Grandma Bashie & Uncle Howard Visit!

Day 1:
This morning we left the apartment at 4:40 to drive to the airport, but Ben and I were up early with excitement! It was a 40 minute drive but it seemed like 3 hours. Finally, we got to the airport and met my Grandma and Uncle.

We had a little coffee and then left and sat in traffic for a while. I was so happy that my folks were in town so I didn't mind the traffic. We then arrived at the Diaspora Museum, a museum that is about Jews all over the world. It was truly amazing. We met with a private tour guide; she was expressing greatly throughout the tour that what kept/keeps the Jews alive today was/is tradition. For example, a Bar Mitzvah. A Bar Mitzvah is when a boy turns 13, he gets to read from the Torah, the holy book for Jews. A Bat Mitzvah is for girls and that's only about 60 years old, so that didn't really keep the people together. Another tradition is circumcision as the covenant between Jews and God. A circumcision covenant occurs when a baby boy is 8 days old, the parents bring him to a doctor (or trained specialist/rabbi). The doctor then takes a special knife or a pair of scissor type of things and cuts a tiny bit of the baby's penis off. On a nicer note, we then went to my Dad's lecture at Tel Aviv University. Ben was too loud so I had to take him outside, which he wasn't too happy about. By the time we got home, everyone was SUPER tired so we all went to sleep at 6:30 with a little snack before.

Day 2:
Today my grandmother, uncle, brother and mother went to the Negev Desert. I was home and just hung out with my Dad.

Day 3:
My grandmother, uncle, brother and mother are still in the Negev.

Day 4:
The same thing today except tonight is Shabbat. Shabbat is the Jewish holy day of rest. I prepared a special dinner for the whole family that was a 5 star and 5 course meal.

Day 5:
Today we went to the Children's Museum, a museum just for children's activities. There is also an exhibit on the Deaf and another one on the Blind. My grandmother, uncle and I went to the deaf exhibit. Our guide was deaf which was interesting because we couldn't talk for an hour and a half. We had to communicate differently. She taught us to use our bodies to communicate. Once we had finished that, we went to the lake outside the museum. My brother and I went on a pedal boat (which I am still sore from!). When we came home, my mom wanted to make an Israeli dinner. And when my mom wants to do something, no one can stop her. Thand goodness she doesn't do bad stuff, then really no one could stop her! I was not protesting her dinner though (yum!), but if there were a change of dinner plans, she would not be happy.

Day 6:
Today we went on an archeological dig. The first cave we went into was closed to the public, only open to this archeological group. The part of the cave we dug in was called the Front Room. I found several pieces of 2,000 year old pottery! The archeologist guide said the most important artifacts have ancient writing on them because they tell you about history. And I found some! When then went into a second cave that hadn't been dug out or excavated. It was dark and lit by candles and we had to do some climbing in small spaces. It had these holes in the walls, used 2,000 years ago to raise massive amounts of pigeons! In the middle of that cave, there was a cut-out space in the wall so me, Ben and this other girl climbed into it while the guide said "Where's Ben, Caleb and Jennifer?" Jennifer's dad came into the chamber after crawling through a hole, turned around and saw us, and almost fainted! We found out afterwards that the cut-out we were in was probably a feeding trough for animals! Last, we went to a third cave, to see a completed excavation: it was now open to the public because no more digging occurs there. It was all finished and dug up. It is now part of a national park system museum, so we didn't dig there, however there was a lot of history to learn there. What was interesting to me was a stone wheel that would turn to crush olives... it was a large olive oil press! The anicent people lived above ground but they had their work below, in caves, the pigeon raising and olive oil industries.

Archeologist Missy shows Ben & me the site at Tel Maresha.

Although the day was really fun, I couldn't wait to get home. Why? Because we were going to my favorite restaurant, London.

Day 7:
Today we went to the Israel Museum. Here they hold the Dead Sea Scrolls which are ancient scholls found near the Dead Sea that include the oldest known bible scrolls. We saw them and they are so cool! The building is shaped like the lid of a jar they were found in and the scrolls are in this room that look like a Torah scroll handle. There was a sculpture shaped like an apple core! There was also a sculpture that was a mirror; it was placed a certain way so you would see Jerusalem upside down! There was interesting Judaica like different wedding outfits from Ukraine and Morocco which were totally different from each other. There was a whole section on the Mayan Indians with sculptures there made by actual Mayan Indians! There was also a whole exhibit on modern art where me and my mom had a long discussion about what art is.

Overall, I really enjoyed being with my grandmother and uncle.

KEY WORDS & PHRASES - NOVEMBER

• WAKA WAKA HEY HEY! SHAKIRA SHAKIRA!
• OMG DAD'S HANGING OFF THE SIDE OF A MASSIVE CLIFF!
• WALK WITH GRANDMA!
• HURRY UP, GRANDMA!
• IS GRANDMA SLEEPING IN DAD'S LECTURE?!
• CAN WE GO TO THE ELEVATOR BEACH?
• I WANT GLIDA!

NANCY'S NEWSLETTER! Marmorsteins Take Israel By Storm! written by Nancy

Barbara and Howard Arrive in Israel! Crowd Goes Wild!

At Ben Gurion Airport!

After a few days in Spain, Howard and Barbara arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport on Tuesday 22 November, eagerly awaited by Caleb, Ben and Nancy! Amidst cheers of celebration, they scurried to a café for some early morning refresh, before heading to the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora at Tel Aviv University.

At the Museum, the group had an extensive private tour with Hagit, where they learned about what kept Jewish communities intact throughout the Diaspora, across generations. Family, life cycle events, ritual, holidays and synagogue life were some of the ways that Jews continued to develop throughout time and across geographies. Barbara (“Grandma Bashie”) got to research her family names and locations of origins, trying to learn more about an ill-recorded past.

After a morning at the airport and museum, the gang headed off to hear a stunning lecture by Professor Colin Polsky on land use cover and the growth of American suburban lawns, in particular. Grandma Bashie promptly fell asleep; Ben loudly hankered for ‘glida’ (ice cream), and Howard was the first to ask a question during Q&A.

After a trafficky drive to Netanya, the gang spent the evening resting up at home, preparing for a southern adventure that Bashie, Howard, Ben and Nancy would take the next day...

Southern Sojourn



Ben, Bashie, Howard and Nancy set out for the Negev Wednesday morning. A lovely lunch with Toni and Len Calo on Moshav Sde Nitzan was followed by an adventurous night in Moshav Dekel’s yurt, a Kazakh tent meant to withstand extreme weather. Yurt Jacuzzi, accommodations and meals were wonderful, but being so close to the Gaza and Egyptian borders (1 km each!) left the gang a bit anxious. The next day in Be’er Sheva, the awesome foursome enjoyed a lovely meet-up with cousins Stella and Jeremy, and proceeded on to Sde Boker, final resting place of David Ben Gurion. Although it was American Thanksgiving, the evening meal was served on mats in a open-air Bedouin tent, quite an experience! Howard was awoken on his birthday morning to Ben jumping on his head!



Us at the Bedouin tent dinner!

A bonejarring jeep tour through the Ramon Crater left them exhilarated and ready to return to Netanya!

Ben in the Ramon Crater.

The gang arrived home to a superb Shabbat dinner provided by Colin and Caleb—thanks guys!

Thanks Caleb and Colin!

Dig For A Day



Three generations of Marmorsteins/Polskys headed out to Beit Guvrin National Park to spend a day on an archeological dig at Tel Maresha. After a brief introduction by host Missy, the group descended into the depths of Cave 61 to begin their dig! After just a few minutes, Caleb found important pottery shards with a stamp indicating Rhodes, Greece as its place of origin; clearly, the people living here 2,000 years ago were wealthy enough and wine-snobby enough to import wine! We also found animal bones, animal teeth, more pottery shards, and even 2,000 year old olive pits!

Digging was a blast!

After digging, we ascended and sifted through the ‘trash’ rocks in order to find yet more pottery shards.

Finally, Howard, Nancy, Caleb and Ben explored an unexcavated cave where an ancient pigeon-raising industry was in full production. They crawled through dark caves lit only with candle, squeezed through the “toilet bowl” and made it back out the other side!


A great day indeed!


Invitation To Silence



On Saturday, Grandma, Uncle Howard and Caleb entered a world previously unknown to them...a world absent of voice and sound. At the Children’s Museum in Holon, they participated in an interactive exhibition about communication guided by deaf guides.


This exhibition — certainly not solely for children, despite its location — brings forth the non- oral communication skills that exist in every one of us, best expressed in the absence of voice and sound. In this unique experience without speech nor hearing, they discovered an alternative world of communication through hands movements and body language. An acquaintance between the deaf guide and hearing participants was developed. When asked about the experience, Grandma Bashie indicated she found it very difficult to rely on non-oral communication after living with oral communication all these years!


Saturday evening, Nancy cooked an Israeli dinner… for which both Colin and Bashie got stomach aches!

Last Stop: Jerusalem

 

Well, it wasn’t a ‘typical’ tour of Israel: no Western Wall, no Tel Aviv beach, no Haifa hilltop… but it wouldn’t be complete without a visit to our Nation’s capital, Jerusalem. After another day fighting traffic near Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, we missed our destination of the JNF Forest to plant saplings… will have to plan that for the next visit! The rest of the day was in the Israel Museum, and then back to Netanya for a falafel Chez Claude, an after-dinner stroll, and luggage packing.

L-hitraot

We all know that in Hebrew, “Shalom” means “hello”, “goodbye”, and also “peace.” However, in Israel, we don’t say “Shalom” upon departing, finding it too, well, permanent. Instead, we know we’ll meet again, so we say “L-hitraot,” or, see you later!

Thank God for I Tunes... and Yuval.

Overseas, you can't get streaming from websites you can access in the US. So, we rent movies and/or TV shows a lot!

Shout out to my dad for this!

We've seen a bunch of movies:

* Diary of a Wimpy Kid

* Polar Bear King

* Speed Racer

* Marmaduke

* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

* Nancy Drew ("Hi, my name is Barbara Barbara, thank you for not running me over!"



TV episodes:

* Fairly Odd Parents

* Ben's seen Diego and Word World.


And we quote shows... A LOT!

**********

Israeli TV is different than American TV because there are not really commercials: mostly just previews announcing upcoming shows. And the kids programs are short, anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. Ben loves this guy Yuval who has a club house with live kids and they sing and do activities. He also watches the Mickey Mouse Club in Hebrew. We watch the show Arthur in Hebrew a lot - it helps me learn my Hebrew!

Bo Yelidim l'Moidon Shel Yuval!

BOOKS I'VE READ WHILE IN ISRAEL

My mom brought a suitcase of books for me to read while here, and darn, I've just finished them all! They include:

1. Huckleberry Finn
2. The Dark Is Rising
3. The Westing Game
4. Wringer
5. Oliver Twist
6. Peter Pan
7. Maniac Magee
8. Doctor Dolittle
9. Alice in Wonderland
10. The Watsons Go To Birmingham
11. Bud Not Buddy
12. Hoot
13. The Giver
14. Charlie Bones 1: Midnight for Charlie Bones
15. Charlie Bones 2: Charlie Bones and the Time Twister
16. Charlie Bones 3: Charlie Bones and the Invisible Boy
17. Charlie Bones 4: Charlie Bones and the Castle of Mirrors

18. The Secret Garden

Hygiene Issues

Hygiene here is gruesome. 3 of the main episodes are:

1) Kids and teachers pick their noses freely;

2) The teacher asked me to give a seminar in English class about pimples;

and

3) a kid ate fungus that grew behind his ear!

They don't care about picking their noses because for them to pick their nose in public is to us a carefree cough. If you see someone pick their nose in the USA (which you rarely do), it is quick and private. But here they jam it up real good and go deep and in public!

Out of the blue, one day, my teacher asked me to give a seminar to our English class about pimples! I tried explaining what pimples were, but the teacher got confused. He thought I was talking about moles! Incidentally, he had one on his belly, and lifted up his shirt to show me. He then pointed to his mole and said "You mean like this?" It was hard not to burst out laughing! After I had finished, the kids asked me to write what I had written on the board in each of their notebooks. Once I had finished that, they asked me for autographs! So I made my way back around the room.

Last, but yet the grossest, a kid ate something that should never be eaten. One day, a kid who sat in front of me was flopping his ear back and forth. When he flipped his ear forward, something caught my eye. I asked the kid to bend his ear forward and then I saw something that made me want to vomit... I saw a ball of white, yellow and green stuff! It appeared to be M O V I N G !! As I looked more closely, I almost fainted. Why? What I saw was balls of white, yellow and green fungus!! The kid then put his finger behind his ear, and brought it back with a ball of $*&*#@ (BLANK) on his finger! He rubbed it around a bit, then plopped it in his mouth!! He started to chew ever so slowly. He made it look like it was easy, but I could tell he was suffering, although it was much less than I was, watching this full-on!  When he had swallowed, he smiled at everyone and said "Mmmm!"

School Friends!

This is my friend Kinner with me and Ben - he speaks English to me more than any other kid in class! He's the one who wears a parka when it drops below 80'F!!

No Butter!?

There is a national shortage of butter - we can't get it anywhere for the last month! Apparently there is a milk shortage so the milk factories are opting to produce milk, yogurt, cheese in favor of other products like butter. I guess they figure people can use margarine as an alternative to butter...apparently this will last till after the end of the year.

Our Jerusalem Weekend

Friday
Mount Herzl and Yad V'shem
Today we got up and rushed to the Netanya bus station. We got there 5 minutes before the bus to Jerusalem came, luckily!! Once we were seated on the coach bus, my mom said we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us, so I took out my book to read. Once we got there, we walked around a bit to find our second bus. After another 15 minutes, we got off that one and went to Mt. Herzl.  Mount Herzl is a military cemetery for soldiers, important members of Knesset (like congressmen) and prime ministers and presidents of Israel.  Our first stop was the Herzl grave - Theodore Herzl was the founder of Zionism and to Israelis is like George Washington is to us. After that, we went to the graves of all the politicians and prime ministers. We even got to see Yitzhak Rabin's grave! By the way, Yitzhak Rabin was the only Prime Minister ever to get assasinated. My mom cried when we saw his grave, and also that of Teddy Kollek, and especially at the graves of people who died fighting for Israel - there was even one grave for a 14 year old boy who died in the 1948 War of Independence!

Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery: here is a grave of a 14 year old boy!

After we had enough at Mt. Herzl, we walked down a path to Yad V'shem. Yad V'shem is a HUGE museum about the Holocaust. When we came out, we were shaking. Some things that we saw were just terrible. I could not begin to describe what gruesome things we saw in there. Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit and cry. The children's exhibit had candles and mirrors and kept saying the names of 1.5 million kids who were murdered; it was one of the saddest places I have ever been to.

At Yad V'shem, in front of a train car which took Jews to concentration camps in the Holocaust.

Western or Wailing Wall ("Kotel") on Friday Night
When the sun had set, I found myself at the Kotel. The Kotel is the holiest site for Jews in the world, it's the remaining western outer wall of the Holy Temple from 2000 years ago.  Because we were at it on the top of the stairs leading to the Kotel, we could see everyone. When I looked out, I saw a sea of black - what was it? Everyone there was black suit wearing Orthodox (almost everyone!). We went down stairs and went up to the Wall to pray. There were about 50 guards whose job was to make sure nobody took pictures or videos because it's not allowed on Sabbath at a holy site; they were aggressive.  Yeshiva (Jewish seminary) students sing and dance towards the Kotel to go pray:

I got to go by myself to the men's side of the Kotel to pray:

I said a prayer and put a note in the Western Wall. Awesome!

Then, we see this big commotion in a corner - what is it? We go over and it turns out there is an Orthodox guy from Brooklyn who is a midget arranging for people like us to eat Sabbath dinner with Orthodox families in the Old City. He sees us and asks if we have a family to go to (it is considered a great mitzvah/deed to host guests for sabbath dinner). We say no and he gives us one. We had no clue where to go amidst the winding Old City streets, so he arranged for a teenage American woman to take us there. Before we went, my mom had to rush out and buy a scarf to put over her head, signalling that she's a married woman. or else they would have tried to put us with a family with a single man to marry her!

Small but mighty Jeff Siedel at Heritage House has been arranging Shabbat Dinner hospitality for non-Orthodox since my mom studied here 20 years ago!

Sabbath Dinner
Of all the experiences, this took the cake! As soon as we walked in the door of these people's home, I could sense that this house was a weird yet mystical place. When did I sense this? As soon as the lady said hello with her mystical smile and paintings on the walls. When I turned around, there was the man with a big, round, furry hat who was wearing a black silk robe. Me and my mom were scared and didn't know what to expect. First, everyone had to wash their hands and say a prayer, and then they couldn't talk again till we had finished the prayer over the bread. They kindly served us nice food, even though the fish was rotten! Overall, they were nice people, but the experience was as weird as a cow doing ballet! They asked questions, quoted a bunch of rabbis that I didn't understand, and basically tried to teach us a bit about their way of serving God but also said some things that was not nice to us, like Reform Judaism isn't really Judaism! Every time the lady Sarah said something, she would finish with a hearty shout-out of AY-MEN! She went on about how angels sing when we say Amen and she wanted all of us at the table to say it after everything she said but most of us just kind of sat there through all her ramblings.

We were tired so we pretended we had a time to meet our friend Neta (well, it wasn't pretend - she WAS waiting for us at home!)... first she wouldn't let us leave till we said the prayer for when you finish eating. She gave me and my mom prayer books and we thought we were going to have to do it out loud by ourselves but we were nervous because we didn't know how! Turns out we could do it quietly under our breadth. Once we were done with that, she blocked the exit and wouldn't let us leave till we told her our Hebrew names. By the end of the night, she kept tacking new names on for me based on stuff I didn't understand what she was saying, but I had 5 names by the end of the night! I said, "Wow, I never knew I had those names!"

We had to tell them we were walking to our friend's house, or else they would get mad that were taking a taxi on Shabbat. Of course, once out of sight, we got a cab!

We couldn't take photos at dinner, but thiswhat the man Shlomo looks like!

Neta's Place
When we got to our friend Neta's place, we were SO exhausted, but we stayed up chatting and snacking. I was so tired, I fell asleep while we were talking! We woke up the next morning and read for a while quietly because Neta likes to sleep late. Once she was up, we chit chatted and made french toast. We went off to find a taxi at a nearby hotel, passing the dorms my mom lived in 20 years ago. Finally, we said goodbye. It was great to see an old friend!

We stayed up late laughing with Neta, eating Apropo and cookies!



Apropo is jus tlike Bugles in America - yum!

Saturday
Old City
Once we got to the Old City from Neta's place in French Hill, we went on a 3 hour tour of it. Our first stop was the Armenian Quarter, which wasn't that exciting. Then it was the Jewish Quarter which we had explored on our own the day before, so we went to places we had already seen. Next the Muslim Quarter and the Arab shuk (market). The shop keepers were too aggressive and the smells of the shuk overpowered me. I urged the group to go on, but only after eating the best humus in the whole city at a little tiny place in some winding shuk street.

When we were in the Christian Quarter, I felt better. I went to the Church of the Holy Sepelchure where Jesus died on the cross and was buried. It was crowded with Christian pilgrims. 

We walked Jesus' Stations of the Cross, and here I am at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.





We stopped at this cool pub restaurant after dark for drinks before departing the Old City, felt like a movie set! 

By the end of the day, I never wanted to go to the shuk again, but had a fun time in all. We took the first bus back to Netanya after Sabbath ended.

Our Apartment



 Ben on the couch.



Our Living Room.

The Lobby in our Building, 21 King David Street.

Doing school work in my bedroom.

C R A S H E D   O U T !

Dad's combing Ben's here in the 3rd bedroom after a shower.

Ben's stroller right outside the elevator and our apartment front door.

Heading home after a day at Itamar School (Ben's still in his PJs!).

Ah, the most important room of all!

Kitchen and Living Room.

Hanging around in the Living Room.

Oh no, I have to eat this AGAIN?!

yummy kisses!



Hey, we're the eating brothers!



Hit 6 Ben!

Running Home!

Random At Our Apartment

People in the US keep asking us what our apartment is like, here are some typical scenes:

Ben jumps around with lots of energy ('hope our landlord is not reading this blog!)

Dad's been exercising every morning on the beach with a bunch of other 'regulars' he's given names: Grateful Dead, The Colonel, The Walrus, The BIg Walrus, Purple, Imitation Bashie, The Russian, Imitation Farzin, The 2 Sisters... all are senior citizens (but Dad!) at 6am! He comes home in time to drink some Turkish coffee and see us off to school:

School morning routine is the same: Mom makes us b-fast, Dad drinks coffee after exercise, and we're off to walk to school!

We've played some musical chairs with sleeping arrangements  - there are 3 bedrooms but Ben & I mostly choose to share a room, and Mom chose the softest bed, and Dad chose to be nearest to the air conditioner:

This is actually Mom & Dad's room but Mom took over the whole closet, and Ben & I sleep there most nights instead of Mom & Dad.



The Race

I was accepted into a school-wide running race by the gym teacher. Once I found out, I started freaking out. Once I had calmed down, I wanted to start training immediately. I trained for about 1 week and a half with my dad and also during recess.

 When it came time for the race, I was scared beyond scared. All the kids and teachers were cheering us on.  It ended up that I didn't win, but I didn’t lose because I was too scared though; I lost the race because I was racing against a couple of really fast 5^th graders, but mostly fast (and big) 6^th graders. I am not making an excuse, but they were "with the wind."  I wish I would have gone faster. I felt kinda disappointed, but what can you do now? Overall I am happy I had this experience.

Plain or Chocolate?

Get this... Milk comes in PLASTIC BAGS here! You can buy a family-size bag and keep it in a container in the fridge, or small snack-bag ziploc size for on-the-go. My mom buys small chocolate ones for me and Ben and we bite a small hole open in a corner and sip it out like all the Israelis do!
Other random food stuff:
* Eggs are not refridgerated in the supermarket or produce outdoor (hot!) marketplace.
* Creme-bo is the most amazing chocolate treat ever!
* Because a lot of people keep kosher, there is more selection for vegetarians of 'fake meat' so there are a lot of 'shnitzel' patties in all different shapes and flavors - Ben says "shnitzel" so cute!!
* At school, I eat 'lunch' at 9:30AM! So I'm starving when my mom picks me up at 1:20PM!

Little Tiny Israel

On Saturday, we went to "Mini Israel" a museum where you walk around and there are all these miniature replicas of places all over Israel. It was fun to see the places we've been! They didn't have Netanya though. My favorite model was of Masada because in the model it had the dolls of the Hollywood movie-makers making the movie of Masada with the Romans attacking the Jews on Masada. My least favorite bit was the Tel Aviv beach. The model was ¼ sand and ¾ dirt. It definitely didn’t look like a beach to me.

We're in front of Mini Akko!

Eating ice cream at the end of our visit.

End of a long day, being silly in the rental car!

Speaking of mini Israel, my classmates did not know that Israel is so small compared to other countries. In Geography class, my teacher took out a map and showed them how tiny it is -- the size of New Jersey state! They can't really understand just how small that really is!!