Shvat

A recent image really caught my attention while driving:  a guy hitchhiking (standard in Israel still) by holding up an ipad on which he sketched his destination.  That's Israel.  Clash of old and new.

I have said it time and time again, but the best part of being in Israel is experiencing the living Jewish calender.  We are now finishing up the month of Shvat which really winds down winter and leads us to Adar, the happy month of the year.  In Adar is the holiday of Purim, and you can feel the spirit now for a couple weeks--costumes everywhere, hamantashen in the stores...

Last week also marked the halfway through the year...the kids here do a ceremony, where they get a "half year" diploma of sorts with a report card and celebrate their accomplishments so far.

I am facing really frustrating bureaucratic issues but am so happy living in Israel.  Everything feels very meaningful and exciting.  I am finally starting to retain new vocabulary, which is great.  It seemed like my brain needed to take a few months to figure out where to store the new words.

Below, Matan and I did a one day trip to Jerusalem.  My kids both love the Old City and the Kotel...they both think it's special and matan particularly enjoys doing "live broadcasts" on Facebook now that he discovered that feature!

One of the most amazing things in the Israel museum is the very large model of 2nd Temple Jerusalem (Jerusalem 2000 years ago).  Below is the temple mount--what the Jewish temple looked like.  It has been replaced with the gold dome  that we are all familiar with.  But the platform, and retaining wall (where the Jews pray now as they aren't allowed in the mosque) is still there.

more 2nd temple jerusalem below.

As winter ends, one of the first trees to "flower" is the shkediya or the almond tree.  Matan just sang a song about it for tu bshvat, the holiday of the trees.  As Jews, we all sang this song in Hebrew school, but there was snow and frost outside.  Here, it actually IS flowering!

ahava= love. 

A sign for a purim carnival coming up...

this is a typical Israeli breakfast--Shakshuka...egg cooked in tomato sauce.  I never had it before this year and it's grown on me.  As has that chocolately coffee drink behind it.

We went to Gan HaKofim, which is a monkey sanctuary for rescued monkeys off the black market, or labs.  We loved the squirrel monkeys (even if one did sort of crap on me).

Kalaniyot below.  Anyone who has known me a long time might remember my old IM name was kalannit.  I loved the name of this flower.

We've been going out a lot of shabbats and Matan and I were tired of travelling, so we did a picnic shabbat dinner on the floor.

Mini-Israel are models of different sites around Israel.  Below is my alma mater, Hebrew University.

The temple mount and wailing wall.

the Knesset (parliament)

King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

YMCA in Jerusalem.

The particle accelerator at Weizmann institute in Rehovot.

Everyone always wants to know about my kids' Hebrew.  I am utterly and completely jealous of Sivan's accent. It became apparent this month that Matan understands a little more than we thought.  But we are getting him some tutoring to help out a little.  Here he is below working on learning names of fruit.  He is absorbing new words much faster than I am.

Tree holiday involved planting.

Lastly, I'd like to conclude with a lesson I have thought about this month.  The word "yes".  I find that Israelis answer is usually yes when it comes to socializing, experiencing, doing....I love it.  Can this kid come over? Yes! Can you watch my kid? Yes!  Wanna try this? Yes!  I'm inspired by the risk-taking culture.  "Just do it" "Just apply!" "Just try!"  I have enjoyed not only receiving more "yes" but also saying "yes" much more often to things this year, and being able to grow as a result.