My New Job (or Something....)

Several of you have written to ask me if I plan to work as a nurse here.  The answer is "not sure, but definitely not yet".  My experiences with the healthcare system here have convinced me that I barely have enough Hebrew to be a patient, never mind a provider.

I recently went to the allergist here.  I walked in (here, there is no medical assistant or nurse to pave the way.  If the doctor's door is open, you waltz right in.  If there are others waiting, you engage in verbal scrimmage over whose appointment time was earlier vs who has been waiting longer, as proven by the little number taken from the machine by the clinic door [like at a US deli].  Israelis love these machines almost as much as they love door magnets....).  But I digress.

I walked in and apologized for being a few minutes late.  He responded with a somewhat confused stare with a slight undertone of mild panic.  I thought, "I know that look!  That's the look *I* have when people speak Hebrew to me!".  And I realized I was about to have a medical appointment in Hebrew....I had been told all the doctors in Israel have to have a minimum level of English.  Guess that's not true because he spoke Spanish and Hebrew.  I made it through the appointment in Hebrew, but let's just say there was little subtlety in what I told him.

Cosmic joke: I found out I'm allergic to olive trees.  Since I've had allergy shots in the US and been desensitized to the majority of trees there, it wasn't surprising that I found a new tree to be allergic to.  Thankfully he said it was fine to eat olives (the olives here are outrageously good).  And I get a whole new insight into the healthcare system here by going every week for allergy shots.  Sample difference: in the US, the office I went to strictly followed the guideline that all patients must wait 30 minutes after an allergy shot before leaving.  Here, you waltz in and waltz out.  I did see one family waiting: an American mom (of course) waiting with her son after his shot.

So, anyway, I realized that, if I'm not planning to work, it would be a good idea for me to change my online job profile.  In the past few weeks, I have had several contacts from headhunters, and it wasn't right of me to waste their time since my new home is a bit too far to commute to a school nurse position in Massachusetts.  We also decided that I will not go back to work as a camp nurse this summer.  It was, and is, hard for me to give up being "Nurse Ellen" (even temporarily, which is why it took me six months to change my profile!), but I did it.  My new job title: New Immigrant :).  And, boy, is that a full-time job!

Times of Israel Blog Post!

6 months!  Wahoo!!!!

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/6-month-aliyah-versary/

More Adventures in Grocery Shopping....

Yesterday, during ulpan, we took a field trip to the local supermarket.  I learned a lot from our trip and only wish that we had gone during the first week of *last* semester's class, so I could have bumbled less during the past 5.5 months.  Of course, the newbies who have only been here a few weeks/months were delighted with the timing!

We got a mini-tutorial from the butcher, which, aside from being very helpful from the Hebrew aspect, showed me that he is originally from the US and that many customers speak with him in English.  Having purchased only frozen meat and chicken since we arrived (good thing we eat mostly vegetarian) because I have been too scared to speak with anyone at the butcher counter, I now have new vistas open to me.  Don't tell my teacher that I will likely speak in English.....(I'll give myself a bit more time before venturing to speak with the Israeli butcher at the store closer to my house).

Here are some recent products that caught my eye while in the supermarket:

I think they sell the toes in another aisle....(of course, to be fair to Israel, in the US one can buy "lady fingers" which is even more disturbing to think that we are classifying our finger purchases by social class)

Just the name made us laugh.  Reminded us of when one sister told Miss Julie that her new baby sister should be called "Stinkerella"

Watch those pesky vowels, folks.  Because this is diaper cream, not dinner food

Whatever it cleans, I'm not using it

No wonder why shopping here is confusing: you can't even buy RAISIN BRAN without getting all mixed up.....

This is My City

If only my photography skills were better, I bet there could be a photo exhibit of people I see while waiting in line for the bank machine.  Just two examples seen over the past few days:

around here, it's pretty rare to see a guy without a yarmulke

his religious counterpart

Love this place!

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A big thank you to our young homeschooling friend who made our blog's awesome new header.  Thank you, Chana!

Hilary

Yesterday, my brave sister-in-law, Hilary (my husband's stepsister), died after a 17 year battle with Stage IV breast cancer....She lived her life fully and well to the end, and showed tremendous grace time after time over these past many years....She died at home, free of pain and surrounded by her husband, daughters, mother and sisters.

I want to thank those of you who have been davening (some for years) for Malka bat Beryl Rivka.  I know that her memory will be a blessing for her family and the many, many others she touched throughout her too-short life....

 

The End of Ulpan

We are still having so many "firsts" that it's a bit hard to believe that we had our first "ending" here: we just had our last day of ulpan.  5 months of 20 hours a week intensive (in case that's not clear!) language instruction is now over.  Also, never again will we be the "new olim" in class, since new people are always arriving here....

We had a 2.5 hour final exam on Wednesday.  Some people were getting a bit worked up about it: "Are you nervous about the final???".  I said that every time we opened our mouths to speak with someone in Hebrew, THAT was our final exam.  But it was definitely an interesting experience to take my first final exam in MANY years.  (Well, actually, the whole ulpan was such a neat throwback to a much earlier time in life, namely, a time when a sharp pencil and a clean eraser really made my day!).

Amidst the reading selections with comprehension questions, grammar questions, and a long essay was a short essay: "Friends are coming to Israel to visit.  Tell them about a special place you want to make sure they will visit".  My answer:

"Dear Deb and Frank,

I am so happy that you are coming back to Israel!  We had such fun with you in November!  When you visit, we should go to the Golan.  The mountains there are very beautiful and we can also visit with Gil and Nitsan.  It will be very interesting!

Love,

Ellen"  Is that an A+ mini-essay or what?!

My class got together today at a local restaurant.  It was so sweet and nice to do.

I'm on the back left and our wonderful teacher is 3rd from the front on the right side

 I will really miss the makeup of this particular class (thankfully, many/most of us will be continuing on together).  I am sad that my buddy Yosef is not continuing on.  Yosef is in his 70s and has a sharp sense of humor (I have often thought, as he made some wisecrack, that he is very similar to what my father would be like if he ended up in such a class).  I admire Yosef, both for making aliyah at this time of life and for sticking with class (Yosef's wife was in class for the first month, as was another older woman, but they both found it too much and left class....When our buddy David got a job, it looked like Yosef was going to be the only male in class!  Thankfully, Moshe, another retired man, then joined class so Yosef wasn't the only guy).  But Yosef says he's done with ulpan: he stuck with class until the end and now there's a gemara with his name on it, and who can argue with that reasoning?!

We got to know each other pretty well during the semester (which is really saying something considering there were six Russian speakers so our mutually-poor level of Hebrew was our only way of communicating).

My favorite story from class: "N", from Ukraine, came to Israel for a vacation.  While at the Kotel, she asked someone to take a picture of her.  Turned out she had asked a man who also spoke Russian and he took the picture, they had a brief chat about where each was from and that was it.  She went back to the Ukraine and, meanwhile, this guy spent the next two months trying to track her down online.  He finally succeeded, they got to know each other online (you can see where this is going, right?!), she came back to Israel to visit him....he went to Ukraine to visit her.....And then they got married ;).  While filling out paperwork for her to come to Israel, she had to write her parents' names.  Let's say "Boris and Natasha".  And her grandparents' names.  Her father's parents were Uri and Olga.  And her mother's parents: David and Rebecca.
"Wait" said the representative from Israel: "David and Rebecca? Are you Jewish?"
"Me?! No" said N.
"Well, go ask your mother" the representative said.
"Mother, are we Jewish?"
"Noooo" said N's mother
"Ask your grandmother" said the representative
"Grandmother, are we Jewish?"
"yes...."

Me: "WHOA!  What was that like to find out you were Jewish???"
N: "Shock.  Total shock" (the rest of the conversation was in Hebrew, but that phrase was English)

Amazing!!!!!

Anyway, back to ulpan (but a higher level) on Monday ;)

Tu B'Shvat

We recently celebrated the holiday of Tu B'Shvat--the New Year of the Trees ("Chag Ha'Ilanot" or, as Ilana says, "my holiday" :)).  We ate a ridiculously large variety of dried fruits and I even serendipitously discovered a budding tree while walking home from ulpan.

view from our porch in September....

and view today.  A little rain does a lot of good!  The giant pile of dirt is the start of a new apartment complex.  

 It's a small holiday, hence the small blog post :).  But it is nice to feel like we've made it through the majority of winter (or, should I say, "winter"?!).  There was mass pandemonium the other day due to the *possibility* of several centimeters of snow in Jerusalem!  Some schools were closed, there were rumors that the main highway to/from Jerusalem was closed or would be closing imminently (Chana had come home for the afternoon and we were hoping she might get snowed in, but no such luck), and I had a question for a secretary at Hadassah Hospital, but she hadn't come to work because of the (no) "snow"!  We're prepared, though--my genius husband brought our snow shovel just in case!