Another week...

Last week was crazy, Grandma is in hospital in NZ and last week I took my phone everywhere just in case Dad rang to say I needed to come home. It probably wasn't too serious, but there was an entire week where she had absolutely no complaints about anything, which did worry us.

On top of the Grandma stress my room leader has vanished off the face of the earth (the other explanation involves her having an incredibly bad back, but vanishing off the face of the earth sounds better). Plus both directors of my centre were away, 3 birthday parties to run and a grandparents day (each of those things is stressful on its own).

This week has begun with homesickness. Not of course for home because that would make a little too much sense, I am homesick for Israel. I'm not sure if it quite counts as homesickness, but it involves the same longings for the familiar, and a general desire to get on a plane. Yes...I finally made contact with Sapir, always a very dangerous thing to do!!

I also feel more like an Aussie by the day. Last week I looked in astonishment at the NZ weather and wondered how you all survive it, you're spring temperatures look like the middle of our winter. I have also begun to find some issue with this whole cup of tea/dinner=tea thing. My aunty text me to say she really wanted tea, I assumed she was talking about a cup of tea and was really confused when three hours later I received a text saying her tea was very nice. For some time I pondered text message delay times before I realised she was talking about dinner. I think it's time I left, soon I'll be able to tell you all about their version of football, and I'll have one of those bad accents.

The ten day ramble

Hmmm... I checked when I last wrote a blog and discovered ten rather crazy, fun days have passed since then. I think I remember most of them, so here's my meandering overview.

Tuesday: Long forgotten, I'm guessing work was crazy like usual for Tuesdays.

Wednesday: Also forgotten.

Thursday: This was my last day of the week. The morning I spent being room leader, as usual for Thursdays. Then the afternoon I spent training people to use a computer program. The most crusiest afternoon of my life!! Honestly, I was paid to sit in a chair and tell people what to do. Mel, Sari and I (the full time staff in my room) also went out for lunch, on work, that day. I recall being very chilled as I left work.

Friday: This day felt absolutely nothing like erev Shabbat!!! Rivkah and I managed to find the longest way possible to get to Shira's place. Actually I should say I found the longest way possible to get to Shira's house, the only condition of the trip was that full navigation responsibility was on my shoulders. No I didn't get us lost, we set out to take the short route and half way through opted for the scenic route, meaning we had to take a rather large detour. If you have seen the facebook pics then you already know the detour was completely worth it! We went to Apollo Bay planning to dip our feet and somehow managed to leave an hour later drenched from head to foot.

Finally we arrived at our destination, an hour before Shabbat, 5 hours after we were supposed to arrive.

Shabbat: Everyone who wasn't there you missed an amazing night, Hamayan style davening followed by a beautiful meal. The next day we rolled out of bed at some ridiculously late time, finally we headed off to daven shacharit and found a perfect place overlooking a lake. This was followed by another wonderful meal, and then my highlight.....ANIMALS. I got to see kangaroos, koala's, wallabies, alpaca's, a dingo and a wombat plus a selection of less exciting animals. I got to feed this gorgeous kangaroo and then when I returned to their enclosure one of them (I think the same one) came up and I started patting her neck, then she put her arms around me and stood there hugging me for ages while I patted her neck.

We were welcomed into one of the paddocks with a hongi, alpaca style. As we entered the paddock they came up and put their noses up to our noses. I must say I know which I prefer!!! Bring on the Alpaca version any day!!

Sunday: After Shabbat we made a bonfire, complete with musical instruments and poi (Hmmm this weekend is beginning to sound like NZ).

After a couple of hours sleep we went back into Melbs, as Rivkah had work that day. I arrived home and wasted time until finally I fell asleep. The rest of the day vanished with sleep.

Monday: Work in the morning, followed by canoeing on the Yarra in the afternoon. My canoeing skills leave a little to be desired, for some reason I chose the middle seat in the thing which is double the size of the other two. Meaning any time I lent one way or the other the canoe tended to tilt a little too far, rowing doesn't really work when you're trying to sit dead still on this huge seat. Well at least that is my excuse for not pulling my weight. After canoeing I schlepped back to work for a first aid course. From looking at the book we were given prior to the course I was expecting a very good course, but NZ definitely does it better.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: By now I think you and I are both sick of this day by day thing. So the last three days have passed mostly with me as room leader at work. Mel hasn't been well, and this week she only made it to work on Tuesday. I'm quite enjoying it, although it will be nice to hand the reigns back to Mel, I feel so bossy in charge!!! Tuesday I went out for Dasha's birthday, other than that I've done nothing in the evening thanks to work draining me of all energy.

Also since I'm assuming mostly kiwi's read my rambling I think this is the perfect forum to whinge about my accent. I rang up to order pizza the other day and this is what I got:

Me: "One Spanish pizza please."

Pizza place: "Shemesh?"

Me: "No Spanish."

Pizza place: "Yes Shemesh."

Me:"No, Spaaaaanish."

Pizza place: "Spenish?"

Me: "Spanish."

Pizza place: "What is Spenish?"

Me: "You know the pizza with this and this and this..."

Pizza place: "Ohhhh, SPANISH!!!"

Frustrated me (in my head): That's what I said!!!

Of course that doesn't drive me quite as crazy as the aussies who tell me I am saying words wrong in Hebrew. I agree with them, I am saying it wrong, however so are they. Since when did I have to learn how to speak Hebrew with an aussie accent?

Shopping for crocs...

All those times I walked past the croc stalls in NZ I never realised how much I would wish for one of those stalls here. Yet two malls and one random walk later I am still crocless. Anyone who knows anything about women, knows that managing to walk through two malls and inner-city Melbourne without purchasing a thing is an impossibility. So...despite the lack of crocs I managed to do a few other things on the list. Firstly, due to the impending 28 degree day (the impetus for the croc hunt) I took a big gulp and had my hair chopped. I'm not sure how many 'hair chops' I've had in the last year, but every single one feels like a very big deal. For the first time I actually found a hairdresser who listened to what I was saying, ignoring the look on my face after every cut. My new shoulder length cut is literally shoulder length, which means if you pull it straight it just reaches my shoulders. The majority goes into a ponytail, but there are actually bits that fall out. I think this is the shortest my hair has been since I was 16, and according to my roommate it should stay short.

I was very good and did only buy things actually on the list, however after a couple of teensy purchases I discovered a line of computer stores. You guessed it, this is being written on my new laptop. The old one is going to NZ in Dec to become my brothers new best friend, which means for two and a half months I have two computers, slightly excessive I know, but this was the plan all along!!! My old one is going to keep coming to work with me, while the new one will live at home. Anyone have encarta and office for me to load on? These are the only things I feel like I am missing on my new one.

KiaOra

Despite the years I have spent trying to pay as little attention as possible during Maori classes you will be surprised to hear I actually miss it. Suddenly I've opened my eyes and realised that in Australia the Maori culture is an element of my culture, and enjoying that does not mean being PC (since this is written for kiwi's I suddenly feel very PC) . This week we have been learning about rainbows with the children, this involves many songs about colours however I realised very quickly one song was missing. "Ma is white, whero is red, kakariki green..." I have since rectified the situation, making a point of randomly singing the song to the children in the hope they will actually join in one day. However since I opened the door to Maori songs I have discovered myself wandering around the house singing Oma Rappati, AEIOU, Piko and the NZ Anthem in Maori. In all my longing for NZ cultural songs only one English one has actually come to mind...Fish N Chips (of course pronounced Fush n Chups).

The weather is making a point of reminding me I'm not a Melbournite also. In Chch, on a sunny hot day it would be safe to say you could go for a half hour walk without getting wet, provided you don't walk through a river, this means you can safely wear a nice wee white summer dress. Of course in Melbourne you are an idiot if you assume it will not rain within the next five minutes, no matter what the weather looks like when you look out your window. You have now realised this lesson in Melbourne weather is really for my benefit, as I ended up walking for 20 minutes in what would be termed torrential rain by NZ standards, in a very light dress. I was dripping after about 5 minutes and by the time I got home every single layer of clothing was sopping wet. The weather here is pretty awesome at the moment, the children are learning that rain while it is hot is something to celebrate and we have begun a ritual of dancing around outside while the Melbournites wonder what an earth is so special about rain and warmth. We have also had some big thunder and lightening clouds, which is very exciting for me although the children are more scared than excited by it and would far rather hide inside than dance outside with me (which means watching storms can't really be classified as work).

While I am a kiwi, unfortunately I just discovered Kiwi's are treated as inter-staters when it comes to our licenses. This means I have to get my NZ license transferred to an Aussie one, and probably that means P plates (everyone my age has P's here anyway so it's not so bad). This will mean in the last few years I have managed to have 6 licenses issued to me. Considering I haven't lost a license I think this is a pretty good number. I'm interested to see what my motorbike license transfers over to, my friend has a 250 I can ride if it actually transfers over, so fingers crossed.

I've just realised I've managed to include work pretty much everywhere. I do actually have a life, I'm out most of the time. However, I've fallen in love with our children. I miss the children on the weekend and look forward to work on Monday morning. I really don't want to say goodbye to them all at the end of the year. I'm trying very hard to convince the parents that their children don't actually need to grow up and they can stay at Gilly's for the rest of their lives (or until I go to Israel) but they're just not buying it. We only have 2 months left with the children, so each day is becoming precious. Apart from saying goodbye to the children I think Early Childhood is pretty much the coolest job. Seriously, primary school teachers don't get to take their shoes off and build sand castles for an hour. They also don't get to ride motorbikes, go down slides, climb forts, build towers, read stories or do any of the other cool stuff we get to do. Nor do they get all the cuddles we get. Another benefit is when your skirt falls down at work the only people who see it are 2!!! (trying to take tights off in public isn't the wisest idea). Also you can talk about anything you want, you just spell certain words, although it is always a crack up to hear what the children tell the parents. Basically I love children!!!!!!!

Snippets of sukkot

This sukkot was epic!!! Over 3 days I managed to eat 6 big meals, attend shul and occasionally sleep. On Sunday I opted for somewhat less food and somewhat more drinking, as I enjoyed the best sukkah party in the world. There were plenty of musicians, bongo drums, cute children, cool sukkot to visit, and awesome people to chill with. The pictures are on facebook, if you feel like stalking me.

I had three days of work this week before it was time for more holidays. I danced like crazy on simchat torah, ate plenty of food, and killed my legs. I now have a very interesting hobble going.

I discovered a garden, a real garden with trees and plants and bees!!! Now I live in a concrete jungle the highlight of my life is finding a garden...I am tempted to set up a little house somewhere out the back and hope the owner doesn't notice.
In three weeks time I am spending a shabbat in the country which is another big highlight, I will actually be able to look somewhere without seeing a building!!!

I think that's about it for me, I'm not in much of a rambling mood tonight sorry guys.

The amazing pitot

I was going to tag this onto the end of my last blog but really I think my pitot deserve their own blog. If you've ever tried to make pita you will know how hard it is to get them to puff up like they are supposed to. Usually I have one truly successful one in an entire batch. Last night I was jumping, clapping and dancing....Every single one of my pitot rose BEAUTIFULLY. Up until now my lovely friend Sally was the pita making queen, but I definitely think I just won that title.

September ponderings

So I just realised that it is currently mid September and there are no Sep blogs. So either you're all eagerly awaiting my next blog assuming it must be really great with a couple of weeks of brewing...or...you've all forgotten I exist. I'm guessing the latter, particularly for all those kiwi's who've had their brains (and everything else) shaken around quite a bit recently.

I'm trying to wrack my brains for what has actually happened in the last couple of weeks. For starters it was Rosh HaShanna (Jewish New Year) this weekend. I got to leave half way through the day on Wed and had all of Thurs and Fri off work (all paid!!) From Wed night through to Saturday night I basically just rotated three fantastic activities; shul, eating and sleeping. Sunday I did important things like washing and grocery shopping. Today is Monday, Monday = work so you are now up to date on my last week.

The Sunday before Rosh HaShanna Sapir left. That was tough :( Something I've realised I dislike greatly about moving around is the number of people you have to miss. On one hand I want to be in NZ because of my family and friends there. On the other hand I want to be in Israel to be with my Israeli friends and at the same time I know that leaving here is going to mean leaving a lot of good friends behind.

I haven't been sick since I last posted, which is great except I now have a kg of organic honey which I bought based on the fact I was going through a container every couple of weeks. If I was in NZ this wouldn't be such a problem since NZ honey is awesome, but the aussie stuff has no flavour. It's just this syrup. (I suspect this is not true of all aussie honeys but so far I have not found any that wonderful).

Tomorrow night I'm going to a Shlomo Katz concert, VERY excited. Shabbat is Yom Kippur, again VERY excited! Then I have a half week of work before sukkot, which means piles and piles and piles and piles and piles of eating. Currently I'm trying to organise where I'm going for everything.