Week Two - More Shopping

Well, we just survived our second Shabbat in Teaneck. I'm pleased to report that it was significantly more successful than the first - no oven chips for dinner, no exploding appliances and the challah was fully defrosted. We were out for lunch, meeting some more locals (thanks to Mireet for the intro) and managed to get around all day without a map! Progress!

The week began on Sunday with phase two of our propaganda campaign - we took the kids to see the Cirque du Soleil Zarkana show at the Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan. (Note: We have been informed that the locals refer to Manhattan as "the city" but I don't think we're ready for that level of familiarity yet, so we're going to stick with Manhattan for now. Sorry if we sound very uncool.) Apparently the show has also been showing in Israel, but please don't mention that to our kids, because that would seriously decrease the "look-what-cool-things-there-are-to-do-in-America" factor. The show was great, if a little weird in parts, and afterwards we wandered around FAO Shwartz, the underground Apple store and the insane American Doll store, without spending any money at any of them! Woohoo! An almost completely successful day except for the parking ticket we found on our windscreen for parking too close to a fire hydrant. They really should tell you about that rule at immigration.

The rest of the week was spent completing all the kitchen and school shopping. We now have a fully equipped and tovelled kitchen and enough school supplies to last until everyone graduates from university. The kids have been kitted out with the requisite school clothes. Sadly denim is not part of the "dress code". Eitan is not impressed that he can't wear jeans and basically has to wear Shabbat clothes all week, whereas the girls are delighted to get lots of new skirts. Interesting to note these differences in perspective. I know everyone thinks shopping in America is lots of fun, but when you have to just buy kitchenware, unfamiliar food in huge packages and dozens of skirts and trousers in only navy and beige, with four bickering kids trailing you, it can get a little tedious. So I'm pleased that's more or less over.

On Friday we were taken to the Teaneck Swim Club by a very nice new friend here (thanks Fara and Tania for the intro). It's a bit like the Ra'anana Country Club but with diving boards and swingball and without any French people. It was a welcome break from malls and supermarkets and Cable TV. But luckily, bickering can be done anywhere, so no break from that.

School starts on Wednesday (can you see me smiling from there?) and the kids have each met a few classmates from the area. Quite a few of these have been new Israeli families. I think I've spoken more Hebrew over the last week than I did over the last 10 years in Ra'anana. The children are all looking forward to starting their new fancy American school. It's going to be weird having 20 kids in the class with 2 teachers, instead of 40 kids with 1 teacher. I wonder if they'll manage to concentrate without the background noise.

I've been doing a LOT of driving around over the last two weeks and am finally getting to know my way around. In fact I'm quite enjoying defying the GPS and going a different route from the one suggested. She doesn't like it though. I can sense it in her voice.

Over the last couple of weeks we've had a few important USA-related questions answered. First - American house numbers. Why are they so big? I have always imagined American residential streets to be several miles long with thousands of houses, hence addresses such as 1298 Mercedes St. But no! We are not the 1298th house on our street. We are approximately the 3rd house. ??????????? Makes no sense. The answer is that the number denotes the distance from a particular road in the neighbourhood.   What's wrong with the normal way of counting? Maybe it's part of the supersized American culture - bigger is better. People here feel empowered by being house number 1298 rather than a measly 6.

Another thing is that American houses are made of wood. Didn't they learn anything from the 3 little pigs story? I'm keeping a close eye out for any wolves roaming the area.

Meanwhile, we are, of course, missing Ra'anana. In particular, our lovely shops on Sheshet Hayamim which we can walk to whenever we want or even send a child to if we forget something. And of course our friends! (In no particular order.)

Lastly, we now have a landline. [I have now removed the number since the blog is public but will happily send it by email to anyone who asks.] We are 7 hours behind Israel. Please bear this in mind if you plan to call!!! Would love to hear from you.

That's all for now - sorry it was so long - amazing how much you can say about a week of shopping.
Have a great week!