Just breathe

All was calm this morning as the kids embarked on their 3rd day of school. We hope they have everything they need in their backpacks today. Deciphering the teacher emails and weekly school schedule is a full-time job for and Danny right now. We thought we understood everything for yesterday, but we missed a lot. We knew to pick up Sarit at 12:45pm, but we thought Reuben was coming home at 1:30pm and Kayla at 3:05pm. Imagine Danny’s surprise when he heard Reuben run up behind him on his way home with Sarit at 12:45pm. He said the bell rang, the teacher walked out of the room, and the kids just started leaving school. He asked his new friend what to do and he said, “go home now.” Then, Kayla walked through the door at 1:30pm.

Reuben had his first soccer practice at 4pm. It is a nice field next to our fitness club (with terrible parking – more on that later). I overheard a mom speaking in English on her cell phone, so I approached her after her call. She explained the soccer “chug” to me – it isn’t a league with scheduled games (at least not for the 4th graders), but they meet twice a week and still have to buy team uniforms (not sure why, exactly). Her kids also go to Nili, so I showed her the schedule we received from the teacher and asked why the kids were home so early. She explained that the later classes are electives, and you have to register for them separately. Apparently, they haven’t even started yet and everything will be explained to us (in Hebrew, of course) tonight at our back to school parent meeting. It seems strange that the teachers put them on the weekly schedule for this week, but I guess all of the Israeli parents understood what was supposed to happen. She gave me a lot of great information and connected me with a mom who runs a volleyball group for moms at the school. They meet at 9pm in the school gym…once I can stay awake that late, I will try to check it out.

Danny arranged for the kids to have a Harry Potter movie night and pizza with our neighbors. I signed up for a yoga class at the gym. A friend recommended this yoga teacher as “the real deal.” When I arrived at the gym, the parking lot was insane. In addition to the regular parking at the gym, there was still soccer practice next door, swimming lessons at the pool, and activities taking place at the Matnas (community center) across the parking lot. People were parked everywhere – on the medians, on curbs, in front of other cars. It was hard to get through to even find a spot. I could feel my blood pressure rising – always the perfect thing before yoga. This parking craziness is not unique to my gym parking lot. It is a very common phenomenon here in Israel. Maybe people get parking tickets – I have no idea – but they basically seem to park wherever they want.

Trying to find parking at the gym

Our gym has an online class registration system. When I left the house, there were 8 people signed up for yoga. Twenty spots were available in the class. I walked into the studio to find the room packed with people. I found a spot for my mat, but many people arrived after me and it took a few minutes for the group to discuss where everyone should move to make room for the newcomers. When the teacher entered, he took one look at the mess of mats and said, “Im yesh makom b’lev, yesh makom b’studio” (If there is room in your heart, there is room in the studio). No one could complain about moving after that, and people shifted their mats to make space for the 40+ people in the room. His class was great, but the environment outside the class was distracting. It was a serious yoga practice – kind of like the classes I took in India last year – without music and with a lot of quiet mediation, breathing exercises, and repetitions of sun salutations. That meant we could hear all of the parents yelling at their kids outside, and all of the noise coming from the weight room upstairs. I was able to follow along, but I didn’t really understand what the teacher was saying (aside from right leg, left leg, etc). There was a lot about hearts and breathing, but I missed all the nuance.

This morning I will try to mail a letter for Sarit. I went to the post office yesterday morning, but as I was walking into the shopping center, a policeman shouted at me to stop. “Chefetz chashud“(suspicious object) were the words I understood and I backed away. Here in Israel, if an item is left anywhere and no one immediately claims it, it is always assumed that it could be dangerous. I don’t think it was anything serious in this case because I stayed to attend a class across the street and then did my grocery shopping, and by then the police were gone. However, you have to be very careful not to leave a purse, backpack, or shopping bags unattended because there is real fear that they could be holding a bomb and the police will be called right away.

The police set up the yellow barrier after I walked into the chefetz chashud situation