This week Jason and I went down to Arad to spend Rosh Hashana with our host families. We started out together on the bus from Ashkelon to Be'er Sheva, but when we made the transfer to the Be'er Sheva -Arad bus, the driver closed to door between Jason and I, causing us to take two different buses down. When I arrived I was picked up by my host mom Ofra and her three kids, Noam, Ayala and Amitai. Noam is 10.5, her sister Ayala is 8 and Amitai is a wonderful 3 year old little boy.
We immediately went shopping for some last minute things for the holiday dinner and to grab some cereal for my house. We then headed back to her house, which is across the street from the house I will be living in from November until June. Ofra gave me a tour of my house and left me to get my stuff settled in while she headed over to her own house.
The rest of the evening set the sequence of events for the whole holiday. I went over to the house and played with the kids for a few hours. This was everything from arts and crafts with the girls to a rousing game of “Afo Tomas?” (translated, “where is Thomas?”) with Amitai. “Afo Tomas” happens just about every 30 minutes when he comes over to you, asks where is Thomas and then we start the hunt for his favorite of the Thomas the Tank Engine characters. Every once in awhile though thegame becomes “Afo Percy” and we begin the search all over again. The main reason that these toys kept getting lost is they are the pull back style – you pull the car back to wind up the “engine” and let it go to skitter across the room. Eventually I convinced him that playing on the track would be just as good and we no longer had to look very far to find Thomas, Percy or even Emily. (And yes, I can name all the characters now – and sing the 'Roll Call' song.)
After spending time with the kids I helped Ofra with dinner a little bit (grating veggies for the salad) and attempted to pick up the hebrew words for the vegetables I was using. Then I headed back to my house to change for dinner, and the whole family walked down the road to Savta and Saba's house. (Grandma and Grandpa). The grandparents know a little bit of English (they started out telling me they knew none, but kept coming up with phrases when I got completely stuck with my very limited hebrew vocalubary) but mainly we talked through Ofra or her sister who would translate back and forth.
My first day in Arad (Wednesday) repeated again on Thursday and very closely followed on Friday as well. The only difference being that on Thursday night Jason and I met up with Abir to go out to the local pub and figure out the town a little better. Ofra knew Abir because she helped him interview for a position that is taking him to New Jersey for the next year to teach Hebrew (sound familiar?). Since he is leaving on Monday meeting up with him was wonderful, we told him what we could about the area he would be in while he introduced us to some of his friends and the town.
On one of the days the girls took me on a walk down to the overlook. (The same overlook that Otzma visited on our first week.) Noam packed up a bag for us with water, cups and the Hebrew/English dictionary, while I brought along a camera.
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| Ayala and Noam |
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| Amitai |
The whole trip to Arad was a lot of fun and I feel like I really get along with my host family. Saba even asked if I could move in with them and help out his wife around the house instead of living down the street! I am definitely looking forward to moving down to Arad now.
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