Getting Oriented

"So, what's going on with the apartment," you ask?  Well, our landlord has adopted the bold and creative negotiating tactic of simply ignoring our communications.  As we say in our house, "la la la . . . kittens!"  So, having lived here for two weeks refusing to fully unpack and rooting through 12 exploded suitcases every morning looking for clothes, we decided to unpack and be happy where we are.

We celebrated this decision by taking a field trip to the big retail hub of Jerusalem, Talpiyot.  (The kids were off at the zoo -- Thank you Bubbe Cookie and Samantha!).  In other words, we went to the mall!  It was awesome.  With the huge supermarket attached to the huge home supply store, it was like living in the America we don't live in at home, only we couldn't accurately identify 75% of the products around us.  We came home with a microwave -- two weeks of heating up macaroni and cheese without one was more than enough -- a vacuum cleaner, a Brita, and lots of food.  OK, so we kind of lost the vacuum cleaner somewhere between the mall and home, but we did own a vacuum cleaner for a good half hour, and it felt great.  We're planning on owning one again tomorrow (hopefully for a longer period of time).

Our quads and lungs are getting used to the stairs, and we've found good shortcuts to the Old City and to school.  So, life is slowly slowly getting easier here.

Moving on from the mundane, there have been many many highlights this week, which was our "orientation" week.  It wasn't really an orientation to school as much as it was an introduction to our class and a kick in the pants to experience Jerusalem.  Looking back, here are a few of my favorite moments:

(1) On Thursday afternoon, when Cassie had a long day at camp, Viv asked to go to the Old City to buy a bracelet.  As Josh said, if your 3 year old asks to go to the Old City of Jerusalem and you can walk there, why not?  So we took a walk at Vivian's pace.  She bought her bracelet, had an ice cream, slid down the little slides in the stairs in the Arab shuk.  It was magical.  She asked if we could go see "the wall with the wishes in it" but we got turned around and tired before we got there.  Good news is, we have lots of other chances.

(2) The first night of orientation, after sunset, we went for a lesson right outside the walls of the Old City.    To see the moon rise over the walls of the Old City and to be able to see my neighborhood at the same time . . . more magic.

(3) I finally got to go get my groove on with the hip young people in my program, and had a blast.  Turns out I'm still fun sometimes.

(4) I have a favorite falafel place, which makes me feel like I live here.  Even better, I discovered it with a new friend.

(5) I asked a lot of questions in Hebrew and understood some of the answers.  I was also able to get across the idea of "air mattress" in Hebrew, of which I was particularly proud.

(6) I had someone ask me directions, and answered "yashar yashar yashar"  (i.e. "keep going," which is the answer to all requests for directions here.).  Another sign I'm getting used to the place.

(7) Both girls had fun their first week of camp. (Phew).

OK, so I'm rambling, but it's the first time I've had to sit down all week.  More soon!