Aliyah – Tagging Along

Last year I was in kitah bet at Sde Chemed in Ma’ale Adumim and I kind of liked it, mostly because of my friends especially my best friend Eliad. And because I could bring my Game Boy to school and play during hafsaka (that means recess). I went to ulpan too, 3 mornings a week. But this year we had to move to the center of the country because my dad got a job in Netanya. So last week I had to start at another new school and I wasn’t happy.

My mom insisted on taking pictures and tried to get me to stop being angry and smile for the camera. She was just getting me more annoyed. I was tired from all the times we had to go buy more books and supplies for school – we went to three different stores and one of them at least 4 times until we were able to find everything on the list.


This is a picture of my teacher she took, we thought she was Morah Gila but she turned out to be Morah Keren (the office gave us the wrong information).

School is pretty boring so far. But I do like having a computer class this year, I didn’t have one last year. My morning starts out with davening and Torah and then dinim (halacha) and then eating and hafsaka. During the lunch break (which is really around 10:30) we have to put a towel on our desks because the teacher doesn’t think the desks are clean enough. Some people eat snacks like cereal without milk, or cookies, or granola bars; some bring sandwiches, salads or cut up vegetables. The break seems like it is only 2 minutes long but my mom said that we get at least fifteen.

Then the hafsaka bell rings and we can play soccer, basketball or do whatever we want. Some people play Bakugan battles and they trade cards or Bakugans in this area of the playground.

There is also this game that they do in kitah gimmel where the boys chase the girls into the bathrooms and try to beat them up – NO! I don’t participate. What I don’t get is that the girls don’t complain, they seem to like it. Dad tells me I’ll never be able to figure them out.

Some days I have math, science, art, music, English, sports, Mishna, Rashi writing, Israel studies or lashon. On Friday morning we go to an assembly followed by tefila back in our classroom, and we have to wear our white shirts.

If you are a new oleh then you have ulpan most of the day after davening. They tried to put me there but then they let me out after Mom went into the office a zillion times and asked them to test me. Now I only go for a couple hours a week.

One thing that is cool is that last year I didn’t get out until almost 3:30 most days and this year I get out between 12:45 and 1:30, and even earlier on Fridays. Another thing is that a lot of kids in my school speak English, and some speak Spanish or French, and everyone speaks Hebrew except some of the new kids in ulpan – but they will too soon.