Miss Ya Black & Gold. Viva Mexico!

Miss Ya Black & Gold.
As time goes by we start missing more and more things we had back in Pittsburgh.
As the NFL season kicked off a week ago, I must confess that both Liora and I are missing our good’ol Steelers. We know we are 2-0 thanks to the Internet but it would have been nice to be able to watch the games. Yet another thing to get use to. Last minute update: Liora just found on TV a rerun of the game against the Browns………. Luv Ya Black and Gold!

Viva Mexico!
Tonight all Mexicans celebrate el grito. Well, we have not really celebrated it in a while but at least let me do a Cyber Blog version this year. VIVA MEXICO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So what am I? A Mexican in Israel? An American in Israel? A Jew in Israel? A Meximerican Jew in Israel? When asked my typical reply is: “I made Aliyah from the US” (and after watching their faces trying to figure out the accent) I continue “but I’m originally from Mexico”.

As daily life was starting to kick in…
Last week Liora and I started to take Ulpan (Intensive Hebrew classes with other Olim/New immigrants). The class is held every weekday (that’s Sunday to Thursday in Israel) from 8:30am to 12:45pm less than a block away from our home. We have enjoyed it a lot and I think it has helped with our Hebrew. It’s very interesting to listen all the different accents in our Ulpan (Hebrew classes): American, Mexican, Irish, British and share the same experiences as we try to navigate through Israel as new immigrants. We have made several friends from here.
The kids are liking their Gannim (schools/day care/kindergarten). Batya is so exited every day to go to Gan and made a couple of English speaking friends. Ilan is starting to like his Gan too.
Daily life started to feel good until last Friday 2 hours before the start of Shabbat, our little Ilan fell of the couch and broke his collar bone. He is doing well, he has a splint so that he doesn’t move the shoulder/arm and the Doctors said that he should be fine in two weeks but recommended not to send him to Gan. So Ulpan will be interrupted and we will figure out if we do turns, bring him in, etc. Ilan is doing well, other than not being able to jump around he is happy as always.

What about work?
The truth is that I have enjoyed this time tremendously. The full time Aliyah experience together with wife and kids and no work distractions (other than interviews and more interviews), however the time has come and I have found the job. The job was always there, it was just waiting for the right moment so that we can find each other. Not that I was sitting and waiting for it to find me, this is a mutual search, and we have finally found each other. I will give you more details as I close the deal. I will most likely be starting beginning of October. I’ll also work on a special blog regarding job hunting experiences in Israel, I can’t promise anything close to “And the award goes to…”.

A Plastic Shabbat
Just like every Shabbat, this one was also very special. We loved to host Jill as well as Hillel who are here in Israel for one year. We invited for a meal Batya’s friend and family from Ireland, we had a good time. And what about the Plastic Shabbat? Well, since our things are still in Turkey waiting to get into the Israeli port, we had to do all plastic (as we have in the past) but this time for many guests. We found a great paper/plastic store with disposable things for all your party needs, an interesting fact was that I was able to buy at that same paper/plastic store some cheap Birkonim (After meal prayer books), there are certain little things that just make a huge impact in our experience here.