Sukkot Update

Hi everyone - don't worry we're nearly at the end of the chagim - hang in there.

Our sukkot has gone well so far, and our sukkah has remained standing - hooray! The kids enjoyed the shul sukkah hop but were sad to have missed out on their annual visit to the Barths' sukkah. :-(  As I mentioned, Leora brought a bunch of girls (about 20 of them) here for her sukkah hop, during which Avrom and I remained locked upstairs so as not to shame her in any way. They came in chattering loudly, sat for 10 minutes while chattering loudly, and then promptly left, chattering loudly, having eaten about 5% of the 7 types of junk food that I was instructed to purchase for the occasion.

We had a couple of nice day trips and the kids have enjoyed hanging out and improving their bickering skills, which had sadly been starting to wane after a few weeks of school.

We had another breakthrough this week when we finally discovered where we could buy challah around here that doesn't taste like plastic. After several weeks of sampling the local challot we were getting seriously concerned that I would have to start baking them every week, which would obviously have been a very worrying turn of events. Thankfully, after a tip-off from a local British family, we discovered Teaneck Kosher Supermarket (a very imaginative name) and have been saved from any further challah-related angst. Phew!

In general, as you can see, things are going well here and we're feeling pretty settled, but we still miss plenty of things about home. The following is a quick summary of how we feel so far:

Things we like about living in America:

• school - everything about school: the buildings, the teachers, the kids, the ipads, the smartboards, the general air of calm and serenity, the lunches, the long day (actually, that's something I like) and of course, the gorgeous toilets that never run out of toilet paper
• Sundays
• not having to listen to Avrom trying to talk Hebrew
• pineapples
• turning right on red (love it!)

Things we miss about Israel:

• people that we know and that know us and understand what we're talking about
• school being next door (though I don't miss the daily phone calls from the kids begging me to bring books, clothes, food etc)
• our lovely, convenient shops on Sheshet Hayamim 
• non-religious people 
• decent bread
• edible fruit (other than pineapples)
• sidewalks (pavements) and street lamps (For some reason, Teaneck doesn't really believe in either, which makes walking at night a particularly terrifying endeavour.)

That's about it - I'm sure the list will change as time goes on. 

I hear that leaving a comment on this blog is tricky - I have no idea why. Maybe using a different browser would help. Or restarting your computer. Those are the only computer tricks I know. Sorry! But, please be in touch somehow. We'd love to hear from you. 

Have a great week and spare a thought for us on Simchat Torah when you dance around the roundabout on Sheshet Hayamim. Don't suppose that'll be happening here. (They don't believe in roundabouts in Teaneck either.)