Passports

Today is the one year anniversary of the US Embassy being moved to Jerusalem.  In honor of that fact (although truthfully it's because I just went to the embassy yesterday), here is my post about renewing US passports.  I didn't think there would be much/anything to say about the process, but I actually found our "quickest trip ever to the US" to be pretty interesting.

First off, the security Jazzy-Our-Car went through was the most intense she's ever undergone since we've owned her.  Two security guards worked her over--running over the outside with explosives-detecting paper, looking under the car with what I would describe as a mirror stuck on a long-handled dust pan, searching the trunk and then searching the engine (having just driven 45 minutes through rush hour traffic, aside from some blatant Wile E. Coyote-type bomb with an alarm clock and a few sticks of dynamite, I wasn't sure what they could see/do in our hot engine, but, then again, I'm not a security expert).

We then waited in the rather long and slow-moving line for American citizens (as opposed to the rather long and slow-moving line for non-citizens applying for travel visas).  I spoke English with reckless abandon, because, hey, I was on US soil(ish.  Google tells me that's not really true).  Although, sadly, the majority of people working outside the embassy were Arab speakers, so it still felt inappropriate to speak English.

At the initial security check, all cell phones were checked in and not returned until we left (having been to the Israeli embassy in Boston before we made aliyah, I was expecting this).  It was fascinating to walk into the main waiting room and find....people TALKING!  Interacting with those they came with and total strangers!  It was CRAZY!  And a stunning contrast to the previous week when I had gone to a similarly large waiting room in our local government and it had been eerily silent as everyone stared down at their phones and ignored everyone else....

When our number was finally called, the guy at the window told me we needed to do one more thing before finalizing the paperwork and we should come back to him after completing it.  "Okay," I said, "and what's your name?" figuring I might need to tell security with whom I needed to speak.  "I can't tell you that" was the response!  I didn't realize working at the embassy was such a high security position, but, then again, if you're an Israeli Arab, maybe it is.

The young man who finalized all our forms had an accent that sounded so familiar I almost asked him where he was from.  He beat me to it after looking at our paperwork, and we found a "landsman" formerly from Worcester :)

last picture I was able to snap before being told "no photos".  Oops!

Post-Pesach

Posting (quite sheepishly) very late for Passover, but I can't let it go by because we had SUCH a good time when my Auntie Paula, Uncle Steven and cousins Jen and Shmulie and their kids Sela and Coby visited.

It was SO special having family we are super close with come and visit (Jen and Shmulie's house is our de facto NY stop and we love spending Shabbos with them.  In fact, when they left, we told them not to worry if they left anything here because Shalom Shachne, Batsheva and Chana would be at their house for Shabbos in only three weeks for Chana's college graduation [woohoo, Chana!])

Here is Auntie Paula ("AP") in front of a painting that her father brought back after visiting Israel in the 1960s. 



Me: "AP--I heard that Grandpa Jack brought this painting back on his lap on the plane". 
AP: "Well, the way I heard it, the painting was rolled up in a tube".
Me: "Oh.  That's kind of disappointing.  I liked my version better!"

Anyway, there was lots of family bonding time:

And we did some pretty unusual things  (By the way, Sela was a natural :)

And some usual things for Pesach.  Like eating a lot!

It was so nice to have family here and let the pressure of "what are we doing on chol hamoed that's totally awesome and amazing because we don't have Sundays here, so there's very little time off aside from these intermediate holiday days, so we better make them count"--let that all just go away with the answer of "We're visiting AP, US and the cousins today".  And that plan always made everyone very, very happy.

"Small Country, Big Dreams"

I find this "space selfie", taken just 22 km (i.e. only a half-marathon!) from the moon's surface breathtaking.  That and the motto of "Small Country, Big Dreams" which made me a little teary the first time I saw it (which was, admittedly, right after Beresheet crashed while trying to land on the moon's surface....)

Hats off to President Rivlin for leading the crowd, that had hoped to watch the landing, in instead singing Hatikva, the national anthem.  I am sure I'm not the only one who stopped my Pesach cleaning, stood and sang along.

Thanks to 89-year-old SpaceIL President (and "serial entrepreneur and serial philanthropist") Morris Kahn, there will hopefully be another attempt.  For now, kudos to SpaceIL and Israel, which became only the seventh country to achieve lunar orbit.  Hopefully in a few more years, we will become the 4th country to land on the moon because, indeed, this is a small country with very big dreams!

Props to Israel Airports Authority for having a sense of humor and putting the lunar landing on its arrival timetable that day.  Too bad they couldn't change that to "final" later ;(

Fun Facts About Israeli Elections (Happening Tuesday!)

1) It's a national holiday--the majority of schools and businesses are closed. and businesses that are open have to pay their employees double salary.

2) The country is about to spend an estimated 3 million nis (over $800,000) offering free public transportation tomorrow so no one can say they didn't vote because it cost too much to get to their voting station

3) Here, voters choose a party, not a candidate.  The parties make lists of the people they will put into the Knesset based on how many seats they earn in the election.  So no one votes for, say, Nehanyahu.  They vote for the Likud party, knowing that he is the top of that party.

4) Driving through our town, there are lots of political signs up. Driving through the extremely religious section of town a few kilometers away, there are also plenty of signs up, but these are discouraging people from voting (don't get me started!)

5) Election season here is TOO SHORT (in my opinion)!  It's just a few months of active campaigning and there are no debates between party leaders. 

6) My call is that Likud will win again.  I think too many people here can't imagine anyone but Bibi doing this job.  But we'll see!

Slowly I ran....

Step by step, inch by inch.  Until I got to, no, not Niagara Falls, but the finish line of the 10K race at the Jerusalem Marathon!

Coolest moments:
--Running with Lori S. as (unofficial) "Team Malden"

--Laboring up Jabotinsky Street (which I decided is the Jerusalem version of the Boston Marathon's "Heartbreak Hill", except that it comes near the end of the race, rather than the middle), and remembering all the times I pushed a double stroller up that thing when we lived off of Jabotinsky when Batsheva and Chana were teeny tiny.....Had I ANY clue what my life would be like 20 years later?! 

--After the race, when I found out that the Marathon uses groovy technology that lets runners put in their bib number and up pops every photo with that number in it.  Pretty awesome use of technology considering there were 40,000 runners.

Funniest Purim Moment

When Shalom Shachne encountered our 5 or 6 year-old friend "The Imp" (this is what we really call him at our house.  I don't know his real name, but I do know his parents have their hands full).  Imp is dressed up for Purim wearing a police officer's uniform and running down the street with his plastic guns blasting.

Imp to SS: "ten kef (slap me five)"
He and SS high five and SS says, "You're a police officer?"
Imp: "YES!!!!"
(pause) and then in an earnest tone, he fesses up:
"but it's just a costume...."

Points for honesty, Imp!  We've been walking around saying "aval hu raq tachposet" all day and cracking up.

And Here Are the Answers to the Two Big Questions

After watching this video about the volunteer ambulance corps (similar to, but not the same one that I will hopefully belong to), the BIG question was:

"Ellen, will YOU be getting a motorcycle?!"

I'll answer that with a little story: throughout the course, I took my weekly handouts to get printed at a local store (discovered the hard way that the ink we need for our purchased-in-the-US printer is not available here).  When the woman behind the counter found out that I was taking a course to be a "choveshet" her eyes got big and she almost-giggled as she asked, "Will you have a MOTORCYCLE?!"  So you can see that it's the big question on just about everyone's mind when they hear that someone is joining a volunteer ambulance corps.  (I was extremely pleased with myself that I answered her [promptly.  And in Hebrew]: "No, just my feet".

The other big question was:

"Nu, did you pass the final exam?!"

And, baruch HaShem, I am extremely thankful to share that I did!!!  ("I would like to thank my husband and kids for being so patient and emotionally sustaining me, and the pretzel industry for physically sustaining me throughout the long months....").

Which leads to the last question:

"So when do you start?"

Answer: no time soon.  Before the all-women's unit can get off the ground, each of us has to do 6 days interning with a private ambulance company and two days in the Emergency Department of a "major Israeli teaching hospital" (that lots of people reading this have likely donated to), and probably some time with the all-men's crew of the organization we'll become part of, so our unit is not going out on calls until somewhere around the end of spring/beginning of summer.....

I'll keep you all posted :).

Meanwhile, here's a link to the documentary "93Queen" which has prompted a lot of discussion about all-women's ambulance groups:
https://www.pbs.org/video/93-queen-trailer-c8vcbn/
I am beyond-thankful that there was no fighting to join the men's group here--the organization (again, different one from the one in the documentary) approached the women to start the all-female corps.

Most of the women in my course went the opening night of the Jerusalem Film Festival to see the film and hear Judge Ruchie Frier and the documentary producer speak in person.  Here's a photo of me, my course-buddy and Judge Frier:

Note:  Although I greatly admire Ruchie Frier, I am not planning to become a judge after joining the Hatzalah unit.  :)