Monday, November 21, 2005

Everything Old is New Again

"Remember when I was a capable housewife, mother and working physiotherapist. I managed carpool, extracurriculars, grocery shopping, outfitting everyone etc, cleaning house , laundry and I most usually had real meals on the table not only on shabbat, I even managed to volunteer here and there at the schools." That is my new refrain, I say it often and remind myself that once I was a very capable person!
Now, as the song goes, everything old is new again. Slowly but surely I am relearning old skills but each with a new twist. Each time I do something the first time it is guaranteed to not go so smoothly but then the next time it will be a little easier. And so goes the process of relearning old skills. As we prepared for our aliyah I felt like a kallah, buying new sheets, dishes etc. to take with, it was like a new start similar to that of someone getting married. Well I remember when I first got married learning to make a proper shabbos and learning to bake and expanding my repetoire of recipes etc. I am sure there was a learning curve re. laundry and real housekeeping. Well here I am again, except this time there are four other people with us.

"Ema, remember when you use to bake for us" I always loved baking, a characteristic my children and yes my husband liked in me. A few weeks ago I ventured to make their favourite chocolate cake! First, it took a good month to gear up for this and more than a few trips to the super to get all ingredients. Did you all know that cocoa powder in Israel is on the shelf in the coffee section and not the baking section...who knew? not me! I made the cake, it looked fine, I was so happy, this is going to work...I put it in the oven and YES it began to rise, looks good ,looks good...guys come quick, we all gathered around the oven.....look in I tell them , Ema has made you a chocolate cake! Everyone is so excited because although Shiffon (our bakery) is great, they love homemade! YES, Ema is back! I take it out of the oven , okay, let it cool, hasn't flopped yet, I even turned it over on the cake plate in one whole piece...I am great! Then, I cut a piece and give it to one of the kids, he/she who shall remain nameless, they bite it, chew........uh, uh it's..it's....uh....different! What do you mean? I scream. I quickly cut myself a piece and bite in....yes, it is different but WHY?! Why, why, why? One of my children, who always knows the right thing to say when I so need it , told me he thought it was delicious and he would be happy to eat the whole thing for everyone else and that I was still the best chocolate cake maker ever! He is going to be an amazing husband, gd. willing, one day!....LIAR...maybe I was back a great chocolate cake maker in the old country but here I needed some work.

A couple of weeks ago Yonatan came to me...Ema my shoelace broke and I need a new one. WHAT? You need a new shoelace?!!!!.....My heart began to beat rapidly and I broke out in a sweat. I smiled at him and said in a calm voice...no problem I'll get you new shoelaces!! I turned around and went upstairs , behind closed doors I was in a panick. In Toronto, I would have run to the dollar store or run into payless shoes and picked up shoelaces....what was I going to do here? I asked Darrell where did he think I should buy shoelaces....anywhere he answered, this from the man who shops for nothing...big help! Where is the shoelace store And when I get to the shoelace store Where am I going to park? Will there be someone behind me in a car two inches from my bumper...will they be honking like maniacs when I try to parallel park? No, no I am not going to fight with drivers for a spot to buy shoelaces... I will go to the mall and park like a mensch and pick up shoelaces in one of the shoestores!! I am so proud of myself! I happen to have to go for something with Avital. Hang on sweetie I just want to hop in to that shoe store there and buy shoelaces for Yonatan. HOW DO YOU SAY SHOELACES IN HEBREW????? I figure I will just point to mine and they will know. Shalom, yesh lachem ha dvarim she um, um ...et eilu I point to my shoelaces, man I am wearing slipons, I point to her shoelaces. Lo,( actually she just tisks with her mouth and nods her head from side to side a somewhat "rude" in north american eyes signal for "no") and continues on blah blahablahblah blah...basically she has given me directions to the shoemaker down the hall at the end around the corner blah blah blah blah. We go off in search of said shoemaker and needless to say we don't find him. I finish up with Avital's shopping and try one more shoestore I am utterly exhausted, forget it I mutter let's just go home I need some tylenol. Of course, when we walk in my son Yonatan, who is a persistant little guy, asks immediately, so did you get me shoelaces? Well, no, I tried , couldn't find them, no one had them.....blahblah blah blah. Ema..it's shoelaces, regular old shoelaces. Darrell who happened to be right there perks up and says...did you go to the makolet, I think I saw shoelaces at the makolet!!! Why didn't you tell me that when I asked you before....you asked me before? sorry! I bought shoelaces at the makolet, just up the hill from my house and this week when I was in town near machaneh yehudah, I must have passed by 3 or 4 holes in the wall with shoelaces...lots and lots of shoelaces hanging in their door. Look, I cry ...shoelaces, lots and lots of beautiful shoelaces...short , long, white, black, dressy, plain, wow amazing....the shoemaker was looking at me in a very weird way!!

I use to drop my kids off to extra curriculars or chugim, sometimes I waited outside read a book, or did my needlepoint you know had a few minutes to myself. Here I not only take my kids to chugim I go to them myself. Last week I sat on a fludder board at the side of the pool and translated instructions on fludder kick for Sara. We came home and soon I set off with Yonatan for OUR drum lesson...for one hour I sat in the room with Yoni and his Russian/israeli teacher who speaks no english and you guessed it translated...Do any of you know how to say Rhythms, or beats in hebrew? Avital is okay on her own and can manage in hebrew , her piano teacher is South African but her math tutor is hebrew only..he told me he is learning math terms in english from her and was excited to know what a reciprocal was...woohoo! Sara had a little hebrew speaking friend over, we coloured played dolls (bubot) and house (bayit), they let me be the Ema (ema), imagine that. We had a good time and when she left I fell on the couch exhausted. Remember when Sara would have friends over and it was a break for me? That night, Darrell came home and asked what was for supper...SUPPER, SUPPER!!!....I have been very busy playing bayt and bubot, learning to swim, learning to play drums and translating it all and you think I even attempted to make any supper ...yesh, pita, yesh cottage...betayavon!!

And so it continues on. I am still looking for wheat germ..I think the health food store in Efrat will have it but I don't seem to get there at the right time...you know when they are OPEN! The boys now need running shoes, that should be a fun if not expensive venture. Stella Frankl finally figured out what sour cream is called here and what the package looks like..hooray! We new olim share all our great discoveries!! Darrell asked some lady in the grocery store which cheese to use in lasagna in place of dry cottage or ricotta cheese..she gave him two cheeses to mix together told him how and it turned out pretty good, the kids even liked it. Yeah, now I can make lasagna again...I am great much greater than I was when I made chocolate cake ( by the way I since learned that there is a special setting for baking on my over, I will try again this week and let you all know the result!) I am finally getting Talpiyot down , with Stella's help, and know which crowded busy street to turn down and I even get through the absolutely crazy traffic circles, but not without a few good honkings behind me..I have developed the ability to not hear said honkings, I now smile and wave when the angry driver, squeezes up beside me and I see his lips moving rapidly and his hands flailing every which way...Shalom, shalom I wave and smile, great to see you too....!!! They usually stop for one second, in shock, why is this crazy lady smiling and waving at me, I gave her my best honks ever!!? and they begin again and drive off, shalom l'hitraot nice seeing you, my fellow jew! So "leat, leat" (slowly, slowly) as they say here I am relearning the simplest of tasks, I have now got my grocery shop down to one hour and a bit from door to door (although I still go too frequently in a week)....I think that may be a world record or atleast an Israeli record. But next time my kids need a shoelace I know where to go and each task second time around gets easier, thank gd! By the time you all come Y"H, I will be able to guide you all in the tasks you once thought were simple and mindless!!! It will be my pleasure! And I promise B"N that when you ask me these questions I will not begin my answer with "Oh easy, you JUST have to do blah, blah, blah or JUST CALL yada yada and ask! No siree, not me I know that the words JUST or CALL AND FIND OUT do not exist in the language of the new oleh! There is no more JUST or ITS EASY.....not in the beginning anyways!

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a hilarious entry...I guess it is important to have a sense of humour! Do us a favour, please, dear friend, and perfect that chocolate cake recipe before our arrival in a few weeks (by the way...the bakery bought version is fine by us!).
LOL (that's lots of love, not laught out loud)
G et al

6:10 PM  

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