General Update

So we had one of the key doctors' appointment the other day and are happy to report that we are all doing well, especially Aaron (he was the one that was actually sick last week).

We also spent this past Shabbat in Yeruchum, a development town in the South of Israel. We went with Aaron's program - it was a nice chance for me to get to meet a lot of the people he hangs out with on a day to day basis and for him to spend time with them outside of the classroom.

It is starting to get cool year. The middle of the days are still really nice, no jackets necessary, but by 4 pm you definitely start to feel the chill. Luckily, we are still getting plenty of sunny days so we've been able to hang out all the laundry.

PS Meet Sonic our pet lizard


We came home one night and he was hanging out in our kitchen - he ended up in the sink and if we didn't need to wash dishes we might have just left him there, but alas cleaning called. He was a fast little guy so it took us awhile to catch him and then Aaron took him outside. He was are pet only for a short period of time, but he was a cutie.

You know you are in Israel when...

We were at the mall the other day and happened to walk by the pharmacy. We didn't realize that a trop to the mall should include a camera, so we ended up going back just to get this picture of the sign over the pharmacy counter. The quote is from the 15th chapter of Exodus, verse 26 saying that if you follow in the ways of G-d and listen to the commandments G-d will not bring any of the plagues on Israel that he brought on Egypt, because he is your healer. Only at a pharmacy counter in Israel would you find an advertisement for G-d and not penicillin.

Adventures Abound

So over Succot we went to Neot Kedumin - which is a biblical botanical garden here. The different signs by the vegetation don't just say what species they are, but rather give the quote from the texts that mentioned it. So here are a bunch of pictures from that trip (the view was great) the etrogim were large and the sunset was breathtaking. We'll have to try and get back at other points during the year and see the different seasons of flowers, plants, etc.

...And the rain falls

So we are having the first thunderstorm here in Jerusalem. Not to much rain actually falling, but its exciting here as the rainy season technically started a couple of weeks ago and we need every inch we can get. And luckily I brought in our laundry from the line a couple of hours before it started (Yay me for remembering). And now it just started coming down again so hopefully we'll have a decent count at the end.

We want to hear from you

It is kind of quiet here in Israel and we'd like to hear from you. Therefore, we took the technological dive and got Skype. For some one who didn't own a cell phone before this year it's a pretty big step! Please look for us by either mine or Ilana's gmail account and hopefully we'll be able to chat soon.

Holiday Recap

So we spent Succot (yes the one were we move into a "hut" for the week) with my parents in Modiin - there we are in the succah in the pic below. It was an interesting experience - being outside of Jerusalem. A couple of interesting things to note - Modiin is really pretty - everyone has amazing gardens - palm trees, flowers, citrus trees growing all around and the garbage is hidden. It is very hilly though from ground floor to our second floor apartment was almost 40 steps and then from our apartment up to the next street was another 80 steps (hence I only made it to shul about 3 times - it was in the 80 step direction and then another hill). It was also interesting spending a holiday really Israeli style and not having all the Jerusalem hotels and therefore all the American tourists around, though there was plenty of English being spoken in Modiin. Anyway, time to run and light shabbat candles - I can hear the warning siren sounding.

You know you are in Israel when...

So we knew things would be different when we got here, from the basics such as the language and currency to the luxuries such as not having a car, etc. However, we didn't appreciate how inherent the differences would be to reflect the religious and cultural tendencies of the population. Then we bought a Brita pitcher...



...so in the states the "fancy" Brita pitchers have a digital reader on the top that lets you know how long the filter has been in use and when to put in a new filter. However, for the orthodox Jewish population it causes a slight problem with the use of the pitchers (and therefore the electrical/digital reader). But not here in Israel - here we still have the manual reader - set it to the date you put in the filter and now at that same time next month to change the filter - yes it is only a month her per a filter - quality of water is something we do miss.