Between Meals at Cafe Katamon Yeshana

This week has been quite busy and quite emotional. On Shabbat, we sponsored the kiddush (light refreshments after Sabbath morning services) at Shir Chadash. We wanted to thank the Shir Chadash congregation for welcoming us in their community and to say "l'hitraot" (see you again). We laughed because Rabbi Pear did a little bit of editorializing in the weekly email that goes out to the congregation. When he wrote that we were sponsoring kiddush, he added the words "for now" following "l'hitraot". Then, when Rabbi Pear announced after services that we were sponsoring kiddush, he invited us to return to Israel "for a short time, for a long visit, for the rest of your lives, whatever." Using the recipe created by the late Rabbi Moshe Holcer z'l (from our synagogue in Cambridge), Pentheus made etrog vodka with leftover etrogim  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etrog), and we served that, along with some scotch, at kiddush. Both the vodka and scotch seemed to go over well. The boys wanted us to serve some of their favorite foods, too, so we also provided gummy worms (I know, you're shocked!), Chupa Chups lollipops, and those fruit nectar juices with the ever-changing price.

We have really have enjoyed being a part of Shir Chadash. I never thought I would feel that way about a congregation with a "mechitza" (separation between men and women), but here I am. I'm sure it's because the mechitza is vertical (as opposed to horizontal) and because women can see the bima. Also, we like the "ruach" (spirit) of the congregation when we "daven" (pray), and we're big fans of Rabbi Pear (and the whole Pear Family). This weekend there is a "shabbaton" (kind of like a retreat over Shabbat) at Shir Chadash. It's great for us because not only do we get to spend our last Shabbat with the congregation, but the shabbaton includes Friday night dinner, Saturday afternoon kiddush/lunch, and Saturday night dinner. No cooking for us! We are planning to go out to eat Saturday night anyway - to be sure, someplace that serves meat.

By the way, I don't think I have yet plugged Rabbi Pear's book, The Accidental Zionist: What a Priest, a Pornographer and a Wrestler named Chainsaw taught Me about Being Jewish, Saving the World, and Why Israel Matters to Both. (Okay, so it's a really long title, but makes you want to read the book, huh?)

Saturday night we had planned for the entire family to go to Cafe Katamon Yeshana, the restaurant/cafe we've been frequenting a lot lately. They've got great soups, and the WK loves their apple-plum jam. Unfortunately, only the CK and I went to dinner, but we had a nice time together. The soup was zucchini with hearts of palm, and I thought it had a funny aftertaste. I ended up getting toast with the apple-plum jam. The CK loves their pasta, which is funny because he gets pasta "blee klum" (without anything), so it's not like it's a specialty of the house.

On Sunday, the boys went back to school, and I had Ulpan in the morning. In Ulpan we learned words related to grocery shopping and saw a news clip about the opening of a new Rami Levy grocery store in Mo'd'in, a city near Jerusalem. We learned words such as "tzarchaneem" (consumers), "milchemet m'chireem" (price wars), "kahmut moogbal" (limited quantities), and "eetee" (slow, as in how quickly the cashiers work). In the afternoon, the WK went to park to play soccer, while the CK and I took the bus to "merkaz ha'ir" (center of town, or downtown) to meet our Cambridge friends' daughter (the one who is here for the USY program). We bought most of the last gifts we needed to get, and had ice-cream before dinner! The WK and Pentheus joined us and we went to Big Apple, a low-scale pizza and pasta restaurant, for dinner. After dinner, we said goodbye to our friend, and it was sad. Although certainly we have all enjoyed spending time with her, I particularly will miss our "girl time" together.

On Monday, while the boys were at school, I packed up another box to send to the States. Pentheus was right when he said we would have a lot of stuff to send back; I have been surprised by how much we have! We also had a problem again with electricity in the dira. When Pentheus tried to do laundry, we lost power. It wouldn't have been a big deal to bring some dirty clothes back to Cambridge, but we had already put liquid detergent on the clothes and we couldn't really put them in a suitcase like that. We brought laundry over to a neighbor's dira and used her washing machine. I called the repair guy whom the electrician from last week had recommended, and he came over to fix the machine. It turned out that there were some wet wires in the washer, and once he dried them, we were good to go. Housecall plus labor totalled 250 shekels (about $70). After school, the boys went to Park Hamoshava while I took a nap because I had a wicked headache.

Early Monday evening, we had the CK's parent-teacher conference at school. Pentheus and I both went, and the CK attended as well. We had a good meeting with Meital, the CK's teacher. The entire conference was in Hebrew, and I'm pretty sure that Pentheus, the CK and I understood what Meital was saying. At one point, Meital kept saying that he was a "yeled maxim" (fantastic boy) and how happy she was to have him in her class.

I hadn't known until Meital told us on Monday, that she was the one who suggested the CK move to her class. Apparently, she had seen the CK crying everyday and wanted to make things better. At one point during the conference, Meital started crying, and, of course, that made me start to cry, too. Pentheus and the CK were comforting both of us.

After the conference with Meital, "sof, sof" (finally), the entire family went out to dinner together! We went to Cafe Katamon Yeshana (wow, we really have gone there a lot lately, huh?) and had a wonderful time. I just knew we could do it! We spent some time talking as a family about our adventure in Israel, what we will miss here and what we are looking forward to in Cambridge. I am so glad we ate together and had such a good time.

Yesterday morning, I had my last Ulpan session. We learned all of the words related to french toast and watched a video of an interview with Chef Haim Cohen (who's apparently a big deal here in Israel). I know words like "mahtkon" (recipe), "proosot" (slices), "k'ahrah" (bowl), and "tahmtzit vanil" (vanilla extract)! I was sad when Ulpan ended, and I am very glad I participated in it. I've thought about continuing to do Ulpan via Skype, but I think it would be too difficult to pay attention at 3 am Boston time. My Ulpan teacher told me that she has never met anyone who worked so hard to learn Hebrew, which was very nice of her to say.

Last night Pentheus and I had another date night - two weeks in a row! We were supposed to have dinner with friends of Pentheus's - the couple whose son got married a few weeks ago, but Pentheus's friend has pneumonia and canceled. Pentheus and I ate dinner at Baba's, a kosher Middle-Eastern meat restaurant. Pentheus had merguez (spice sausages) and I had entrecote skewers. It was okay but not great. We are definitely going to miss having such easy access to kosher meat all of the time!

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! I wish you and yours a meaningful holiday filled with family and friends. Christmas is a lot different in Israel than it is in the States. My understanding is that Beit Lechem (Bethlehem) is packed on Christmas Eve. It was strange not to see Christmas lights on houses and Christmas trees through windows. We land back in Boston late Sunday night, and I imagine we'll still see some in Cambridge before they are taken down.

Finally, here are a couple of pictures of our favorite gum in Israel. It's watermelon-flavored and shaped, and on the inside, there are small black candy "seeds" that kind of taste like the Runts candy:

It may seem kind of gross, but the gum tastes great!