{"id":21,"date":"2010-07-29T21:50:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T18:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/?p=21"},"modified":"2013-09-11T09:12:01","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T07:12:01","slug":"day-4-does-anyone-speak-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Number of Cockroach Sightings: 0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time to collect our sal klitah and register non-hebrew speaking husband for ulpan.\u00a0 We take a bus and observe the \u201calternative\u201d Israeli that resides in the North.\u00a0 Generally a little calmer, more polite, better dressed (less of the all-hanging-out look you see in Tel Aviv) and really keen on olim. \u00a0Strangers have been telling us how wonderful our choice is, and how happy they are to have us\u00a0 (in stark contrast to the way we speak of immigrants in Britain….).\u00a0 A helpful but misguided lady on the bus puts us off at the wrong stop, but this turned out to be a good thing as we now know where the Misrad Hapnim is, which we will need to pay a visit to at some point.\u00a0 Luckily, return bus tickets are reusable, although they have some bizarre rule here along the lines of \u201ccollapse your buggy or pay another 5 shekel\u201d.\u00a0 No idea which Nazi kid-hating person thought of that one.<\/p>\n

We find the office, and of course, nobody speaks English.\u00a0 In fact the primary language here is Arabic, followed by Russian.\u00a0 Hebrew is a third language, and people haven\u2019t seen enough English movies to understand you if you cant at least speak basic Hebrew (one look at the location and cost of the nearest cinema explains this phenomenon).\u00a0 But the lady is lovely, and helpful and tells me my Hebrew is good enough to join the advanced ulpan (as I had hoped) and Jojo as usual charms everyone with his English rose colouring and cherubic smile.\u00a0 Thank goodness for his looks.\u00a0 He seems to attract people wherever we take him, women seem compelled to touch his blonde curls and even men seem to love him.\u00a0 It\u2019s very different to England where people may smile shyly at him or the odd old lady will comment, but generally people are less warm.\u00a0 It makes our life a lot easier.\u00a0 But then again Israel is a baby-friendly country to start with.\u00a0 Babies (and children) are not seen as an inconvenience, like I often saw in London, nor are they regarded as the centre of the universe, creatures that should have everything material one could possibly imagine, as I have witnessed in America.\u00a0 Rather they are part of life, and people are not shy to pick them up, or offer them a biscuit.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those rather special qualities about Israel, and one of the reasons behind my aliyah,\u00a0 aside from the sunshine and the fact that we will (hopefully) afford to eat meat more than once a week here.<\/p>\n

We view a rental property and I am appalled by the \u201ckitchen\u201d.\u00a0 For a nation that is gastronomically inclined, famous for, and totally obsessed with good food, I have no idea how they cope with tiny kitchens.\u00a0 The property was a decent size, you could have a family of 4 or maybe even 5 happily living there but the kitchen (or rather kitchenette) wouldn\u2019t be fit for a student.\u00a0 I presume they are frequent visitors to the pizza store on their street.\u00a0 I know I would just abandon cooking altogether if I lived there.\u00a0 The estate agent informs me that unless you live in a villa or decent sized house you would be unlikely to have a large kitchen.\u00a0 No wonder kids here only eat oven schnitzel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Number of Cockroach Sightings: 0 Time to collect our sal klitah and register non-hebrew speaking husband for ulpan.\u00a0 We take a bus and observe the \u201calternative\u201d Israeli that resides in the North.\u00a0 Generally a little calmer, more polite, better dressed (less of the all-hanging-out look you see in Tel Aviv) and really keen on olim. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8889,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,30,28,29],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aliyah","tag-cockroach","tag-property","tag-sal-klita","tag-ulpan"],"yoast_head":"\nDay 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish? - Diary of an Aliyah-nik<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Day 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish? - Diary of an Aliyah-nik\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Number of Cockroach Sightings: 0 Time to collect our sal klitah and register non-hebrew speaking husband for ulpan.\u00a0 We take a bus and observe the \u201calternative\u201d Israeli that resides in the North.\u00a0 Generally a little calmer, more polite, better dressed (less of the all-hanging-out look you see in Tel Aviv) and really keen on olim. …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Diary of an Aliyah-nik\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-29T18:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-09-11T07:12:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deganit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deganit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Deganit\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/69d3555c26668f912c5575ce56829b4c\"},\"headline\":\"Day 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish?\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-29T18:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-11T07:12:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":564,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/69d3555c26668f912c5575ce56829b4c\"},\"keywords\":[\"cockroach\",\"property\",\"sal klita\",\"ulpan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Aliyah\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\\\/\",\"name\":\"Day 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish? - Diary of an Aliyah-nik\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-29T18:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-11T07:12:01+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Day 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/\",\"name\":\"Diary of an Aliyah-nik\",\"description\":\"A family's aliyah journey from North of London to the Galilee in Northern Israel\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/69d3555c26668f912c5575ce56829b4c\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/69d3555c26668f912c5575ce56829b4c\",\"name\":\"Deganit\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/920ba5e82b8ea5ade00e9edb3c8196e925b055201c954dcd9d5b9e36a613e441?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/920ba5e82b8ea5ade00e9edb3c8196e925b055201c954dcd9d5b9e36a613e441?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/920ba5e82b8ea5ade00e9edb3c8196e925b055201c954dcd9d5b9e36a613e441?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deganit\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/920ba5e82b8ea5ade00e9edb3c8196e925b055201c954dcd9d5b9e36a613e441?s=96&d=mm&r=g\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mehmehs.com\\\/aliyah\\\/author\\\/deganit\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Day 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish? - Diary of an Aliyah-nik","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Day 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish? - Diary of an Aliyah-nik","og_description":"Number of Cockroach Sightings: 0 Time to collect our sal klitah and register non-hebrew speaking husband for ulpan.\u00a0 We take a bus and observe the \u201calternative\u201d Israeli that resides in the North.\u00a0 Generally a little calmer, more polite, better dressed (less of the all-hanging-out look you see in Tel Aviv) and really keen on olim. …","og_url":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/","og_site_name":"Diary of an Aliyah-nik","article_published_time":"2010-07-29T18:50:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-09-11T07:12:01+00:00","author":"Deganit","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deganit","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/"},"author":{"name":"Deganit","@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/#\/schema\/person\/69d3555c26668f912c5575ce56829b4c"},"headline":"Day 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish?","datePublished":"2010-07-29T18:50:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-09-11T07:12:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/"},"wordCount":564,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/#\/schema\/person\/69d3555c26668f912c5575ce56829b4c"},"keywords":["cockroach","property","sal klita","ulpan"],"articleSection":["Aliyah"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/","url":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/","name":"Day 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish? - Diary of an Aliyah-nik","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-07-29T18:50:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-09-11T07:12:01+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/day-4-does-anyone-speak-english\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Day 4 \u2013 Does Anyone Speak Eeenglish?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/","name":"Diary of an Aliyah-nik","description":"A family's aliyah journey from North of London to the Galilee in Northern Israel","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/#\/schema\/person\/69d3555c26668f912c5575ce56829b4c"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/#\/schema\/person\/69d3555c26668f912c5575ce56829b4c","name":"Deganit","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920ba5e82b8ea5ade00e9edb3c8196e925b055201c954dcd9d5b9e36a613e441?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920ba5e82b8ea5ade00e9edb3c8196e925b055201c954dcd9d5b9e36a613e441?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920ba5e82b8ea5ade00e9edb3c8196e925b055201c954dcd9d5b9e36a613e441?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deganit"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920ba5e82b8ea5ade00e9edb3c8196e925b055201c954dcd9d5b9e36a613e441?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"url":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/author\/deganit\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8889"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1361,"href":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/1361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mehmehs.com\/aliyah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}