Happy Monthaversary!

Today is exactly one month since we arrived in Israel. It feels like yesterday, but it also feels like a year ago.

So now while we're looking for jobs and trying to figure out what to do with ourselves in the meantime, we'd love to take the opportunity to travel and explore before we get bogged down with jobs, but aye, there's the rub. We have limited funds because we're not working and had to buy things like a new refridgerator, washing machine, stove, diningroom table - and a bed, which we haven't done yet. Do we spend our limited funds on things we likely won't have time for later, on the assumption that we'll get jobs soon (please G-d!), or do we behave frugally and save every penny and try to do stuff during vacations and holidays, along with everyone else in the country?

Our table gets delivered today! Assuming the delivery guys can find their way here. They called and asked where we were, but got fed up with our lousy Hebrew (we knew all the right words, it just sounded like a 6-year-old giving directions.) and decided to call someone else. So hopefully they'll show up soon.

The latest news on our lift: it should arrive at the port today, with delivery sometime next week. And of course, next week is really busy. We have a wedding, Morey has appointments, we have an aliyahversary party to go to.

It will be really nice to finally get our stuff and make this place feel like "home." Right now, it still kind of feels like we're staying in a really big motel room. Except there's no ice machine.

Grocery shopping is still a challenge, but getting much easier. I'm starting to understand some ingredients, and recognize the difference between juice and juice "soda drink." The only 100% fruit juice we've found though, is orange and grapefruit juice, and lemon juice with mint. All the rest of the fruit juices are juice drinks, not what we got used to in Vancouver. Maybe because fruit is so plentiful and inexpensive, people make their own juice. There is so much cheese to choose from, we were in front of the cheese counter for a good 20 minutes trying to decide on something to get. And Morey is very happy - he has fresh parmegian.

And the woman who rang up our order asked us for our moadon kartis (membership card) and we somehow managed to convey that we had signed up for one, but hadn't received it yet. So she asked if we were olim chadashim. When we said yes, she wished us b'hatzlacha (success) and bruchim habaim (essentially "welcome home"). When we were all packed and ready to go, and had paid, she wished us a Shabbat shalom (um, y'all got that one, right?).

With all the language difficulties and bus frustrations and job worries and hills, I love living here. Yesterday, we got a speech from a mattress salesman about how very difficult it is to live in Israel, but it is so worth it. "You have to work hard, it's very hard, it's very very difficult to live in Israel. But there is nowhere else."

He's absolutely right. There is nowhere else.