לך לך Lech Lecha, etc.

The first verse in לך לך was the first one I ever learned by heart. I was in second grade and had just started learning חומש. I always enjoyed studying תנ’ך (Bible). I like the combination of its religious and historical significance. It definitely influenced my decision to major in History and to move to Israel. I guess I could say that studying History helped my develop an awareness of the world around me, and תנ'ך made me feel like I had a place in a specific part of history and gave me direction for where I wanted to go in the future. I have thought about the beginning of לך לך, the beginning of Abraham's journey, countless times throughout the years leading up to my move to Israel and the years since. How could I not? I have no doubt that these first few words we are told God said to Abraham speak to anyone who has made the decision to move to Israel. And I wonder... was Abraham nervous? Sad? Did he look back? When I was in second grade this was a simple Bible story. It was nice to read about- a good story to start off my Jewish education. I recently made a comment that maybe this is where the brainwashing started, but that blame remains on Bnei Akiva, etc (see previous blog posts- there are plenty about that). I'm trying to think when it went from being just a thing I learned in school to something I constantly thought about- something that drove me to make the biggest decision of my life until now.

So that's that. Just a thought. In other news, life picked up where it left off except this time around I seem to be sick less often, less stressed out, less overtired, and overall just better off. I'm at gan five days a week instead of six. I finished my huge assignment from last year lifting a huge weight off my shoulders and making me feel pretty darn proud of myself. It was a challenging year and I did it- woohoo. Long story short- I'm not writing a thesis in the end. While this was something I really want to do, it probably wasn't a good idea and it's another weight off my shoulders. Unfortunately the alternative is a class that used to be on Thursdays (my free day) but is on Wednesday. How does one take a class at 12:30pm on a day they're supposed to be at gan from 9-4? Excellent question. Thanks to my amazing and supportive boss, I am not too worried about it. The class is only going to meet a few times during the year and the co-teacher with Wednesday off is going to switch with me when she can. This gets me my morning hours back so I only lose the afternoon. This week she couldn't switch but I got to spend the morning in a different gan (their kids are so much better at clean-up) and got some hours back that way. Hopefully in the end it will all work out and I will still merit real vacation days for a cool trip somewhere (Greece, anybody?). The class is with a professor I've had before and many classmates I've been with before so I actually don't feel terrified every time I walk into the room. The professor asked me which class I had with her. I of course had no idea what it was called as I referred to it in my head as "the class with the teacher with bright white hair". I'm not sure that was the answer she was looking for. The best thing about not writing a thesis is that I will be 100% done with my degree by the beginning of next summer. That is pretty darn exciting.

In other news, Gila finally decided to get her butt back from America. This means that we can actually start planning our very own גן (daycare) to open for next Fall. If anyone knows about real estate, small businesses, contracts between business partners, licensing, insurance, and any of that technical stuff please let me know. We are also collecting information about places in the area- where they are, how much tuition is, how many kids, how many teachers, etc. Any and all advice and information is greatly appreciated as we embark on this crazy and challenging project. This is something we've been talking about doing for a really long time and I am so excited about turning this dream into a reality.

A blog post would not be complete without mentioning how adorable my niece is. We continue to have our Tuesday playdates after gan. Sometimes she even picks me up. My wonderful niece Rinat Hodaya will be turning 1 in just over a week and I am excited that my parents are coming in next week for the festivities. It also happens that Hodaya's English birthday and my Hebrew birthday overlap so we'll have double the parties. Joint fingerpaint party anybody? It has been amazing watching her grow over the past year. She just started walking and is so much fun to watch. This picture captures a rare moment- Hodaya actually sitting still.


So that's what's going on. I've been living in Israel for over three years now and time is flying. So much changes and so much changes the same (maybe the topic of another blog entry but I've been managing to stay away from rants). Lets just say my three year olds at gan aren't the only ones learning new things and having new experiences every day about the harsh (and okay, also not so harsh) realities of the big world around us.

Until next time...