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| Unflattering selfie of me doing 'kiss and go' at DD's school. |
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Kiss And Go
Even those of us without cars have to do our "kiss and go" duty outside the school gates once a year. From 07.30 till 08.15 you help kids out the cars and remind them to kiss their parents before they go. It supposedly speeds up the dropping off process and helps avoid gridlock outside school. In reality, not that many children come by car and most of them don't need help getting out of said car.
We got the list way back in October and thankfully, for once, my day was a Friday (our weekends are Fri/Sat but there is Friday morning school) so no rescheduling was involved. I've repeatedly asked that we get a sign up sheet but they insist on giving out the days and then we are responsible for finding a replacement if we can't do that day. Families with two adults have more options but there's still a frantic swapping fest on Whatsapp after the list comes out. I got a Friday so I just sat back and let the games play out.
Then they discovered that they'd missed out two days because the Hanuka holidays are shorter than they'd allowed for. Everyone got shifted up two days. God forbid it shouldn't go in alphabetical order and the last two people on the list should be slotted into the two missing days. No, 20 people were shifted to different days and the swapping began again. Obviously no one is going to give up a Friday.
I was suddenly on a Wednesday morning. Now, some of my mornings are more flexible than others but I can honestly say that Wednesday morning is the one day that if I don't show up at school on time, a lot of people are inconvenienced and a substitute has to be found for that first lesson. I refused to accept the sudden change. I kicked up a fuss.
Whilst I was kicking, someone noticed that yesterday had been given to the girl whose family had emigrated to Canada in the middle of October. I jumped in and claimed her spot. So I did "kiss and go" yesterday from 07.30 till 08.15 and then went on to my school 40 minutes away on the bus. (15 minutes as the
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A Day Full Of Windows
Thursday is a ridiculous day at school for me. Whereas Wednesday is seven lessons straight with no free periods (we call them windows here) and library duty during morning playtime, on Thursdays I only teach two lesson (and I missed the first one - a group of 6th graders for English enrichment). So I went in to teach one lesson. Annoying but also a no-pressure day when I get to prepare everything for the following week and do all my marking.
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Gymnastics
I got home later than usual because the new and very young bus driver, obviously on his maiden voyage, crawled along at about 10 mph. I did eventually get there and then we were out and on to gymnastics. DD still loves it and I used the time to catch up on some school
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Thanksgiving Dinner
And finally we got to relax as we went on to our Thanksgiving dinner thrown by an American friend for all her nearest and dearest in Israel. It's a big event - catered in a hall with a soft play area for the little kids. DD and the other older girls used this area for gymnastics as the sponge mats were exactly the right thickness. I had a glass of wine, a number of plates of food from the delicious buffet, and long uninterrupted conversations with my friends. Perfect.
(And whilst we did acknowledge that one man's Thanksgiving is another man's Nakba, we tried to concentrate on the joy and good fortune of the European settlers rather than the Native Americans dying from the germ-infested blankets they were gifted.)
One ridiculous Thanksgiving nonsense that has come to Israel, is that all the shops are doing 'Black Friday' sales. It's not even a national holiday here. I refuse to go shopping today. Bah Humbug. Although, actually, it won't help them much as we all did our shopping on municipal elections day three weeks ago which was a national holiday.
Have a wonderful weekend. The R2BC linky is on Michelle's Mummy from the Heart.
Lol, I hope Mrs X manages to make it back for Kiss and go. When I stayed with a friend in the US they had that system, whereas here, everyone parks everywhere and it all gets clogged. I'm glad my kids are past that now. Mich x
ReplyDeleteI can honestly say that I helped three younger kids out of their cars and asked one driver to move along rather than block the entrance while he texted on his phone. Otoh I did listen to the school guard practice his English on me for half an hour - until I managed to indicate that I wans't interested in discussing The Beatles.
DeleteIf you have any idea of where in Toronto Mrs. X has moved to I'll be happy to pass along the message! :-)
ReplyDeleteWe too have adopted "Black Friday" but I refuse to get caught up in it all. I have been inundated with ads for the past couple of weeks but I've checked a lot of the prices and really, there's not much difference or I know where to get things cheaper - I think a lot of it is just a scam. There are a few good deals to lure people in but the rest of the prices aren't a lot different. It used to be Boxing Day that was the crazy day here - and again, nothing was worth getting up for t the crack of dawn to stand in line for hours and hours. Thanksgiving used to be such a huge family holiday in the US but now all you hear about is people gulping down a meal so that they can head out to get in line to shop! The loved ones are either in another line or left at home - it's insane!
Glad to hear that you were able to enjoy a lovely dinner with friends - that's the way it's supposed to be celebrated.
I regard it as the American harvest festival and that makes it universal and for everyone. Like I concentrate on the Yuletide at Xmas, and turning on the heating around Hannukah time. #cynicaltimes
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