Welcome to our world

Hello dear friends and welcome to the first entry of our blog. I’ve tried to fill you in on the basic details of our arrival in Israel to date, and attempted to ask some of the questions a few of you asked by e-mail. I guess the nature of the blog will evolve until it finds its true calling. Anyway, please leave comments – it’ll be good to know what you think, and also that someone’s actually reading this.

The bottom line, for those who have better things to do than read all of this, is that things are going very smoothly and that we have settled in surprisingly quickly. We are doing well, especially when we’re not reading the newspapers or thinking about how much we miss Berkeley and you.

So here goes:

Not 14 hours after landing in Israel, Ofer and I left the boys at my mother’s apartment in Jerusalem and headed out to Haifa (2 hours away) in our new silver Mazda (later nicknamed the “Silver Bronci”.) 6 hours later, we were on our way back, having signed 2 leases and registered Adar for pre-school. This pace continued for the following week; those around us assume that we are bent on setting a new world record in settling in. The truth is that after our tumultuous last few months and after being on the road (our trip was wonderful!) for so long, we really just want to settle down. Also, running around keeps us busy - and busy keeps the homesickness at bay.

The basic details are these:
We have signed a lease for a lovely apartment in Haifa. Caveat is that it will only be vacated on October 15th. Until then, we are renting a small apartment in a kibbutz nearby, and enjoying life in the country (and their lovely pool.)
Amit and Adar have started pre-K and pre-school (respectively.) Their schools are half a block apart and a short walk from our new place.
In the meantime, we drive up from the kibbutz every day (35 minutes), drop the kids off at school and proceed to run our many errands (which in Hebrew are called “siddurim,” literally “arrangements.”)

Starting next week, we will have less errands and Ofer will stay in the kibbutz to work, while I take the boys to school and work on campus.
The semester at Haifa U begins October 22nd (or might be postponed to the 29th.) leaving me plenty of time (I hope) to get my act together. I’ve already been to campus once, and met with the new chair of the department (and more importantly, its administrative team.) They were very nice and helpful, which was reassuring.

Obviously all of this express settling in has been facilitated by the astounding amount of help we receive from our family and friends. From purchasing the car for us, to cell-phone plan surveys, to looking at apartments for us, to babysitting, they have been amazing. This is especially true of my mother Liora and her posse of old classmates from the kibbutz.

Also, and as opposed to the American INS, which went out of its way to make us feel unwanted, the Israeli “Immigration and Absorption” authorities are really happy that we are here, and have even come up with all sorts of incentives to convince us we have made the right decision. Who ever said Zionism was problematic?

On the haberdashery front: Amit, surprisingly, wears only shorts. This change started in the States and continues in Israel, largely due to his current obsession with gymnastics. He has discovered that turning cartwheels is much easier without a skirt in which to get entangled. Adar, on the other hand, has worn a dress to school almost everyday. His teachers take it completely in stride and we, of course, are pleased.

August and early September are not Israel’s finest days. Everything is hot and dusty, the reigning colors brown and grey. Everyone is exhausted from months of unbearable heat, and there are still weeks to go before the fall and rain really kick in.

However, through our many errands we are getting to know Haifa, and liking it a lot.
It is a sleepy city, green, and very very beautiful. Built on two sides of a peninsular range of hills, the city looks over the Mediterranean on one side and the Haifa Bay on the other. When driving say, from the Social Security offices to the school district, or other such seemingly tedious routes, we inevitably catch a breathtaking glimpse of the beaches, or the port (or the refineries, with their attendant pollution…) which makes us happy to be here.

We have also begun a methodical survey of the many cafés, patisseries, and bakeries that abound here. So far, so very very good.

On the war front: Other than the big signs welcoming its residents back, Haifa war damage is not apparent, though it does exist. Most poignant was a questionnaire we received from Amit’s school with a list of detailed questions about the childrens’ war experiences, traumas, effects, etc. meant to help the teachers assess the emotional and social work they need to in its wake.
On the whole, it seems that everyone is very happy to put the war behind them. However, now that the fighting has stopped, there is more mainstream public outcry against the way it was run and handled (though not, unfortunately, against very fact of the war itself.) The outcry is largely on two fronts: First, a military question: why wasn’t the army prepared for its mission. I actually have little patience for that question, feeling that it should be replaced by one questioning the deployment of a military solution in the first place. The second outcry goes deeper into the social structure of Israel. Much like the case with Katrina, the affluent and educated residents of Haifa and the north had the means and know-how to leave or, if they chose to stay, ample shelters and access to help. The poor, disabled and immigrant residents of the north were left with inadequate shelters, supplies and access to medical and social services. This also includes the Arab/Palesinian residents of northern Israel, who, although they were hit at the same rate as their Jewish neighbors, had no access to many of the same services.

Other things we have begun to get used to:
• That 8 am is the new 9. (Everything starts an hour earlier…)
• That Sunday is the new Monday. (The Israeli work week runs Sunday to Thursday; Friday is not a workday for most, but the kids have a half-day of school)

That’s it for today. I have already written far more than I intended or even thought I could, and there is still so much more I want to tell you. It comes, I think, from trying to put down all the endless conversations I have with all of you in my head all day. I miss you all very very much.