Day 5 (awake)

Shabbat was a nice respite, because every day is still crammed full of Things We Have to Take Care of. Our next-door neighbors, who joined this program 6 months ago (pseudonyms John, Shoshi and their baby Nosie-Boy, who is three whole days younger than my own Baby Spiderman). ANYWAY. Our neighbor Shoshie told me that things are going to stay hectic for a while. Too bad. I was hoping they'd settle down in a week or two. She also spontaneously asked me if I felt like I really made aliyah, to which I responded that I don't even realize that I'm in Israel! She said neither does she, most of the time: it feels like she's in summer-camp. never having been to sleepaway camp myself, I can't relate 100%, but I think that's a valuable insight. We do eat in a dining hall and walk around on dirt paths and have other people do our laundry.

Speaking of which, I was shown around the laundry today. Each rule by itself is simple, but taken all together it's terribly, terribly complicated. Where I come from, there are at most five categories into which one can sort laundry. (For the weirdly curious, they are: light heavy-duty, dark heavy-duty, light delicate, dark delicate, and bleach heavy-duty.) Here, there are closer to 20 categories. I cannot tell you what they are, for lo, it was all so overwhelming. Excited to have free laundry service; daunted by actually figuring how to make it work. The one thing I am absolutely sure of is that I must check that every single piece of clothing is securely labeled before throwing it in. Luckily, we can also throw things in labeled mesh bags, so I don't need to get every single sock labeled. Again, for the morbidly curious, our label is the color blue and the number 323. They will iron-on patches for us, but only on clothes that can withstand the 210oC patch-putter-onner AND don't get ironed. Yes, the laundry will iron our hanging shirts. I know, I know, this is all so fascinating. But being my journal, I feel free to record the minutiae which rattle about my brain.

We also got our official lease contract today. We'll decipher it over the next few days and then sign and set up payment. Speaking of forms, I filled out my first Hebrew forms today: new-patient forms at the kibbutz's medical clinic. Because I was taken there and told to do so, that's why. I was also told to bring my baby around. For a checkup? Because they just love making funny faces at the baby? I did not ask. I shall just do. I'll deal with it as it comes.

That's pretty much it, other than I got to see people I love for a couple minutes tonight, but I don't feel like fake-explaining who they are and making up names for them just now. Made me really happy to see them, though.

More tomorrow!