School choice.

Erev tov, od pa'am (Good evening, again)! Today was both productive and constructive. We went to the Misrad Chinuch (Education Ministry) in downtown Jerusalem to register the boys for school. When I indicated which school I wanted them to attend, the clerk kept asking me (in Hebrew) whether I was sure that was the school I wanted them to attend. After all. she indicated, there are 2 great schools right in the neighborhood, much closer than the other school, wouldn't the boys complain about walking farther in the rain and cold, and how they are "hachi tov" (the best) in the area. We had researched many schools before we left the States, but not the two the clerk mentioned.

I went ahead, registered the boys, and decided I wanted to talk to Pentheus tonight about it. Then when I met one of our neighbors around dinnertime and said something to her about my conversation with the clerk, our neighbor indicated that her kids have gone to one of these neighborhood schools and, in fact, WK would be in her daughter's class. The school has an English-speaking program (of which our neighbor is the head) and our neighbor thinks there are some nice families at the school. Our neighbor emailed the principal of the school, and hopefully I will be meeting with her tomorrow to check it out further. I have no idea whether we will switch schools, but it seems to make sense to check out the school if it's closer, we know there is some English language support, and we know one family (at least as much as we can know them after one conversation over tea, cucumbers and mango slices). I just know that if I go back to Misrad Chinuch to switch schools, that the clerk will remember me and say the equivalent of "I told you so" in Hebrew! We'll see. We also managed to take care of our health insurance coverage today (a short walk from Misrad Chinuch) and get bus passes after a short bus ride to the central bus station.

While walking to/from the bus and wandering around downtown, the tutor Sammy was constantly teaching the boys. When we first left the dira, he said to the boys that after they learned a new word, they should say it aloud every time they saw one. The first word was "etz" (tree) and the CK went up and down the street pointing and shrieking "etz, etz, etz." The WK's first word of the day was "shelet" (sign), and he hollered "shelet, shelet, shelet" all the way. From there it was only moments before they pointed out the colors of every car and truck. Sammy is very good with them and was a huge help when I needed assistance with Hebrew. (Unfortunately, I totally understood the man at the bus station's Hebrew when he asked me if the boys were my children or grandchildren!!!) Another potential bonus from Sammy - his fiance's sister, Naomi, is interested and available for babysitting! We'll set a time to meet her to see if that might work out.

I feel I need to write again about how excited Israelis are that we are here and how much they want us to move to Israel permanently. When we were buying the bus passes, we had to show our passports as proof of id. When the clerk asked how long we were in Israel (i.e., long enough to need to purchase bus passes) and I replied "5 months," her response in Hebrew was, "oh, 5 months, that's the first step to moving here."

I can tell already that my Hebrew is getting better. It's not just the addition of vocabulary words, but I am more comfortable speaking and not worrying that everything I say is incorrect. I think it's fair to say that Israelis aren't typically known for their patience, but most have been very helpful and kind about Hebrew. Everyone is quick to be a teacher and correct me, but that's ok with me. While my accent will likely never be Israeli, I can already hear myself speaking more Israeli in terms of speech patterns. The WK has decided that if he says "ze" (this, in Hebrew) and then pauses before saying anything else, then he sounds more Israeli. Although he's not entirely wrong, it still cracks me up. Tonight the CK hit a milestone in his Hebrew learning. While walking to Burgers Bar (for GREAT hamburgers) for dinner, the CK and I played "esreem shealot" (20 questions) completely in Hebrew! The answer in one of the rounds was "Hatoast Hachevrati" (the Friendly Toast restaurant - I am sure that is not totally accurate in Hebrew), one of our favorite restaurants in Cambridge. "Kacha lomdim" - that's how we learn.