A mother-daughter Norway trip

During Christmas, I started to plan my summer holidays and among others I decided to go to Norway this July. For some time I tried to find someone that would be willing to share the hardship of climbing cold and slippery mountains, paying huge amounts of money for transport and lodging for the gain of the most spectacular views of Scandinavian fjords. I slowly started to come to terms with the fact that I will have to go on my own when one day I got a call from my mother, who said - "Why dont I come with you?" My mother has always wanted to see Scandinavia and she even got the first taste of it when she visited me during my studies in Paideia, but she has always wanted to see the hills and the wild nature as well. So we decided to take a 10-day backpacker trip to Norway together. This will be her first backpacking ever and it will also be the first time we will go for vacation on our own. I cannot wait.

September full of good stuff

Do you also hate it when people keep apologizing on their blog for not having written for a long time? That´s why I am not going to do it:-)

September was a very good month. I started the school. What a difference it is compared to the last year! Everything goes much smoother, I feel much more relaxed and I actually really enjoy getting ready for my classes. I don´t have to stay up till late at night (at least not because of the school) and while I still spend loads of time preparing my lessons and dealing with the school stuff, everything I have to do I do at a much slower pace, in a much more easygoing manner.

I should also mention that I am surprised at how well it goes with teaching Hebrew. So far the kids respond surprisingly well to the Tal Am program, they learn with joy and eagerness and it seems they are developing a cute craving for learning more. What more could a teacher wish for?

In between all the autumn Jewish holidays my brother and Olga got married. Honestly, I got a bit worried when I saw the hectic preparation havoc (which, I admit, I purpousfully stayed completely out of), but I have to say - kol ha kavod to all involved, it was a very nice, dignifying and joyful event. Mazal tov!






After they had left for their honeymoon (not that the two events are connected in any respect)
I built my sukkah and started a marathon of inviting of friends during the 8 days of the holiday of Sukkot. I again realized what a great holiday it is and what a genious religious commandment it is to be obliged to invite guests and have fun. The picture is from a visit of my 8th graders. (Dont get allarmed by their facial expression, they just hate to be photographed :-)



In addition, I went to two other weddings in the past month, one of them was a wedding of my next door neighbors. This year has actually been very fruitful for happy occassions so far. I was invited for as many as 13 weddings (many of which I actually really attended :-), one engagement party and 3 circumcisions (and I missed one more just by 3 hours). Well, should the rest of the year be as marry!

The sukkah is built

Today in the evening my parents and I finished the sukkah. It is my first sukkah in my new flat and I am childishly happy it is up. I still have to decorate it, but the lifting and fixing job is done. Now I only hope the wind won´t be too strong and the sukkah will stay where it is.

Good news and leaving

On Friday night my brother revealed to me that after passing his BA exams on Thursday, he proposed to his girlfriend Olga and she - naturally :-) - agreed to marry him. That´s great news! The picture below shows them during their last year´s holiday in Croatia.


On another note - I am about to leave for the States today in the morning. I packed in rush so I guess I am leaving half of the things I need at home. In addition, the pre-departure time was so rushed that some of the things I need to take care of before I leave are still not done - for instance I will be marking some of the tests of my students on my way to the airport and sending them back with my brother. Well, I am the ultimate time manager, aint I:-)Well, at least I have something to laugh about. Ok - all being well I will write again from New York. Shavua tov

My parents celebrate 30th aniversary

Today, we had a small family get-together on the occasion of the 30th aniversary of my parents´ wedding. My work at school has tought me that not everybody is so lucky to have sensible parents, not every child has a chance to grow up in a peaceful and supportive home. My Mum and Dad have been great partners and friends to each other for all the years I have known them and they have been wonderful parents to my brother and myself for as much time. I am very thankful for that and I wish them many more years together.


(The photo is from their trip to Sweden 2 years ago)

Before the tooth ruins my life

Last shabbat during my granny´s 84th birthday lunch my tooth broke. Today, I went to a dentist to ask him to fix it. He said there was nothing elsto be done - the tooth broke so badly that it had to be pulled out. He first cut it into four pieces and then spend close to an hour taking it - very gently - piece by piece out. He said that the tooth (more specifically the hole that remained) would possibly ruin my life for some time now so I am using the last minutes before the anestesia stops working to write a post (I am exeggerating as always:-)

The three pieces of good news this week are that my yeshiva friend Tovah got engaged, my friends Ruven and Hana from Jerusalem have a new baby boy, who was born on Shmini Atzeret (a Jewish holiday) and who was circumcised two Shabbatot ago and called Usher. Moreover, Lex Friedman and his wife Lauren have a new baby girl called Anya. Mazal tov to all. :-) In fact - there are two other new babies that were born in my home community in the last 14 days too - so that makes five pieces of good news.

In my house, there are also a couple of new members of the household, even though they are not nearly as exciting as the newborn babies :-( - anticipating the visit of my friend Seth later this year in December, I started to buy my meaty dishes (dishes for meat dishes:-) on Sunday.

Believe it or not, yesterday I spent a pleasant evening chatting with Michael Pomeranz, the famous Jerusalem bookseller, who stopped in Prague on his way from Los Angeles back to Israel. We have agreed to meet in Prague last spring during one of my shopping visits in his shop. Last night we went for dinner together and I enjoyed being with an Israeli friend again a lot.

Other than that, I continue to teach with all its excitements and downsides :-) I keep collecting interesting quotes of the kids. The best one I have heard recently is today´s Xenie´s comment on my decent dress code in the school on which I demonstrated the way orthodox women dress in her class. We discussed the question of tzniut (modesty) when Xenie with all possible honesty and sincerity said - "well, you should dress a bit less decent. In case you dont I doubt you will ever get married."

Kids´ minds

(In memory of my uncle Tomáš Mittelsteiner z´l, a man of great sense of humor, a man that loved life. My uncle Tomáš passed away after a long illness yesterday in the afternoon)

One of the things I enjoy the most when I teach is to see how children think and what questions they ask. Here are just a few from the past days:

- How come God sees everybody and is with every single person all the time when there are so many people in the world?

- Children come to the world when people love each other. Where there any children in Niniveh when the town was so horrible?

- Do animals also have to do tshuva during High holidays?

- Does God judge also the baby that is in my Mumy´s belly?

- How come Pninah was so harsh on Chanah? Wasn´t she Jewish? Jews are not supposed to behave this way!

- How come Elkana had two wives? Isn´t it forbidden?

- Does God wear white?

- Can our cat eat pork? - Yes, she is not Jewish, she can eat whatever she wants. -How come she is not Jewish? - Because only people can be Jewish. - And what if she was born in Israel? - Even if she was born in Israel, she is still not Jewish. If an American Indian was born in Israel, he would not be Jewish either. - This is horrible. I really don´t understand why you should limit being Jewish only to people. That´t cruel.

- I think men go to mikveh less than women because men don´t have a uterus.