This morning, BSM spent another hour at daycare. But it turns out that in honor of Rosh Chodesh Adar, the entire pre-school had a parade. Long story short, I went with The Babe-o on said parade, and enjoyed every one of the ensuing 40 minutes. Oh. My. Gosh. Children aged 6 months through 4 or 5 years did march around the kibbutz singing loudly. (In the spirit of accuracy, those children too young to march were pushed in the very-Israeli playpens-on-wheels. Except BSM, who is still kind of a visitor, so he, poor thing, was pushed in his stroller,which had many fewer commas than this sentence. More oranges though. BSM loves playin with oranges.) Each grade was dressed up as something different, with the babies being dressed up as "people." I thought the 2-year-olds were pumpkins (probably Halloween overstock), but it turns out that they were carrots. Silly of me: their costumes were belted at the waist, so clearly not pumpkins!
One of the beautiful parts of Kibbutz life is that the youngest children can go celebrate with the oldest members as part of a quick jaunt. (They went to the old-age home and made lots of noise.) A bunch of kids also picked up their parents as they marched through various buildings. It was also great seeing the older kids wandering over to say hi to their younger siblings. Anywho, I was smiling the whole time, it was totally glorious, but as I don't feel like writing a poem to explain why, you'll just have to take my word for it.
Brett translated 2 of the 3 paragraphs I didn't understand from our residential contract: the 3rd paragraph was pure legalese, and he was stumped. Ha-ha! If I can't translate it, it may be because it's the sort of paragraph I would't understand in English, either! I am feeling better and better about my Hebrew skills.
But wait! There's more! Ever since I met with Ari about working on PV, and he told me to talk to the head electrician, Eitan, I've been procrastinating masterfully. Cleaning the house, emailing other people to warm up my Hebrew emailing skills, leaving a draft open in my email... you know. the productive kind of procrastination. This morning, I bit the bullet and sent Eitan a 3-line email (+3 lines for salutation and sign-off, and another 3 lines for my contact info at the bottom) explaining who I am and that I want a job.
This afternoon, a man sat down next to us at lunch, asked if I was an electrical engineer, and, with a huge smile at my affirmative, asked why I hadn't been to see him yet. At this point (30 seconds into the conversation), he had put me enough at ease that I was able to smile back, "Who are you in the first place?" I had a sneaking suspicion who he was, but I felt it had to be said. We had a great conversation, in which it unfolded that as desperate as I am to work both on the kibbutz and somewhat in my field, Eitan is desperate for more people to work in his group. Yayness and jubilosity! We arranged to meet tomorrow morning for him to give me an electrifying tour of the kibbutz, and lo I am filled with joy.
Husbinator allowed me to celebrate for maybe two minutes before he started raining on my parade. Since we need an extension cord and the kibbutz market is currently out of extension cords, I am to try to get one from Eitan. Granted (a) that's a good idea and (b) I'm the one who really wants the extension cord... Well, granted nothing! I still don't want to do it. Boo Husbinator for being reasonable. His second damper was to inform me that I am to discuss my salary and I am most emphatically not to accept minimum wage. Ah! Scary stuff!
Neither of these things sound remotely fun, but I am still joyful. So there!
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