregularities with the scoring, and the true score might have been 54 or even 56. Dani had a great game, playing the 2nd quarter and the 4th quarter. A few days after that game we rented Coach Carter a great movie about a coach he turns a losing inner city high school team into an undefeated team. I was inspired. The third game was this week, and I missed the first quarter which unfortunately was when Dani played. His team won 60 to 52. Dani had to guard a guy that was at least a foot taller than him, though luckily for Dani , the giant was not particularly coordinated. He got called from traveling more times than I can remember. Anyway, it was quite a challenge for Dani to guard such a tall guy without fouling him.

A tour of Ra'anana

If you've read Margalit's coverage of Ra'anana history you probably know just about all there is to know, but I do a have a few more details to add... I was lucky because I volunteered to chapperone the class on their field trip around Ra'anana. They told me to arrive at 8:00 with Margalit, which I did, only to be told by the teacher to come back in half and hour. That was just fine, because I ran to the little mini-market on our street and did a little shopping. In 30 minutes I was back at school. (If you can't tell, I am really enjoying living on the same street as a mini-market and the kids school. It is very convenient). The teacher then told me the plan for the day -- a presentation at Yad Libanim, a walk to city hall, and then more presentations and activities at the Bar-Tov school. I would be back by 1:00pm. Woah! I thought I'd signed up for a couple hours, not half a day.

We set off on the trip, and Margalit is very lucky (and me too as chaperone) because her class only has 23 kids, and on Wednesday's three kids are always absent. So we had a nice small class of 20 kids. It makes it a little easier to keep them all together. I was asked to bring up the rear, another parent was the middle, and Tsipi was leading the way. Well, you can imagine, there was one kid who put on his socks the wrong way and so was limping the 5 blocks to Yad Libanim, shoes untied, sweetshirt falling on the ground constantly. I did my best to help him along, and hold his stuff, and keep him together with the class. You can't tell a 4th grader anything, and he would have nothing of actually stopping to fix his socks. It was cute.

Yad Libanim has a great little history museum, with statues of the original immigrants from New York, small models of some of the buildings (like city hall that was build in the 30s), diaramas, and many pictures of things that are recognizable around town. It is a great little museum and it does an excellent job showing the history of how Ra'anana was started and developed. We learned some neat things, like that fact that none of the streets running into Ahuza (the main drag) cross. They are all T intersections. Apparently this was designed to slow the traffic.

I'll have to cut short now, but all in all the field trip was a lot of fun, and I certainly enjoyed getting a guided tour and explanations at the museums. I had my camera so I tried to take a bunch of pictures, and then the kids all wanted their pictures taken too.

Sliding...

We spent 3 nights (4 days) vacation with Savta Nusha at the Hof Gai Hotel (thanks to the Dolev's for the recommendation). The kids had an amazing time at the water park. As pictured above the all were going down a small slide together. Dani and I also raced down the huge slides -- he always won. After the second day, even Ronit was ready to go down the huge slides. I'm not exactly sure when, but sometime in my 30s I decided that I'm afraid of heights. Nonetheless, I couldn't exactly say no to Ronit, so up the hundreds of steps I went to take her again and again down the huge slide. Finally she got so comfortable that she let Dani and Margalit take her. Phew!

Hakafot Shinyot

They've got something here that is new to me, its called Hakafot Shniyot. Basically it means that the evening after Simchat Torah, everybody gets together again for another night of dancing with the Torah -- only this time you can have a live band! Ra'anana is very organized and has a huge celebration in Yad Libanim (same place as the Sukkah Shouk). We were only able to attend for a short while because the kids were getting tired, and I had to take Savta Nusha to the airport. In that short time we were able to:

• See somebody thank the new mayor Hofri, the deputy mayor Uzi Cohen, the head of informal education, the chief rabbi and some other guy. He then introduced the mayor, who....
• Thanks the deputy, the head of informal education, the chief rabbi and some other guy. The new mayor then hands the stage over to his deputy, who
• Thanks the head of informal education, the chief rabbi..

Wow, I'm getting tired of writing all this. I bet your tired of reading it, and you can imagine what the kids were thinking standing around listening to it. Finally the band started, the torahs (as pictured above) were brought out, and the party began.

Now you might get nervous that with all that music, and public celebration that the men might see, or even dance with, the women. Never fear. As soon as the music started the Frum squad (see picture below) ran to the nearest synagogue and started wheeling out the portable mechizot. To say the least, I was disgusted.
All in all (ignoring the mechizot), it was a huge party and fun to see so many people out dancing with so many torahs. When I got back from my airport run at 10pm the music was still blaring. In fact we could hear it from our appartment until 11:30. Now that's a city that likes to party!

Where my Sun?

I guess I knew it would happen sometime -- but it seemed like the honeymoon would never end. Perhaps I should have got the hint when Dena stopped putting honey on the Challah after the end of sukkot. So I woke this morning and looked outside, and the skies weren't blue. I think that happened a few weeks back also, but today the skies seemed unreasonably dark. Something different was in the air. At 7:20AM Dani said, "Abba, will you take me (ride bikes) to school, I want to get there early for basketball and I need you to carry the basketball". Luckily Dena convinced him to at least have a bowl of cereal before leaving. That gave me enough time to get out of pajamas and into long pants. I rode with Dani to school, turned around and made it back home just in time to ride Ronit to Gan. Not a bad way to start the day. Still though, the skies were darker than normal. Then to the office for a little bit of work. By 10:30 the wind was blowing all through the house, Dena was wondering if we had taken all the clothes off the line (we hadn't), and I was thinking that I'd better close up the windows. Two seconds later it was really raining. I wasted no time in typing my query into google, "Rain Days Tel Aviv". The results: I can expect 3.2 days of rain in October, 7.5 in November, 10.9 in December, 12.8 in January, 10.0 in February. I'd gotten so used to sunny days, I'd thought they'd last forever.

From the other side of the Atlantic I've been hearing about snow, recieving pictures of nephews shoveling, the tenants at Oxford Rd. have sent urgent email because the heater in the Family room wasn't working, and Ami in Florida reports that thanks to Wilma he just spent 2 days without electricity and 3 without Internet. So all things considered, a little rain ain't so bad.

Being that it was a rainy day, I picked Ronit (and her bike) up at school and took her out to eat for felafell -- well felafell for me, Pita and chips (french fries) for her. We had a nice lunch together. Ronit was a little busy with her new Barbie maze book -- she finished 4 by the time lunch was over, and as soon as we got home she finished the remaining 11. That book didn't last nearly as long I had expected.

Let it rain

A lot has been happening lately and so I haven't had a chance to sit down to record it all. Sunday, October 16th, we sent Margalit to Maytal's house for a sleep over. This was a big step, not only was Margalit having her first sleep over at a friend's house here, but she was going to walk over by herself. She packed her bags, brought a book and left. Not bad. But then, 5 minutes later the front door bell rings. Who could that be? Margalit? She comes running through the door shouting, "It's raining!!! It's raining!!!" I never thought anyone could be so excited for rain. It turned out to be not much more than a shower, but it was the first real rain we've seen in months. All the kids ran out to the porches, and ran around the house celebrating the rain.

As it turns out, it usually doesn't rain in October. The next week we also had one day of rain, but since then, we've been back to sunny skies. That's good because we didn't want the rain to interfere with our vacation in the Golan.

It takes a family to build a sukkah

Lest you think that Dani was the only sukkah builder operating under the authority of the Rav, I've got photgraphic evidence of other helpers.

Everybody needs a Rabbi

Friday noon and Margalit is home from school. Dena is out rushing to get Dani from Meged school, and then Ronit from Gan. I've got Margalit for 60 minutes in which we need to finish packing and get her to the Tsofim bus for her troop's shabbaton. Luckily Dena had already put everything together, and Margalit just had to empty her backpack of 30kilos of books so she could fill it with stuff for the weekend. She spied me taking the Shabbas chicken out of the oven and begged to have some -- there must be a word to describe her, oaf-ivore? Chickivore? One things for sure, she ain't no herbivore.

Margalit was full of energy and ready to go off alone. Parents were invited to the shabbaton, and Dena wanted me to check with the counselllors to make sure Margalit was not the only one with out parents tagging alone. Not to fear, only two others familys had joined the Shabbaton. I asked Margalit just to make sure we were making the right decision -- "I'd really rather you didn't come." I'll see if I can get her to add the details from the Shabbaton.

Last night, Dani and I headed down to Yad Lebanim to purchase a sukkah. Just as we jumped into the car, I realized I had forgotten to measure the porch. Dani said, Abba, we'd better go measure, we can run upstairs in two seconds flat. After a little hesitation, I agreed and we ran backup the 3 flights to measure -- 280cm.

There's been a sukkah bazaar going on for a week, and even at 9pm on Saturday business was brisk. 3 different booths selling booths -- and some many different options. 2x2, 3x3, 3x4, etc. I was really feeling glad we measured, otherwise we might have ended up with 3x4 sukkah that didn't fit. Finally we found a place selling 2.5x4. Perfect! There were many many booths selling Lulav's and etrogs -- but I had already purchased two sets on Friday.

The sukkah was delivered (in pieces) this morning. Dani got home early from school at 12:45 and was eager to set it up with me. Finally at 2:15 we sat down for lunch, almost, but not quite finished. 20 minutes later Margalit bounces through the door, home from school. She takes one look at the sukkah, and shouts, "Its not kosher!!!!" We had not yet tied down the sides, and according to Rav Margalit the sides are not allowed to flap in the wind. Margalit was very excited becuase she had just learned about it in school. The next time I have a halachic question, I'll know who to ask.

P.S. My old rabbi seems to be taking it in stride. She still gets to rule on most of the other family decisions.

Yom Kippor in Ra'anana

We'd been repenting for weeks -- well 10 days, and finally Yom Kippor arrived. I'd briefed the kids about the facts -- 4 times as many biking accidents as a usually day, emergency rooms over flowing with scapes and bruises. Luckily we played things safe and walked to shul. We decided to attend Kehilat Ra'anan, the reform shul for Kol Neidre, Sharit and Neilah for several reasons -- the kids are getting comfortable there, and since we are members, we actually have a row of seats with our names on it. Hol Neidre was standing room only, so it was nice to know we had a spot. The kids lasted for about 10 minutes, and after the 3rd repitition of Kol Neidre, scrambled out and gave up their seats to others.

After shul, Ronit saw here friends from Gan running accross the street, so she very quietly asked me, could she too cross the street alone? Sure! It's Yom Kippor. She spent the next 10 minutes running back and forth across the street, entirely enjoying her new found freedom. Kids were biking everywhere, and there was even a kid riding one of those small battery powered ATVs for kids. I couldn't help but think that it was on the edge of being approriate. I suppose there really are now rules, other than now cars, but that seemed like a car.

On our way home we crossed Ahuza street --- the main drag of Ra'anana. As expected it was crowded as can be. All of Ra'anana was out walking, biking, or skating the street. I can't quite say that it felt like Yom Kippor, or certainly not my conception of Yom Kippor. Of course there were plenty of people returning from Shul too. Margalit, Miriam and I walked down Ahuza to Yad Libanim so that we could soak up the secular feeling of Yom Kippor.

Overall the fast was very easy this year. Dani also decided to fast (with a few drinks of water, because we had stressed that he must drink). We had a lively debate about whether or not the early daylight savings time helped make the fast easier -- perhaps it did. I think the abbreviated Neilah service of Kehilat Ra'anan didn't hurt either. We raced back home for a quiet breakfast -- somewhat missing our regular minyan crowd.

Alas, no pictures from YK. I was tempted to bring a camera to photograph Ahuza, but it didn't seem in the right spirit.

Savta Arrives

The kids have been counting the days until Savta arrives, and finally she arrived!

Margalit, Miriam and Ronit tumbled into the car and I had to endure the usual fight over who gets to sit in the middle. I cannot keep track of who sat where when. Margalit somehow managed to get the middle seat -- if only for a 5 minute drive to her ceramics class. After she jumped out, Miriam, Ronit and I continued on our way to Ben Gurion Airport. Strangely enough, neither girl tried to take the middle seat -- apparently, since the ride started with all three girls, the middle seat was 'claimed' by Margalit, whether or not she was present. Ben Gurion airport is brand new this year, and nothing like the old airport. Israel has made it to the 21st century. No more walking on the tarmac to get to the terminal, this terminal has real gates with jetways. It is a really modern airport with great connections to the train practically in the basement of the terminal, and lots of short term parking right near the terminal. We arrived somewhat early, so the kids convinced me to buy them ice cream cones -- okay, I wanted to try the triple chocolate too. The girls were very patient, and finally Savta arrived. Two huge suitcases and a carry on. All I could think of was, "why didn't they put an elevator in the building?". After arriving home, the kids tore open the suit cases -- there were practically no clothes inside, but lots of presents.

Two seconds later and the girls had changed clothes, Ronit wearing here new princess outfit with crown, and Miriam similarly dressed. Oh what fun.

Ever since Savta has arrived we've been eating outdoors twice a day, breakfast and dinner (instead of just our normal outdoor breakfast). The porch is great, and we are loving the wonderful weather here. October is just beautiful in Israel.

Caesaria

Picked up the kids from school on Friday and raced to the beach at Caesaria where we met Iris, Alon, Omer, Maya and Noa for a day at the beach. The waves were not big enough to catch, but were large enough for the little ones to have fun. The water has cooled considerably since the summer so that it is now very comfortable (i.e. it is no longer too hot).

We climbed the Roman Aquaduct and marvelled at their amazing engineering feats to build an aquaduct that can last 2000+ years. How long has Newton North lasted? 30 years?

Then up to Haifa for a weekend with David, Muriel, Eden and Eli -- and a refresher course on Tarrot.

Zionism is thriving

A picture speaks a thousand words. (Taken on Rosh Hashanah next door to our house).

Rosh Hashanah in Israel

I keep thinking about the saying, "Next Year in Jerusalem," everytime we celebrate a holiday -- even if it isn't quite Passover yet, and even if Ra'anana ain't Jerusalem. As you can see above, we more or less decided to conform. Dani and I went out last one evening week to purchase white shirts. White is not my color, but it is the uniform for Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippor. Margalit and Miriam were delighted to buy new white dresses, and were excited all week leading up to Rosh Hashanah to wear the new dresses. Ronit refused! No way, no how was she going to get a white dress. We obviously did not insist.

The first evening we met Dena's cousin Ofra at the Reform Synagogue. It was a relatively familiar service and the kids enjoyed playing games in the foyer. After shul, we had Dena's relatives over for the evening meal -- Ofra, Oren (and Oren's girl friend), Dafna, Hedva, Ilan, Guy and Mor. Shir and her husband Ram did not make the trip from Be'er Sheva, and Amnon was travelling in the Sinai despite the governmental warnings about terrorist attacks. You couldn't pay me to go to Sinai even though I would love to see it. Many Israeli's apparently cancelled their trips, or turned back -- not Amnon.

Day one we went to the non-elagitarian Conservative synagogue with the new Rabbi from Cincinnatti. They have men's seating, women's seating, and family seating. It reminds of Dairy, Meat and Treif dishes. It was a pretty standard conservative service, Dena chatted with the Rabbi who has a couple of small children, and is very friendly.

The second evening we hosted Paul Mills (and family) and Alan and Lisa (recent Olim from Brooklyn). Dena cooked up a huge amount of delicious food -- Chicken soup, Brisket, and checken. Lisa brought quinoa salad with pomegranate seeds (a reprise from last year), tzimis with butternut squash instead of carrots, and a sunken apple tort. I was all fabulous -- and in case you are wondering, I've never tasted quinoa before and I liked it. It was a very fun evening. Alan played Dani in Chess -- Alan used to play speed chess and is a good match for Dani, though usually in the end he gets the upper hand. I played blockus with Margalit, Paula, and her son Nadav. Somehow Margalit managed to win. How does she always do that? We skipped shul the second night.

Day two we deliberated between the conservative and the reform shul. Finally after lots of discussion Dena and I decided that we would go to the conservative shul. After all, it probably is a better match for us, especially since we think the Rabbi is going to try to push it to be more egalitarian. (His wife is a hazzan.). Then we told the kids, and Dani got his chance to over-rule the parents. He voted for Kehilat Ra'anan -- the reform shul. His reasoning was quite simple -- kehilat Ra'anana has a nice air condition foyer -- a perfect place to sit and read "Eragon".
Savta Nusha is arriving tomorrow with the newly released second book of the series, Eldest, and Dani wanted to have a fresh memory of the first. Alan and Lisa joined us there, so Margalit, Miriam and Ronit had friends to play with.

In the afternoon we had lunch with the family of one of Margalit's friends. Margalit and Maytal are in the same class at Yavneh. It was a little bit of a zoo. Maytal's family has 5 kids, and present were the grandparents, and Maytal's Aunt, Uncle and their 6 kids. As they say here, ברוך השם, bless god, there was another family with just 3 kids. Otherwise, I might have felt like we didn't fit in -- even with my white shirt! If you're not good at counting, I'll do the math, 18 kids and 10 adults. That's too many people to sit around a table even in a small Israeli house, so we all sat in a huge oval on chairs in the livingroom. I felt a like we had just been transported to Meah Shearim in Jerusalem. All in all, it was a very nice afternoon. Maytal's dad, and her uncle and the other visitor all work in the hitech instustries, so they are all good contacts, and Maytal's parents used to work at the Ramah camp in Palmer Mass for many years and were very interested to hear about Dena's curriculae.

On their refrigerator was a magnet with a saying, "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling tge walk before it stops snowing". I couldn't help but think that my parents taught me to shovel early and shovel often -- or was the advice about voting? BTW, I am about to start the book, "Steal This Vote". I still am smarting over Al Gore being robbed in 2000.

Scouting

Last night was the opening ceremony of Ra'anana Har-El Tsofim Dati'im. (צופים דתיים רעננה הראל). As you can see the lit up a bunch of signs in hebrew for the ceremony and the older kids put on skits. Margalit got her official shirt and yellow tie. Next week Margalit has an overnight with the scouts.

Anyone for Tennis

Anyone for Tennis? Wouldn't that be nice? Dani has been playing twice a week since the beginning of September. Normally he bikes to and fro by himself, but yesterday we had to race off to a physical exam for basketball afterwards. So I dropped by to watch him play a little. He's gotten really good. I watched two games against kids that have been playing for a couple years. Dani has a great forehand and backhand. He lost the first game, won the second and then lost the third. Not bad though. Of course his coach thinks we should send him 5 days a week for private lessons. If only basketball didn't also want him so much.

The accident

Margalit's turn to write....

During the first few weeks in Israel we went to a museum with Alon and Iris, Mama's and Abba's friends. One of the things that was there, was an accident ride showing you to always wear a seatbelt. Although it was a little scary it was fun. Here is what happens. First 2 people sit down in the car and put on their seat belts. Then the car slowly moves backward to the top of the hill. Then the car drives down the hill at 5 mph and crashes into something and nothing happens to you because you have a seat belt on but if you didn't something bad would happen. When I went on it a doll sat beside me without a seat belt. When the accident happened the doll went flying and died. It just goes to show always wear a seat belt.

-Margalit