"So ya had a bad day......" (SUCH a good song!)

Thursday......dum da da da duuuuuuuuum!!!

Ok, so I guess everyone has to have one of these days. And when I am a "Vatika" I will be able to look back and laugh and say "Well, let me tell you what happened to ME on my 4th day in Israel". It was a rough one but I survived......
Some of you saw my Facebook status so you got the gist of it but here is the more in depth run down.
Wednesday night was another rough one. We were wide awake at about midnight to 2 or 3. Then got up at 7am to get ready and get the kids up. I had already planned for a rough morning because Shauli was leaving for Jerusalem but I was not quite prepared for what happened.
Jonah did NOT want to wake up. He kept saying he was too tired, he didn't want to go to Gan. It was getting really late and we were finally able to get him and Sammy up and dressed. They were NOT happy.
We rushed out the door at the same time as Shauli and at the top of the stairs he said, "Hey, don't you want a set of keys too?" I said, "Phew, yes, that would not be a good thing to forget." I was already halfway down the stairs so he grabbed the extra keys and we hurried downstairs. I got the kids in the stroller and then Shu's ride to J'lem showed up - looking hurried. So Shu waved a quick goodbye, jumped into the car, and drove off. As I watched the car pull away - I realized he hadn't given me the key!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ran into the street and shouted "SHAULIIIIIIIIIIII" waving my arms but to no avail....
My heart absolutely sank. Because not only did I not have the keys but I did not have a phone (Shu had our only one), or money, or water, or anything! Just me and the kids. Gulp. And a very hot morning.
I was also running late so I started getting worried that once I make it to the Gan, no one will be left there (parentwise) so I can't even hope to run into one of my friends. I will have to ask the new Ganenet for her phone and I don't even know my phone number!! But I figured that's better than nothing. I pulled out my handy dandy map and proceeded to get lost.
We eventually made it to the Gan and luckily ran into Avi's wife who listened very patiently to me as I blurted out my sad story. She started making a bunch of phone calls and let me use her phone to call Shu (he was way out of Ariel by then). We finally located an extra set of keys at our landlord's brothers house but he wouldn't be around until after 2:30 that afternoon. I felt so bad because I knew she had a meeting that morning and I was totally keeping her. She did offer for me to come and hang out at her house but she wouldn't be around for the next couple of hours.
Then we had the second issue which was Jonah absolutely REFUSING to go to Gan. Flat out. So I took him inside and told him I would sit with him just like we did the day before. We introduced ourselves to the new/"Real" Ganenet and he completely fell apart. He started crying and crying and begging to leave and I didn't know what to do! I never see him like that - a total basket case- and I felt like I didn't know how to handle it. On top of that, I am trying to explain to him that we have nowhere to go!!
Then Avi's wife, Dana, brough Ayala in (our neighbor)and said that she had offered to help us out and we could go to her house in the morning, no problem. And seeing a familier, friendly face of someone who was going to "Rescue" us, just made me melt and then I started crying. So Jonah is crying because he doesn't want to stay and I am crying because it's been a horrible day and it wasn't even 9:00!! And people are looking at us like who are those 2 crazy kooks?
Well, at that point I really didn't know what to do so I told him if he really didn't want to stay then for today he could come home with me. Whatever home was.
So we walked home with Ayala. Her, with one less child than she came with, and me with both. Oh well. She gave us something to drink when we got there and we had some breakfast too. Then the kids played and I read books. They have a daughter Sammy's age (plus 2 older sons, one of which is Jonah's age - but he was at his Gan) and Sammy for the most part played nicely with her but he would also randomly go over and pinch her. And when I told him NOOO, we don't pinch. We make niiiice. Then he would pat her head. But he kept doing it!!
I put Sammy down for a nap at almost 12 and Ayala told me to go ahead and rest. So I fell asleep and shortly afterwards, Jonah told me he was tired. So he fell asleep on the couch too. The baby girl went to sleep and Ayala said the house was so quiet that she lay down for a rest too!! So we snoozed away for a couple hours. Then we got up and had lunch and Dana dropped off the key. We were able to get back into the apartment and then I was lucky enough to deal with 2 very bored kids at our house for the next few hours. Eventually they had dinner and finally, finally, at around 7:30 Shauli came home.
WHAT A DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It gave me a taste of how intense the culture shock can be. So on one hand it's really rough because we are total strangers and newcomers here and we have no clue whats what. On the other hand, I'm learning how nice and caring and giving people in the community are. They are phenomenal!!!
So that's neat.

Ok, I gotta go to sleep! G'NIGHT.
And does anyone out there still read this???