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 😉