Quiet Life

Busy busy busy that is what life has been. We made a quick decision to move about a month ago and life has been packing...baby...work...baby...moving...baby...work...baby
The truck came and moved us on the 7th and since then we have barely been home between work, weddings and trying to finish packing up and moving the last bits of stuff.

So how did this all happen? Our landlord had mentioned months ago that he wanted to sell our apartment and at the beginning of February said he wanted us to move out by the end of the month so he can show it and sell it. We weren't going to but decided it is better to move on our terms and not his and not have people tracing through the house to look at it. I have been wanting to feel settled for a while and well now we have the chance to feel more settled and try to truly become part of a community and find "home".

We knew that when we moved out of Nachlaot we would be moving out of Jerusalem, the move just happened sooner than we thought it would. We started to think of communities that we like and wanted to look at and well we kept coming back to the idea of Bat Ayin a small hilltop village in Gush Etzion, outside of Jerusalem. There are only about 150 families here and there is not always open housing, so we figured we would look and see if anything was available. We found two open places and one of them we loved and was brand new, so we decided to take it.

So here we are living in Bat Ayin with an amazing view and living the quiet life. Well or at least what seems to be the quiet life. In the past few days there have been several attacks here in Israel. I have very mixed emotions about everything going on.
This great article, Dear Palestinian Civilians, that says how I think many of us feel.
We pray that everyone here will be safe and that the land will be safe for all of us and our children.

6 weeks to go...

This is all going by so fast, only 6 more weeks! This is all getting very exciting but we still have a lot to do.
cleaning cleaning cleaning...lots to clean
And Pesach is sooo soon, so much cleaning to get ready for Pesach. I am so excited to be here for Pesach this year and this will be Y's first Pesach in Israel. He always goes home to his family, like we did last year, this will be such a different experience for him!
We were already invited months ago for seder to a family down the street. As soon as they found out when we are due they invited us. It is unlikely that we will give birth during seder or even during Pesach but it is possible since we will be in our 37th week!

The excitement is just beginning!

tut tut it looks like rain

Winter has arrived, two days ago it was still hot and I was still wearing sandals and now today it is so cold and wet I needed to wear my new winter coat. There doesn't seem to be fall here, it really just goes from summer to winter, same with spring, it never seams to arrive it just goes straight from winter to summer. I never seem to live in a place with 4 seasons. now I just live in the extremes, but I guess that's Israel for you, always extreme! for now I am just going to try and stay dry and warm and keep drinking my new favorite tea, bedouin chai with a little agave nectar and soy milk, yum yum!

aliyaversary #1

One year ago today I made Aliyah and officially became an Israeli Citizen.

It is hard to believe that a year has passed already since I landed in Israel and received my Teudat Zehut (Israeli ID card) and Teudat Oleh (Immigrant ID Card). This year has been full of so many new and exciting things, of course the biggest, my marriage to my husband!

I love living in Israel, although I am far from my family I know that this is the place to live. Here I can live a true Jewish life in the Holy Land, the land that God gave to us! Israel is full of its ups and downs but I wouldn't give it up for anything. Ridiculous things are always happening, juts the other day someone from the Electric Company came to turn our electricity off because we had a bill from last year that we didn't pay. We had never heard abut this until then and when inquiring why we had never heard about this bill and why our new bill was exorbitantly high, we were told that there was a strike and so no one received their bills and no one was checking the meters. So instead of sending us a bill for what we owed they send someone out to collect the money or turn the electricity off, Thank God we were home. And apparently our new bill was SO high because in their estimation they said we used 3000 kilowatts when apparently we used only 300. We only learned all of this after a lot of question asking. RIDICULOUS! But still I love this small little turmoil filled country that is ours!

B'Shanah Ha'Ba'ah B'Yirushalayim!

Holy Hevron Wedding

What a Holy place for a wedding!!!
Mazal Tov Sarah and Eli!!!

Right here in Hevron in front of Ma'arat Ha'Machpela are the kvarim (graves) of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, and even Esau's head is buried there.

3 weeks

Its hard to believe I have been married now for 3 weeks! Me a wife, a married lady! It is still a bit surreal. I am definitely enjoying it and it and I keep finding myself saying that it just feels so normal.

We had such an amazing and beautiful wedding. People are still telling us how it was one of the best weddings they went to and how special and spiritual it was. We broadcast the chuppa live on the internet so our friends and family abroad could watch it. We got married in Jerusalem and one friend who couldn't make it actually watched it online. The chuppa ended up being and hour and a half, we couldn't believe it was that long but it was so beautiful no one really noticed.

Here you can see the hair vine I made and my bouquet I ended up getting. The woman who did my hair couldn't believe I made the hairpiece myself, and she wants me to sell them, she said she has a lot of brides who would be interested in a hairpiece like what I made. So I guess I have a new little side business. That's what life in Israel is all about, piecing together jobs to make up one.

There ended up being possibly 400 people at the wedding, 300 intended guests and 100 more that came to celebrate with us. We couldn't believe how many poeple were able to come it was truly amazing! There were a lot people we missed but will BE"H be seeing soon in April when we go to North America. This will be my first trip to Toronto and meeting alot of my husbands family and friends who were not able to make it to Israel for the wedding. Husband, hee hee, I still have to get used to that part. More adventures to come...

unintended hiatus

Wow so I didn't mean for such a hiatus to happen but well I got engaged exactly a month ago now. It is so exciting, but it is a bit time consuming! People are right when they say planning a wedding is a full time job. All I do all day long is fill out forms, run errands, and make phone calls that have to do with the wedding. It is fun and we are enjoying the process with all its ups and downs.


Ian is adorable and I am soo happy! I knew he was going to propose when he did but I was trying to act like I didn't know. I was so anxious and nervous and I couldn't really eat when we went out to dinner. Ian seemed fine and calm. After having dinner we walked to the Old City and he took me to his favorite spot, this old ampitheatre and that was when he asked me if I would marry him and I ofcourse said "YES!"

It is truly amazing, he gave me a beautiful ring that I love so much that was his Great Aunt's and it fts me perfectly and is so much ;like the style of rings that I like, it's not yelow gold and not white gold but a more rose gold and it is old and has an antique style and is unique, and even better it has a story because it belonged to someone whom he loved. And I feel so honored to have this ring now and to be marrying Ian.

After leaving the Old City Ian said that his Rabbi wanted us to go over to his house which was fine with me because I am very very close with this family, because oif this family is how we met! But little did I know Ian had planned a surprise L'Chayim there with my close friends and his close friends and the Rabbi's family and Ian's family, his parents and sister were visiting for a family wedding. I was soo surprised I couldn't believe it. It was really amazing.

Now ever since we got engaged we have been planning our wedding. We are so excited that we are God willing getting married on Tu B'Shvat, the birthday of the trees! This is just such a great day for us and we are so excited that it is all working out. Mazal Tov!

Check out my Picasa Web Album if you want to see more pictures from our engagement!

weddings upon weddings

I have been pretty busy taking care of all the details of moving to an other country. I finally got my kupat cholim (health insurance and provider) yesterday. This was a difficult process. So things in Israel seem to never been open when you need and always seems to be closed at weird times. Those of us coming from the west are used to places being upon in semi-convenient hours and being able to take care of things online or by a phone call. Well not here in Israel. So to get my kupat cholim I first needed to go to the post office to pay a few dollars for I don't even know what and then take the receipt and this paper form the post office to the health provider of my choice. So after two days of trying to go to the post office to find it to be closed for who knows what reason. It then took me a few more days to get to teh health provider because many businesses here in Israel close at 1pm and sometimes open again at 4pm or don't open again till the next day. This is very convenient for the people working there since there is no Sunday here, the weekend is Shabbat and for those of us who celebrate this holy day it doesn't leave another day to run errands like Sunday in America.
So basically it took me a few days to find the time to get back to get health coverage but now I have it.

Activating my bank card was also a long process. I received it in the mail a few weeks ago but wasn't able to activate it. i tried to call the number and use the English section and then tried it in Hebrew. I even had my friend's husband call and try to do it for me, we just couldn't figure out what number's it was asking for so finally on a day I was able to get to the bank before it closed, the bank is open from 9-3pm Sunday-Thursday, I was able to activate it in the bank over 3 weeks later.

Besides these little odds and ends I have had a few simchas yay!! Mazal Tov!

Last night my friend Marna got married. It was such a beautiful high energy wedding. Marna looked beautiful and I loved her dress! Above is me, Aliza, and Rachael looking oh so beautiful and pregnant with the Rose girls minus Shiran.

So the day before Marna's wedding I became a shomeret. The bride and the groom have a few close friends serve as Shomrim (guards) for them. This is kind of the equivalent to Bride's Maids because we run around taking care of weddings details and entertaining the family member's and making sure the bride and groom don't see each other. Some couples don't see each other for the week before the wedding so the first time they see each other is when the groom is escorted in by all the men singing and dancing while the women surround the bride. This is a beautiful and powerful that always brings tears to my eyes.


In little over a week Shalva is getting married so we had a tichiel (scarf) party for her. Here I am showing Shalva how to tie her tichiel after she gets married. I don't know how I became the tichiel tying teacher but I did and I showed her a few different ways to do it.

This is the last tichiel of the night and it happened to be form me! If I do say so myself I tied it on her pretty nicely!

So many simchas...Mazal Tov yoyeh lanu v'lachol Yisrael!

taking care of business

So the last week or so has flown by. I have just been trying to take care fo all of the little details on making aliyah. I am almost done with all the little things I need to do. And it seems that things are beginning to settle down a bit. my next big tasks are starting ulpan (intensive hebrew language classes) which is everyday from like 9-1 and then getting a job.

As part of all the little things I needed to do, I got a new cell phone and plan. my new phone is pretty fancy and has a great camera on it. i took this picture of my bedroom with it.

I don't have much to say especially that now I am in the 9 days leading up to Tisha B'Av. This is a period of mourning commemorating the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

some other people's pics

On Tuesday morning, July 22, I landed at Ben-Gurion airport and there were about 200 people that came to greet the new olim that made aliyah from North America to Israel.

There were 217 olim on the flight including 50 singles (including 23 people joining the IDF through the Garin Tzabar program) 28 families with 98 children (98 - wow!).

The youngest oleh in the group is 3 months old and the oldest oleh is 88 years old. The flight also included 4 dogs and 1 cat.

A man named Jacob that came to greet the new olim posted pictures that he took
www.jr.co.il/pictures/israel/history/2008/a322.htm

Here are some pics he took. I am in the background of a couple, that's me in the green shirt.




Frances Greenberg, the first to receive her Teudat Oleh. She was the oldest new olah and was a passenger on the famous Exodus, that was denied entry to Israel. She moved to the USA with her husband and now at 88 she says “It’s time to fulfill the dream of my youth.After 60 years, I am finally coming to Israel to stay!”

Frances on the plane shows a photograph of herself and other passengers on the Exodus on their way to Israel. Unlike with the Exodus this time she will make it to stay!


My friend Marna came to meet me and the other olim at the airport. Thanks everyone!

2 Days Left

I can't believe only two days left before Aliyah! That is just crazy. I am going to really miss everyone here but I am very excited to begin my life in Israel. Also I am very excited to be done packing. Packing to move to another country is really just insane; fitting your whole life into 3 suitcases and a carry-on! Good luck to anyone who ever has is doing or will have to do this. I know it is all worth it. I am going home!

Family Trips

In May my mom, step dad and brother came to visit me in Israel. This was the first family trip we had taken in a long time. We started off in Jerusalem and then headed down south, all the way south, to Eilat.
We stayed in Eilat but took many day trips to various places in the Negev like Yotvata Chai Bar a nature reserve where they breed animals that were native to the area during Biblical times but have become near to extinct.
We also went to Mitzpe Ramon a huge crater caused by volcano and rain, Sde Boker the burial site of David Ben Gurion, and went snorkeling in a red coral reef where we saw up close amazing coral and fish.
This trip was truly fun and humbling. We saw magnificent creations that just show how small we are and how amazing the creater of the world is. As well as what harm we as humans have done to teh world and what potential harm we can still do. There is so much we can do to protect and help fix this amazing planet that we live on. We each can take little steps to undo the harm that we have done. Ok I will get off my soap box now. Go out and fix the mess we made!

Breshit

When I was first leaving for Israel in summer 2007 I made my first blog, but it was only a trial and well it disappeared. So here is my 2nd attempt. I am back in California for a 2 month, I guess, vacation before I return again to Israel to really become an Israeli.
I have been thinking about moving to Israel for maybe 5 years now, and well, finally decided to take the plunge and am making Aliyah, meaning I will become an Israeli citizen. I think I will be more excited once the jet lag wears off, today I woke up at 5:30am much letter than the previous days rising at 4am.