Bullet Points from the last few weeks

--My friend Ashley, from grad school, hosted an American-Israeli (plus a lone Brit, and 3 South Africans) Thanksgiving. We had turkey, mashed potatoes. . . eggplant salad, Jerusalem salad, Persian flatbread, sufganiyot (Hanukah donuts), and rugelach. So, you know, just your traditional holiday menu.

--All of my students at school are both dubious of and enamored with "Sahn-TAH Claw-OOS." Several have requested that we do an in-class Christmas celebration, like we have with other American holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I told them that there's a pretty strong Jesus connection, so it'd likely be a no-go with the people in charge of all of us.

--For the aforementioned Thanksgiving school celebration, I forced all my first-graders to make that beloved Thanksgiving craft, the Hand Turkey. They also practiced writing by making a list of things they were grateful for. These lists included: My Family, Mommy, Tal (someone's best friend/desk partner), pizza, "the trees and the sky," "everything! ! ! ! ! !," and "no homework."

--I told one of my colleagues at school, in Hebrew, that I was staying after to have a parent meeting.

She told me that the word I was using for "meeting," meant something more along the lines of a world summit, or U.N. assembly.

Not really the same thing at all.