Lessons Two and Three

2 - Israelis are awesome!! Good friends of ours have been watching out for us for the last few weeks in our new neighborhood! Today we went with them to see our new house. When we walked in for the first time, it was dusty but completely covered in decorations welcoming us to Israel, to the neighborhood, and to our new home. There were posters of Pesukim and maps of Israel, among balloons and blue and white decorative string. After we took the tour (twice) we went back to our friends' house for a lunch of schneeee'tzehl, sa'lahht, kishu'eeeeem, ohhhhf, tapu'ach ada'maaah, gli'dahhh, me'lone Yisraeliiiii, v' cafe turkEE. It was a meal set for royalty, if not for Shabbos. They could not stop going on about how excited they are to have us here in Yisra'ehhhl, Eretz (H)ak'doshaaaahhh. It was almost competely conducted in Ivrit, but don't worry about Air; until the cafe turkEE, when he get his second wind, he slept through the whole thing. Let's just say one word - JETLAG.

3 - Israelis absolutely stink!! Oldest went on his first solo trip to the convenience store as an Israeli citizen, being that it's safe in Israel to rollerblade all the way down the block unsupervised for a little candy. Evidently, it's Assur to rolerblade in there, and, although the security guard let him him, a worker physically removed him by literally throwing him out. He came back hysterically crying and holding his back where he was shoved. My otherwise pacifist uncle found out what happened and grabbed his keys to "go kick the guy's ass". He had just left, though, but will probably catch hell when he gets back as my uncle spared no complaint to the manager. My uncle left feeling like the kid was going to be fired, but we'll see.