Well, we hit the one year mark last week and celebrated with a trip to Bnei Brak to buy challos from the famous Vizhnitz bakery and herring from a store named Zahava's. Actually, my husband did the buying and I just did the eating.
About the challas - let me just say that we don't actually remember whether or not we had any other food on the table last Shabbat.
About the herring - let me just say that my hands still smell like herring. No, I did not eat with my hands, so don't be a smarty pants. But I did have to wipe up herring spill on the counter after SOMEONE spilled in their impatient glee to eat said herring.
Back to more global issues. Life has certainly changed for us in the past year. But we are very proud of having done this and of course thrilled beyond words to be living here.
[Deep thought alert]
It's not until we actually started living here that we did a "Wow, I coulda had a V-8!" bop on our foreheads and realized that we should have always been living here, and thought how amazing it would have been to raise our children here. I'm so glad for them that they are doing this. My grandchildren will be part of the future of Israel, how cool is that? Also, ancestor-wise, it still hits me almost every day as I drive around and (I know, this is corny) look at the beautiful hills, imagining Biblical figures making their way from place to place, that my parents, in-laws, and all of their ancestors, especially those who had such hard lives in Europe, would be (or are) kvelling over the fact that we are living in our land, an idea that was so unattainable for them. (That was a very long run-on sentence, I apologize.)
[End of deep thought, back to our regularly scheduled rambling].
So, our life has changed a bit.
For example, here is a brief list of things I never thought I'd hear myself saying:
We are very blessed to have had even this one year's opportunity to live here, and I hope that we have many, many more. It's a true, pure, and amazing dream and with all the problems, worries, and changes we encounter as Israelis, now we could never imagine living anywhere else.
About the challas - let me just say that we don't actually remember whether or not we had any other food on the table last Shabbat.
About the herring - let me just say that my hands still smell like herring. No, I did not eat with my hands, so don't be a smarty pants. But I did have to wipe up herring spill on the counter after SOMEONE spilled in their impatient glee to eat said herring.
Back to more global issues. Life has certainly changed for us in the past year. But we are very proud of having done this and of course thrilled beyond words to be living here.
[Deep thought alert]
It's not until we actually started living here that we did a "Wow, I coulda had a V-8!" bop on our foreheads and realized that we should have always been living here, and thought how amazing it would have been to raise our children here. I'm so glad for them that they are doing this. My grandchildren will be part of the future of Israel, how cool is that? Also, ancestor-wise, it still hits me almost every day as I drive around and (I know, this is corny) look at the beautiful hills, imagining Biblical figures making their way from place to place, that my parents, in-laws, and all of their ancestors, especially those who had such hard lives in Europe, would be (or are) kvelling over the fact that we are living in our land, an idea that was so unattainable for them. (That was a very long run-on sentence, I apologize.)
[End of deep thought, back to our regularly scheduled rambling].
So, our life has changed a bit.
For example, here is a brief list of things I never thought I'd hear myself saying:
- It's raining! Wow, this is so exciting! Look!
- My mall is flooded.
- I can't get warm.
- Look at the cows across the street!
- It's 30 degrees today! I'm boiling!
- It's winter, so I'm wearing boots every day.
- Shabbat.
- Chag
- Oy va voy.
- M'uleh!
- Any complete sentence in Hebrew without making a mistake (ok, it's a very short sentence, but still).
- I'm going downstairs to visit with the kids.
- I got my gas masks.
- I'm putting pomegranate seeds in the salad.
- Dirt rain
- What IS this vegetable?
- Why is the celery so dirty?
- To my grandkids- "So, when you are in the army...."
- To my grandkids - "What did you say? What does that mean in English?"
We are very blessed to have had even this one year's opportunity to live here, and I hope that we have many, many more. It's a true, pure, and amazing dream and with all the problems, worries, and changes we encounter as Israelis, now we could never imagine living anywhere else.
Love this :)
ReplyDeleteThere are sand dunes on the way to the grocery store. Every time I pass them, I imagine Avraham Avinu walking across them. So I get it. Keep writing. You're amazing.
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