Shabbat Shalom

Shabbat begins at sundown on Friday and continues until Sundown on Saturday. Most things in Jerusalem shut down around 2 in the afternoon for Shabbat. If you need any groceries, you had better get it Friday morning because stores won't open up again until Sunday morning. This weekend, I woke up on Saturday to find we were almost out of coffee. In DC, we had a tradition on weekends to go as a family to the local coffee shop around the corner every Saturday and Sunday morning. It was great - we knew them, they knew us and our usual order. This Saturday, I barely had enough coffee for a cup for Brian and myself. It was totally my fault because I had made coffee for the two of us the day before. Unfortunately, there was no coffee shop around the corner to help me out in a pinch. I don't think this is a mistake that I'll make again.

Somethings are open on Shabbat - the pool and the zoo are both open. Yesterday we were lazy most of the day but in the late afternoon, we were picked up by friends and all went to the zoo on the west side of Jerusalem. It's a great zoo with lots of open green space. The kids spent half the time looking at animals and half the time playing near a very shallow stream until Julia fell into the water and got all muddy.

We are about to start our second week here. I'm hopeful that our air freight may come soon because I heard its in country. I'm not really sure what has to happen to have it delivered but getting to Israel is a good sign. It will help to have a few more familiar things to feel settled.

Penguins at the zoo!

Muddy Julia after falling in the stream.

Good Days and Bad Days

I know that we've been here only a week and I know I can't expect things to be easy but I feel like I have managed pretty well in a place I don't know the written or spoken language.

Monday after, I'd gotten our internet started, I wanted to get our Vonage set up asap. We had Vonage in DC and it worked great. I set it up without any problem so I didn't expect it to be a problem here. I spent hours trying to get it set up. The entire time the kids were napping, I was working on it - Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I was obsessed. I had the directions from my set up in DC and I followed them over and over. Finally I picked up our landline and call Vonage in the US. The representative was nice but not very helpful. I spent maybe 5 minutes on the phone with him and he basically told me that I had done everything right (I knew that) and that I should call Bezeq - our internet company here in Jerusalem. That didn't sound right to me since my internet was working fine but I did it. The Bezeq guy didn't have much to say and said to call Vonage (you see where this is going). Finally I spoke with a Vonage "advanced" technical support representative who figured out that my Vonage box had a loose connection and that I needed a new one. Although I didn't have my Vonage connection, it was nice to have an answer. I'm expecting that with my new Vonage box, when it arrives, that setup with be a breeze. I've got the directions memorized.

The day continued to be bad. I decided to have meatloaf for dinner from foodnetwork.com. I had made it before and since my cookbooks aren't here, I'm finding recipes that are simple on the internet. I knew meat was expensive but I didn't realize how expensive. Wow!!! This was going to be a $40 meatloaf!!!! I can't read the labels and signs so it is hard to figure out how expensive things are and I have to do conversions from shekels to dollars and kilos to pounds. I asked the man at the deli counter who was able to speak a little English and then I tried converting the price in my head. Needless to say, I think I bought 2 kilos of ground beef for $35-40. When I got home, I started to make the recipe and realized that I needed a food processor. oops. My food processor is not here yet. I briefly thought about trying to chop all the vegetables myself in place of the food processor but I gave up. I had Brian pickup food on the way home. I'll save my 2 kilos of ground beef for some tasty cheeseburgers when our grill arrives.

Yesterday was a very good day. We met Armi - our new babysitter. She has worked for another consulate family and came over to meet us. Julia had no problem with her and didn't seem to care much when I left to walk Bob or go grocery shopping by myself. It felt good to get out on my own and I've asked Armi to come for 10 hours/week for now. Hopefully I'll start exercising again and will get all the shopping done without the kids. She's going to come over this weekend - tonight and tomorrow night to watch the kids while Brian and I go out.

I also made a trip to the US Consulate to get my picture taken for my ID badge, etc. It's a beautiful building which I'd love to show you but I don't know if I can take pictures inside of it.

I was able to stop at the park for Julia on the way home, make dinner, get the kids bathed and do it all before Brian was home. I joked with Brian that he got a "Don Draper" reception when he got home (a Mad Men reference for those of you who haven't watched it - we're watching the 1st season now).

And lastly, for those of you who are following Julia's potty adventures - she decided after one day of potty training that she'd rather use diapers. We had one good day and now there isn't anymore interest. Aargh!!

Tel Hai Street

Welcome to Jerusalem.  Welcome to my new blog.  Here is my attempt at illustrating what goes on in our life over the next 2-3 years.   I'll try to update this blog as often as I can.  I'll keep pictures posted here and at our dropshots website (www.dropshots.com/julialivgorman).

In the past few days, we have started to settle in to a new routine.  Thomas is on the new time zone and Julia is close to following her normal routine.  We haven't been able to get her to sleep before 10pm but we'll try again tonight.  Today she woke up at 7:20am so I'm optimistic.  Last night she surprised us with a few calls to go to the bathroom.  Why she decided last night to try the potty - I have no idea — but probable a new delay tactic.  Either way, it doesn't matter because each time she actually produced something.  We talked about trying again this morning and we have been successful with a few accidents.  After a while, she decided potty training wasn't fun anymore — despite the opportunity for potty candy so on went the diaper.  Hopefully after her nap, I can persuade her to try again.  Baby steps.

As you can probably guess, a huge success was arranging internet in the house.  Finally! I'm eager to Skype with all of you and show you our place.  I'll try to add pictures soon.  So far I haven't been so good at snapping pictures. Where is Carla to help document all these new moments with her awesome camera??

Brian has walked to work now twice and it takes about 15-20 minutes each way.  It is HOT right now so I can't expect it is very comfortable in a suit but he hasn't said anything.  The forecast is hot and sunny for the next 10 days.  It doesn't seem to vary too much — highs in the upper 80s and 0% chance of rain.  I'm not sure when to expect the temperature to drop off.   We just signed up to be members at a pool down the street and it is open until the end of October.  The nights here are very pleasant and comfortable.  They are perfect for sitting out on the terrace and enjoying a glass of wine.  Our view from the terrace is nice and you can see part of the city but it's not nearly as amazing as my friend, Lexi's view from her terrace.  From her terrace, you can see the Dome of the Rock, the Mount of Olives and parts of the West Bank - including the wall that has been built on its edge.  It is breathtaking.

I explored the neighborhood today and found the swimming pool which has a kiddie pool and an area for lap swim.  Most days we can all go swimming but there are times reserved twice a week for men only and another for women only. I also pointed out to Julia that there is a big big slide into the pool.  It looks a little to big for her now but I'm guessing that she will be climbing up there before we know it.  I also found a reasonable grocery store next to the pool so I can get most things there and not feel like I have to bother Lexi to drive me to the grocery store.  The store is crowded with things on every inch of the wall but I was able to fit my big red stroller with the two kids down the aisle.  I stopped there to get something cold to drink and promised Julia we could go to the park after finding the pool.  We only knocked down a few things on the way out of the store.  Julia's chocolate milk only kept her quiet for the 2 minutes that it took to drink it but it felt good that I have navigated the store on my own without Lexi and successfully found granola bars and more formula (some kind of Similac but I couldn't understand all the choices) for Thomas.   I got half way home and I realized that something had fallen behind Thomas's back.  I'm not really sure what they are — maybe a bag of Israeli candy. It probably fell into the stroller as we knocked a few things over.  So now I have this extra bag of candy that I didn't pay for.  Do I go back and try to explain what happened for a small bag of candy?  It's too much for me to figure out what to do now so it's still sitting in the bottom of the stroller.

Thanks for reading my blog.  I'll keep you posted!!!