Batsheva left ;(

And the house is too quiet and the table seems too big.....Ilana was setting the table tonight and commented on how odd it is to just put out four plates again (Chana's also been here for most of the past 5 days).  It was a great visit and we look forward to her return!

about to leave for the aiport

Here are some unusual things noticed over the past few days:

--I asked about setting up an appointment for a dental cleaning and was offered one within 24 hours. This is the 3rd dental cleaning I've set up for family members and they always seem to ask if I want one within the next day or two. If your US dentist is anything like mine, appointments are booked 6 months in advance and, should you need to cancel that appointment, say, 5 months ahead of time, you will wait another 2 months (after the original 6 month date) to get a new appointment.   Pleasant change!

--Batsheva pointed out that a meal at McDonald's costs about the same as going to a nice, sit-down place!

The "Original Big America" is 44NIS--about $11!
p.s. don't worry, we weren't going to eat there (no matter what the prices were).  Just snapped the photo as we went by

--We had a great time on our last tiyyul--going to the Israel Police Heritage Center, conveniently located about ten minutes from home.  Very interesting tour of the history of the profession in the country and definitely food for thought about many things (for example, while I knew that the population of Israel went up a lot once Independence was announced in 1948, I didn't know that the population of the country *doubled* in the first year.  All in a country severely lacking in infrastructure.....We are so blessed to be here now....).

Here is a picture with our guide in front of an early Israeli police car.  I was really stymied when he started to speak.  He looked like an Israeli, had an Israeli name, and spoke Hebrew like an Israeli but he had a perfect accent when speaking English and a very high-level vocabulary.  I was so confused I even asked him if he was from the US.  Turns out his father was stationed for the Israeli Air Force in Utah for a few years, starting when our guide was 5.  No other Israelis anywhere around.  When the family returned to Israel they had to put him in a program with new olim so he could learn Hebrew again!

--Final thought on Batsheva's visit: Israel is a very sweet country.  In every place we went to that had a kid's- or family rate, they charged us the lower rate for Batsheva.  I would say something like, "no, no she is my child, but she is 20, so she's not a child for tickets" and the clerk would say, "no, she's your daughter!  Family rate"  :)