Blog/November 2007/November 16th

November 16th (See this week's devar torah)
Send Ron feedback on this blog

The rain has arrived (finally/again)! A nice brisk rain blanketed the Greater Jerusalem area on Sunday, just in time to wet our laundry again... unfortunately, it didn't last. However, the weather seems to have turned considerably cooler nevertheless.

Esther got her drivers' license! One lesson, one test, and lots of money - but she's got the license. It happens that one doesn't get information directly from the instructor or the tester, because a couple years ago a person irate over the fact he failed his driving test, shot the instructor, the tester and a policeman. So now they let you maintain a sense of suspense until you are well away from their offices.

She's almost finished with her doula course, though as I understand it she has more to do before she gets a license for that.

She also went on a very interesting trip to Ir David (the City of David), which is an archaeological preserve, and got to participate in an archaeological dig. You can view the pictures she took there.

At the moment we have no water (even though it rained earlier in the week), because a pipe broke in the bomb-shelter (where the third family in the house lives). Presumably a plumber (in-sta-LA-tor in Heblish) is working on it, but he looks far too clean and relaxed to be a plumber. In the event he doesn't succeed in fixing it before shabbat comes, we do have some 20 liters of drinking water. (UPDATE: the pipes are fixed and water is on again, before noon.)

Though she won't admit it, Sarah is having a better time of it than she was before. Her Hebrew is improving, and she's enjoying her classmates more. She's understanding more of what's going on in school as well.

I've been "head down" in work all week, so there isn't much of interest to say about me specifically. Hopefully I'll finish my current task this coming week and will be able to move on to bigger and better things.

The other day when I was in the supermarket, I was shocked to see the cashier with a cross around her neck. I shouldn't have been shocked, since the most recent wave of immigration from the FSU brought a large number of Gentiles masquerading as Jews. Nevertheless, it struck me as almost uncouth for her to have a cross on display. I guess I should get used to it (or, rather, that living in America would have desensitized me) since there are a lot of such people here. I'm not even sure why it bothered me so much - perhaps that's something to ponder.

Last shabbat Daniela was here along with a friend of hers from Seattle who is also studying here for the year. As usual, we enjoyed spending time with our daughter, and it was also nice to talk to her friend and see things from her perspective. This shabbat Daniela is spending in Yeruham, which is in the middle of the Negev - but I'm not sure why her school is spending shabbat there. It's not exactly the kind of place most people would choose as a leisure destination.