aliyah – Page 6 – A Bit of This A Bit of That

February 11, 2015

What I (don’t) miss.

I was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 35 years, the longest I lived away from Jozi was when I was 19 and I lived on a Kibbutz in Israel for 8 months. In fact, the only country I have been to outside of South Africa is Israel.

Uprooting your life and moving countries is hard. You realise that there are things you miss that you never thought you would miss and there are things that just don’t make a difference.

Here are my Miss/Don’t Miss lists.

I Miss

My mom, desperately! We used to see each other at least twice a week. Thank heavens for Skype!
My friends. Again, thank heavens for Skype, Viber and social media.
My car. I enjoy being able to walk around and to take reliable public transport, but a car would be nice on weekends.
My old job. I really, really enjoyed what I did. And the people I did it with.
Aletta. I miss our conversations and the great hugs she gives. I miss hearing her interact with the kids and listening to her sing songs with them. I miss having a babysitter available at night and on weekends if we needed.
Pap and Gravy. I have no idea if there is an equivalent to Mielie Pap here.
My dogs. I really, really miss them but they are happy and settled and being totally spoiled by their adopted mommy and daddy in Kimberley and that makes my heart happy.

A very happy, and spoiled, trio of pups.

I Don’t Miss

Load-shedding. Looking at all the tweets and FB posts and talking to my mom makes me realise how much worse it has gotten. I am so grateful that we don’t have to deal with that anymore.
Driving. I know I said I miss having a car but the commute to work is so much less stressful when you are not the one driving. I just sit back, close my eyes and have a snooze. Also all my kids friends live within a two block radius of us so no schlepping to play dates either.
Aletta. Again, I know I said I miss her, and I do, but I don’t miss having someone else in my house all the time. I don’t miss having to discuss meal plans and grocery lists. I don’t miss having to wear clothes all the time. I don’t miss sorting out misplaced clothing, I mean really, Faith is a lot smaller than I am, those socks were not going to fit me.
Roadside beggars. So far I have not seen a single beggar. There are people in the main centers like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem who will ask for money, usually for a charity or religious organisation, but road side beggars are non-existent.
Busy weekends. Friday mornings are a bit busy since the kids are at school and we do all our errands in the morning but from the time we fetch the kids to the time we go to work on Sunday, its quiet. There is no rush. We go for picnics in the park and we take a slow walk to wherever we are going. We sometimes get invited to someone for Shabbos lunch and we mostly eat and sit back and chat and relax until its time to walk home again.

There are probably a dozen other things I miss and don’t miss but these are the ones that jump into my head right now.

February 1, 2015

These boots were made for walking…

…or not.

We don’t have a car. This is not an issue. With excellent public transport (trains and buses) and most things well within walking distance, we don’t really need a car.

That being said, my poor takkies (sneakers/running shoes) are taking a beating. And don’t get me started on walking in my boots or ballet flats.

And my feet! I gave calluses on calluses.

On Friday Paul and I walked around running some errands. Everything was within a kilometer or two of our house, but everything was in different directions. We walked over 13km and only took the bus in the afternoon when the kids were with us.

Yesterday there was a kite festival in Modi’in. It looked like fun so we decided to go. We mapped out our walk on Google Maps and in theory it was a 35 minute walk over 2.8km. We have a cram (Crappy pRAM) that we push Faith in, there is no way we would walk anywhere further than 500m without Faith being in the cram, she is slower than a turtle walking behind a snail. Going backwards.

Things started looking wrong when Google (bless it) decided to take us up a rather long flight of stairs instead of on the road. We changed over to ‘car’ mode and the directions switched. To a road on a very very steep hill. I did get to take this awesome pano of our beautiful city though.

Ultimately it took us about an hour and 4km of walking to get there. But once we were there we had fun. we bought kites for the kids and some popcorn and drinks and spent a good hour or so flying kits.

The walk back was about 4km too but Paul managed to find a route without Mount Everest in it.

In total we walked almost 8.5km yesterday.

Most of the time I dont mind not having a car. The last two days though… Yup, I would have LOVED a car!

January 8, 2015January 8, 2015

I’m a productive member of Israeli society!

So, my little {adventure the other day} was for a job interview.

I didnt want to say anything about the interview because I didn’t want to jinx it. According to everyone I spoke to and everything I have read, finding a job as a new immigrant can take a while. So I was hesitant to be too vocal about the opportunity.

Anyway, I went for the interview which went very well and I got the job! I start on Sunday! (The work week in Israel is Sunday to Thursday or (half day) Friday). I get Friday off, which is amazing, the kids are at school on a Friday morning which means I get to do shopping and have some time to myself.

Im so excited. Its a fantastic company, about 60 employees, and it looks like a fun and relaxed environment. The position is specifically for an English speaker and pretty much everyone in the company speaks English. Although I am going to hound the Hebrew speakers to help me with my vocab since having a full time job will pretty much mean I can’t go to Ulpan (hebrew lessons) full time.

The hours are long but are flexible with when I can start/finish, so if I wanted to start early and end early I could, which might have to happen once Paul gets a job and depending on his hours, in order for me to fetch kids from school/aftercare**.

I’m really looking forward to going to work. Staying home and reading all day sounds great in theory but it gets old pretty fast. Im looking forward to using my brain and interacting with new people.

I will let you know how it goes on Sunday 🙂

*All the photos in the post were taken by my amazing Hubband and are in and around Modi’in.

**The school system here is a whole blog post on its own and a very interesting topic, watch this space!

January 6, 2015

The extraordinary tale of the disappearing, reappearing bus stop!

Today was my first foray into the great wide world on my own, navigating the public transport system.

Armed with Google Maps and an app called {Moovit}, I dropped Aaron at school and made my way to the central bus stop. All aboard the 150 to {Lod} and 25 minutes and ₪8.40 later I was at my destination. I did have a moment of panic when the bus deviated slightly but it basically cut out a 5 minute portion of the route and hooked up to the road just before my stop.

I finished what I needed to do and consulting Moovit and Google Maps, I figured out I needed to catch the 150 back to Modi’in. Except when I got to the place where the bus stop was supposed to be (according to BOTH maps) there was nothing there. Not a bus shelter or even just a sign post with the bus number on it.

Scratching my head, I took a short walk to the corner of the road and saw a bus shelter a little further down to the right (on the road that the bus had detoured on). I walked over and looked for the marker saying the 150 stopped there and didn’t see anything. After walking back up the road to the nonexistent bus stop I decided to check the apps again and found another bus stop a little further up the road (on the part of the route that had been cut off because of the earlier detour). That stop had the number 150 on it as well as a route map with the 150 bus listed. Moovit and Google Maps agreed that this was the stop. I waited for the bus. And waited. The wind kicked up. And I waited some more. It started to rain. The bus was officially 15 minutes late. I walked back to the nonexistent bus stop. It was raining but I couldn’t even use my umbrella because the wind was so fierce it popped the umbrella inside out!

As a last ditch effort I decided to go back to the bus stop on the detour road and just double check. It still didn’t list the 150 bus so I started to walk past it and then… angels sang, the sun came out (ok not really but it did stop raining) and I saw a route map, INSIDE the bus shelter, that had the 150 listed! I waited 15 minutes and the bus arrived!

There are 2 morals to this story.

We shouldn’t trust technology 100%, its not infallible. The bus stop was there, just 150m down the road and around the corner.
Open your eyes, look properly, don’t take everything at face value.

Oh well, it was an adventure. It took me almost 3 times as long to get home as it should have but hey, I made it. All on my own!

December 31, 2014December 31, 2014

The simple life?

Its amazing what you can live without.

Our container is only now on its way to Durban harbour to be loaded onto the ship that will bring it to us in Israel. Once its on the ship it will be 45 days on the water and then who knows how long until it is unloaded and we can claim it and have it delivered to our apartment.

In the mean time we are living with the bare minimum. I insisted on getting beds before we arrived and my brother helped by going to IKEA and organising them. We flew with linen, duvets and pillows in our luggage. And other than our clothes, that was it.

The gorgeous park we went to last Saturday (Shabbos)

The first thing I did when we arrived was buy a kettle and a toaster. We decided that since we had our entire kitchen coming we would buy plastic/paper plates and cutlery and plastic cups instead of ‘real’ cutlery and crockery. That lasted about a week. We started by buying 4 cereal bowls. That led to proper plates ({Fox Home}, similar to Mr P had a sale – bonus) and proper glasses. We also picked up a pot and a pan (1 each for meat and milk), although I have been using disposable foil roasting dishes a lot, so much easier than washing up. Oh, and coffee cups, we had to have proper coffee cups. I am holding out on the cutlery though, firstly I have a huge amount of ‘real’ cutlery coming and secondly we have a huge amount of plastic stuff since we bought in bulk.

The other kitchen thing we don’t have is a fridge. I have shipped our SMEG fridge and SMEG freezer and we were going to borrow someones bar fridge until ours arrived but that fell through. So far we have managed without a fridge. How you ask? Its winter here and our counters are some kind of stone so they are cold. Leaving the marge, humus, juice and milk on the counter has worked pretty well. So far nothing has really gone off.

The park across the road from Aarons school

That being said, having a fridge would make life easier so we went to a ‘strip mall’ type place yesterday and bought a small bar fridge. It get delivered this afternoon. It will definitely make things easier, like keeping leftovers fresh and we can buy bigger bottles of milk. It also has a small freezer compartment which will help keep things like fishfingers and chicken nuggets for the kids. It will also free up my counter space which is driving me a bit nuts since there is stuff everywhere!

Other things we are doing pretty well without is a TV and lounge furniture. We watch series on Paul’s laptop and the kids are either playing on the old iPad or actually playing outdoors at the park and haven’t asked for the TV once! I know Paul would like to buy a TV but I think its pretty much way down on the list of things we MUST buy.

Oh yes, laundry…

Thank heavens my bestie {Roro} lives a few blocks away and has graciously allowed us to hog her washing machine. Im not sure what I would have done without her. A few days ago I hand washed all the socks and undies and I have a newfound respect for all those people that don’t have access to a washing machine. My back ached, my hands cramped and nothing was really as clean as it gets in a washing machine. I have to admit that a washing machine is a luxury that I cannot do without!

All in all we are managing but I cannot wait for MY things to arrive and make life just that little bit easier.

December 23, 2014

Prepare to be amazed!

Yesterday we went to the municipal building (home affairs) which is 5 minutes down the road from us. We needed to do a few things. We needed to change Faiths name on our ID because at the airport (where we received our original ID documents) they spelt it in Hebrew as Fais instead of Faith or Fait (they can’t really pronounce the ‘th’ sound). We also needed to change our address as they put the wrong area on the ID books and in order to register the kids for school we need the correct address. We also needed to register the kids in their respective schools.

The first stop was school registration and that office opened at 13h30. The lady was extremely helpful and got Aaron registered quickly. We then had to find a Gan (kindergarten) for Faith. She found one directly behind our apartment. We can see the playground from our bedroom window! So awesome.

The lady who helped us with the school registration then directed us to the office next door where we had to go to change the address and name details. That office only opened at 14h30 and it was only 14h05 so we sat around for a bit. Just before 14h30 a lady came and manned a small desk by the waiting area, she gave us a number and then explained the how the waiting system worked. Our number flashed up on the screen and in we went. Now this is the amazing part, we sat down, explained the address change, showed the woman our lease to prove the address, she clicked away on the computer, pressed print and handed us our new document. In less than 5 min! No payment, no waiting 10 working days to collect the document. Just done!

We hit a small snag with Faiths name as they wanted to see her birth certificate so we went home, got it and Paul went back and wham bam thank you ma’am, it was done. No mess no fuss.

Efficiency seems to be a thing here. We ordered SIM cards from a company called 012 Smile and we ordered home internet through Bezeq. Not only did the SIM cards get delivered when they said they would, we received a phone call first to make sure we were home to receive them. The same with the internet connection, the technician called to make sure we were home and in 5 min he was ringing our bell. The gas guy also called last week before he arrived and in fact he called to say he was available earlier than our allotted time and did we mind if he came early? Hell no we don’t mind, come on in.

Its going to be pretty easy to get used to this kind of service.

December 20, 2014

A bit down and thats ok.

After all the hype and all the excitement of planning and getting ready to move I’ve found myself sitting staring into space and feeling a little blue and lost on more than one occasion.

Its totally natural and understandable to have a bit of a crash. I’ve identified a few ‘triggers’ and having done so Im more aware of what sets me off, how to deal with it and also that all those ‘triggers’ are temporary.

Firstly, the fact that we are in a bit of limbo is an issue. The kids haven’t started school yet, we haven’t started Ulpan (hebrew lessons) yet and we don’t have jobs yet. We (I) need more of a routine. All temporary. We have a meeting with the school people tomorrow. im going to call the Ulpan lady tomorrow as well and jobs will come in time.

Also, even though we have an amazing apartment so we have a roof over our heads, we don’t have much furniture. I thank heavens we decided to buy new beds before we arrived and that my brother and husband worked exceptionally hard to set them up the first day we arrived so we have a place to sleep. I also brought our duvets, pillows and linen with us on the plane so we have our familiar things when we go to sleep. As for the rest of the furniture, living in an empty apartment is a bit soul destroying. No cupboards so our clothing is all on the floor in piles. No couches so no where to sit. No appliances and familiar cooking things. No pictures on the walls. This too is temporary, our lift should arrive in February and then all our ‘stuff’ will be here and the apartment will feel more like home.

We had all our bags and clothes and bits and pieces strewn all over the lounge which was making me very anxious. It looked messy and was making me cringe every time I saw it. Today Paul cleared it all up. He packed away all his clothes and the last few of mine. Aaron packed his clothes away (and buy pack away I mean place in piles in our bedrooms) and then Paul took all the clothes we wont be wearing now and placed them in the cases and put the cases in the laundry room. I am MUCH more calm now that the lounge is clear.

The ’empty’ kitchen is also an issue. Not being able to cook whatever I want whenever I want to is hard. We dont have a fridge, although we will be getting a small bar fridge this week hopefully, so keeping milk, meat and veggies cold is a problem. Although it is winter and so far small cartons of milk have been fine sitting on the counter. I bought us a meat pan and a milk pan and we have had eggs and toast a few times as well as baked potatoes and tuna mayo for lunch. We are using throw away plates and knives and forks but I will buy us a few proper things this week too as well as a milk pot and a meat pot so we can cook proper meals.

I think I just need to breathe and keep reminding myself that these issues are all temporary and that things will come together.

Here are some pics of the apartment 🙂 I will update them as the rooms come together.

Dining room with kitchen on the left and bedrooms at the end as seen from the lounge

Passage with kids bathroom on left, Aarons room on right, Faith's room at the end and our room and bathroom on far left. — Passage with kids bathroom on left, Aarons room on right, Faith’s room at the end and our room and bathroom on far left.

December 19, 2014

Part Two: Our first few days!

We arrived at our new apartment at about 11am and were met by another of my sister from another mister, Roro, who had our keys. After a pinch to make sure we weren’t dreaming and that we were actually standing in Israel together, we opened up the front door to our new home. What a feeling, walking into our apartment. The place we will hang our hats for the foreseeable future.

We live on a main road. Its a one way and on the other side if the road is a park or three. Lots of green grass and trees and places for the kids to play or ride bikes. About 200m down the road is a Superpharm (like Dischem or Clicks) and a Mega Supermarket. A further 5-minute walk and we can throw a stone at Roro’s front door.

Roro took us around and we did a quick shop to get some basics, like milk and bread. Until our lift arrives (hopefully beginning of February) we will be eating off paper plates and using throwaway cutlery. I did buy a pan and some proper mugs as well as a toaster and a kettle.

A few days before we arrived my brother went to IKEA and bought us beds and mattresses, which were delivered the day before we arrived. My brother Matt came to visit after work and he and Paul put together three beds! We had brought our linen and bedding with us on the plane and that first night in our new apartment in our new beds was bliss.

Our landlady came over that evening with our lease to sign as well as some donuts (It was 1^st night Chanukah!). She is so sweet and kind and obliging. She was very distressed that we didn’t have any furniture so she sent her husband over with 4 chairs for the kitchen island and when he arrived he insisted on going back home and bringing back a small two-seater couch for us to sit on until our lift arrives.

Our apartment is lovely, the rooms are quite big by Israeli standards and the kitchen is amazing, its about a third of the size of our SA kitchen but it has at least 30% more cupboard space. Most apartments in Israel do not come with a stove/oven and you have to buy your own. Our amazing landlady decided that she would include a brand new oven/stove in our rent. The gas guy arrived on Thursday morning to connect everything; he was early and it took him exactly 5 minutes to finish up. What a pleasure. Now we can cook which makes life a little easier too.

We still need to buy quite a bit of furniture. There are no built in cupboards and we are living with our clothes on the floor which is driving me slowly mad. So perhaps next week we will take a trip to IKEA and buy some cupboards if we cant find any second hand ones for sale in the area. We also need to buy a couch as we didn’t ship ours with the rest of our furniture.

On Friday morning we are going to spend the day in Tel Aviv with my brother, sister in law and our new nephew. It will be first time using public transport from start to finish. We will walk to the train station, take a train to Tel Aviv and then a bus to my brothers place. I cannot wait to see them all and to give my nephew cuddles and squishes.

So far it has been a bit overwhelming and a lot exciting. Next week we speak to the school people about registering the kids in school and us in Ulpan (Hebrew classes) and then maybe it will feel a bit more real and not so much as if we are on holiday 😉

December 17, 2014

Part One: A hole in my eardrum and the easiest flight ever!

What an ‘interesting’ few days its been.

Two days before we left South Africa my right ear became blocked. We thought it was possibly a wax buildup and I got some Waxol and put it in. The next day we did it again, and I had the most excruciating pain when I sat up, it was so bad that I was in tears and almost made my mom take me to the ER.

In fact the next morning she did take me since I was feeling nauseous and my ear was still sore, the doc gave me a drip with anti-nausea stuff and pain medication and ordered irrigation. The first few tries were uncomfortable but not sore then she changed the angle and OMG! The pain! I made her stop and refused further treatment.

I came home and went to sleep. As soon as I woke up I was ill and then every time I sat up I was sick again. I was either sleeping or hanging over the toilet seat and completely missed the braai my mom organized as well as all the visitors that came past to say goodbye.

After everyone had left my mom took me back to the ER since I was so dehydrated and still nauseous. They gave me more anti-nausea stuff and got me a name of an ENT to see the next morning (the day we were leaving!).

I seriously didn’t think I was going to be allowed to fly. As sick as I was on Sunday, I woke up feeling ok-ish on Monday morning. Paul got me an appointment at about 11am. We saw a great ENT who charged us an absolute fortune to see us on such short notice. He also did ultrasounds of my ears and cleared out a TON of wax from the right ear using microscopic instruments and a very expensive operating microscope. Once the wax was clear we found a small ‘v’ shaped tear in my eardrum. We are not sure if the hole was there before the irrigation or if the irrigation caused the hole but flying with a hole in your eardrum is ok, so away we went!

We got to the airport early so we could check in the 10 huge bags we had. We were the first in the queue and watched the security guys check the counters and general area before they opened up. Suddenly we were being told to clear the area. There was an unattended bag near the check in counters and they were calling in the sniffer dogs. Two gorgeous doggies came to sniff out any explosives and after about 10 minutes we were given the all clear to proceed.

We were questioned by the El Al staff and allowed to check our bags in. 10 bags takes a LONG time to check in. Once we were done we got dinner with my mom and Brian and then said a teary goodbye. Its was really hard saying goodbye to my mom. Especially as we had been staying with her 24/7 for 4 weeks. We made it quick if not painless.

Passport control was short and simple and we stopped off at the Mugg & Bean which overlooks the tarmac and actually overlooked our plane. The kids were fascinated. Pretty soon boarding started and they kindly allowed those of us with little ones to board first. We got our seats and landed up with a free seat next to us so Faith got to stretch out and slept pretty much the whole way to Israel. Aaron slept as well but I didnt since I was sitting next to him and he managed to kick me a few times as he moved.

Next thing you know we were being served breakfast and getting ready to land. I was anxious about my ears but it turned out this was the easiest landing I have ever had. My left ear got sore for about 5 minutes. Then it ‘popped’ and it was clear. No hassles at all!

Once we landed we walked down to passport control and used the direct line telephone to call the Absorption office. One of the staff members arrived a few minutes later and escorted us to the passport control desk where they informed the controller that we were new immigrants. He checked our passports, stamped them and we then went up to the office where we filled out a few forms, had our pictures taken, chose our medical aid, were given a sim card with NIS 200 and were then given our new ID books. The whole process took about an hour. Once that was done we were put on a taxi and taken to our new home.

Its quite surreal how in less than 24 hours we went from one country to another, one home to another, one nationality to another. I think I am still going to be hit with the reality of it all but for now we are settling in and learning our new surroundings. Stay tuned for Part Two: Our first few days!

November 25, 2014

Three weeks to go…

Three weeks. Thats all the time we have left here before we start our new adventure.

The house is packed and the boxes have been taken to the container. The keys have been handed over to the new owners.

Im officially on leave until month end and then I am unemployed (first time since I was 16!!).

We sold my little Tazz a few weeks ago and now that my mom is back from Israel she is using her car so I am carless too. In the afternoons I can use her car if she doesn’t have anywhere to be.

I feel the need to be doing something. Lazing around at home is so alien to me. Especially since everyone else in the house is either at school or working. So strange.

Paul is working from his office until the end of the week and then he will be working from ‘home’.

The kids have two weeks left of school and then a week of holiday school.

Extra murals are all winding down.

Aaron has been sick and is on antibiotics at the moment. I really hope he is feeling better soon.

Faith is very clingy and wont let me even go upstairs without her. A smidge of separation anxiety which is completely normal. She never got chicken pox and according to the GP if she doesn’t have it by now the chances of her getting it are slim.

20 more sleeps!!