What’s with the shopping wagons here?

After a very long night last night with Keren waking up at 12, 3 and 4 with bad gas (sorry, Keren, to share that with the world) we quickly got dressed and ate and ran to school.  Talia cried today and Ben did too!  So I was in a really lousy mood.

Instead of coming home to unpack I had to go to sign up for my ulpan class.  I thought it was going to be a 10 minute thing but it turned into more of an hour and a half thing.  Our teacher introduced herself to us and we told her about ourselves in Hebrew so that she could assess our knowledge of the language and see what levels we were on.  Turns out we are all level bet plus or minus, so we are going to have class 5 days a week from 8:30 to 12:45!!!  So there goes all my unpacking time when the kids are in school!!  I am actually excited that I am going to finally learn how to speak the language properly instead of my elementary school Hebrew that I’ve been getting by with.

I wound up rambling on and on to the teacher when she asked about me.  I went on in Hebrew about how my kids are bringing home notices and I don’t know what in the world they are about and I’m totally missing out.  I kept going and going.  I think she thought I was nuts.  She basically smiled at me, turned to the next person and asked her about herself.

Anyway, Savta and Aunt Suzie came over today to help (again) with the unpacking.  I think I finished my last kitchen box this morning before they came and when I ran out to do some food shopping (now I have to fill up my big fridge) they set up the living room nicely and started on some other boxes too.  So the furniture in my living room, namely the couches, are all facing each other and it looks like more of a room.  They were really funny.  At one point they were cleaning the big sliding glass door that we have in the living room.  One was on the inside and one the outside scraping the paint off the door and washing it. 

I have to talk about the shopping wagons that they have in this country!!  They go forward and backward but they also go sideways!!!!  It is sooooo annoying!!!  Noone knows how to push them.  You kind of have to stand on the side of them and push them that way.  At one point I tried pulling it.  Didn’t work.  For those of you who don’t know, they connect the wagons together and to disconnect them you have to either have a 5 shekel coin to put into the slot (and then you get it back when you hook it on to another one when you are finished) or most people have a special keychain that has a 5 shekel coin on it attached to a yad or something like that.  So today I had to find a wagon that wasn’t attached to anything b/c I didn’t have either.  Luckily I found one and when I got home Savta gave me my very own one for my keychain.  I feel so Israeli now.

Talia had her arts and crafts chug this evening at 4:30.  She loved it.  She is making a cactus with tape and glue and water, I think.  Her teacher speaks only Hebrew which I think is going to be great for her.  This way she’ll pick some Hebrew up (I hope) in more of a relaxed environment.

It got a little hectic here when I got back from dropping her off.  My friend Mindy came over to help translate some of the stuff that the school sent home.  Now I know why school was only until 2:30 today and not 3:15.  Also, a friend from camp came over b/c her daughter takes a swim chug on Tuesdays in Chashmonaim.  So she came to visit us too.  Then the kids were all playing with the toys that I had unpacked this afternoon.  On the one hand I am happy that I opened some of those boxes.  On the other hand, now I have toys all over my house again!!

Another friend saw me standing outside and invited us for shabbat dinner.  So we are now covered for both meals this shabbat.  yay.  no cooking.  maybe I’ll get a chance to take the kids to the pool again on Friday if it’s still open for the summer.  She also asked if I needed anything and I did.  I needed a notebook for ulpan tomorrow since I haven’t come accross any boxes with old notebooks in them yet.  So she got one for me and dropped it off.   So nice! 

Got the kids bathed and into bed pretty much on time tonight.  I will go do some cleaning up in the rooms that have lightbulbs that work in them and then some laundry now that I did a load this morning and nothing terrible happened and then off to bed.  Have to be awake and well rested for my first day of ulpan tomorrow!!