Elections: What is going on here?!?!

Ok, now I figured that electioneering would be a bit different here that in the alter heim, however I never thought it would be quite like this.

We're here in the house getting the kids out of the shower an into bed, when we hear this music start playing. Sarah first asks me not to play the music until the children are in bed. I'm wondering who is blaring their music outside.

Then it starts getting louder, and the horns start going - no not those horns, the car horns! And not just one or tow, but a whole lot.

Then I hear Shweky singing real loud, and see something out of my office window.

Sarah called back to me that she sees some letters on the cars ayin daled . And I think that's strange, those are the letters of this new party in town call Tov.

The singing is getting louder.

The first cars I see coming up Refaim have tons of lights on them, which makes me first thing it's a hachnosos sefer Torah, but it's a recorded Shweky singing.

That can't be.

I then see the rest of this whole procession of cars, and they are bearing the letters ayin daled on then and "Yehi Tov" posters, and balloons. While all of the cars are beeping and honking their horns.

I'm thinking where in the world am I?!?! Is this how they plan on getting my vote? I know there is the whole adage of and press is good press, but c'mon!

Now I just have two conflicting emotions:
I am scared - there are still another 6 parties or so.
And why didn't they invite me!

The Close of the Yom Tov Season

It's that time of year again, when the sukkas start to come down, and the nights get longer.

Just reflecting on Yom Tov for a bit, It was great being here. I won't say I got any particular high, or felt that something special of being Here. I could chalk it up to the fact that I've been bogged down with everything that I didn't have a chance to really feel "It".

To top that off, I even had the guilty feeling of anticipating Yom Tov being over. Though that feeling was more in line with wanting to get back to a normal routine. Get back to my learning in the morning, family time in the afternoon, and work in the evening.

I want my routine back!

But really, I don't feel that guilty about it. Despite not getting a particular high out of my first Yom Tov being here, I did have a great time. We spent a lot of quality family time, and Yom Tov was really great. And the only reason I really have any anticipation of this coming Thursday (read back to my schedule), is just so I can get back to my regular routine, and not a despisal of Yom Tov.

So, here's looking to growth and stability!

Google Maps in Israel

This is really neat! Google Maps finally made it to Israel. Oh the days of waiting for emaps to load up are done.

But wait!

Although Google is much faster to load and the directions come back in an instant, I think Emaps does have something over Google. The emaps dynamic city/street drops downs are an incredible help (though probably also the reason it's so slow), especially for those of us olim chadashim, who still can't figure out if there is some sort of standard English spelling for the Hebrew names (which I don't think there is).

For example, I tried googling from my apartment (pictured above) to Geula. I didn't bother trying to type in Geula...

(Quickly looking it up - behold, the results - though not what I was looking for. They sent me to Kikar Geula Galaktion, though Kikar Shabbat does get me where I want to go, but not without numerous misspellings).

However, it was easier to just find Malchei Yisroel (Malkei Yisrael?) Street on the map on click to go there. However, with emap, they make it somewhat better with their drop downs.

Though all of this does not negate the Israeli way of directions. When I asked my friend how to get to the Air Force museum yesterday. He told me get to Be'er Sheva, and then ask someone.

I followed his instructions, and when we got to Be'er Sheva yesterday, I stopped at someplace to ask for directions. The wildest thing, was that the person I stopped actually worked at the museum and was able to direct us there!

Now I'm not sure if it's b/c Be'er Sheva is pretty small, but it's all hasgacha pratis over here!

Updated links for directions (Apparently Blogger doesn't like when you past in single quotes in their add a link button)

Chol Hamoed - Day 1

(click on picture above for all the pics from that day)

Today we went to the Israel Air force Museum where we had a great time. It was so for two reasons.

1. We met up with two other families that made aliyah this summer with us from Passaic, and from our Shul - Ahavas Israel.
2. They had some really amazing air crafts there.

The air crafts ranged from a number of "stolen" airplanes, that consisted of some Syrian or Russian Jew, who happened to have been a pilot in their respective armies, and promptly defected - with their airplane - to Israel. As well as a number of airplanes that were smuggled into Israel, to get past the British.

My thought after seeing those planes, was that the museum is in a way a great proof for anyway who wants to claim the illegitimacy of the state - everything was stolen to create the state!

My friend Oren, brought one of the signs to my attention, that showed how ga'avadik the Air Force is. They had a sign on one of the anti-aircraft guns that were once upon a time belonging to Russia (probably by way of Syria), and they mentioned how good of a weapon it was, but then made sure to point out, they they never had to use it, as they air force didn't let any enemy planes through!

Regardless, walking through the museum was great, it was all outside, where the weather was nice, amazing airplanes to look at, and even a large number of anti-aircraft weapons - which they even had a Patriot!

Very cool. I would definitely suggest this trip to anyone who has a boys - or if your wife likes to look at fighter planes!

Yom Tov Sheini

Today was kind of weird at first, though I was a bit surprised at how well I adjusted to the new Yom Tov schedule.

As being an oleh chadash, one of the benefits which I don't think they mentioned in any of the NBN meetings or through our Aliyah Shaliach, was the one day of Yom Tov. Now I know we were here for Shavuos, but we don't really count that, as we had only arrived 10 days before that, and TC was born that night, so it was a bit of a whirlwind, felt more like a regular Shabbos.

So now, Succos was the first Yom Tov we really actualized the One day of Yom Tov. Now as I mentioned above I thought it was going to be weird. As I'm sure you can agree, I've been keeping two days for 31 years now (I guess including the years I didn't even realize). It's something that has always been ingrained with me growing - there are always two days.

But not anymore! I was amazed at how easy it was to just change like this. It was nice having only one day of Yom Tov to get ready for. On Motzei Y"T I was able to get start cleaning up. The house was more in order, it was just nice.

Oh yeah, and we have one more day of Chol Hamoed too!

Ahhh, just one day.

Oh, and I so badly wanted to call my parents at what would be during their seudah (2nd day of course) and leave a message along of the lines of "Hi Mom & Dad! Just thought I'd wish you a good moed - oops, that's right it's still Yom Tov for you!"

-I didn't, as I figured we are still a bit too close to Yom Kippur for me to mess up with Kibud Av v'Eim already!

I'm back?

Ok, I know it's been slightly over a month since I've been here, but what with life and all creeping on me, this blog kind of get the short end of my attention span.

But then again, since I have such a vast readership (read 2 people) I figured no one would notice.

Anyway, I have tons that have been on my mind lately that I kept thinking, oh, that would be great to blog about, so I'll see what I can get up here...

(to be continued)