I have an amazing host family

I've totally lucked out with my host family--Tali and Avi are super welcoming and kind. Their kitchen has been under renovation for the past few weeks (something that I have sympathy with given the fact that our house still isn't finished, so we've been going to different family members homes for Shabbat dinner. Last weekend we went to Tali's mother's home, which was cool and I'll write about later.

This weekend we went to Tali's middle sister's home (Tali is the oldest of three). It was the sister, her husband, his parents, a 21 year old son, and a 6 year old son. Plus, we (another kid from my program, J, is now my 'host brother', since his host family didn't work out) brought along two girls from our program who are going to be Tali's sister's host children. A few minutes after I arrived, J, who is goofily funny, often unintentionally, in his deep sincerity to interact with everyone, was talking to the grandfather, who responded in Hebrew. His wife, Mazal, leaned over and said what sounded to me like "No se entiende. No se entiende." She was speaking Spanish! Finally, an older person I can communicate well with! Usually the older generations don't speak much English, and it can be harder. Last weekend Tali's mother spoke English, but her companion did not.

Well, I was so excited to speak with Mazal in Spanish, and she told me that she was born in Greece, but her family spoke Ladino. Ladino! Only complete Spanish nerds will be excited about this, but that includes me. Ladino is a form of medieval Spanish that is now spoken only by certain groups of Jews, since we were kicked out of Spain just in time for the groups to maintain what is now a unique form of Spanish. She also speaks Greek, Hebrew, Yiddish, some English, French, Polish (because of a neighbor) and Bulgarian (because her husband is from Bulgaria). She told me she loves languages.

Mazal also told me that she has been in Israel for 61 years--since Israel has existed! She moved here at 16, to Rechovot (a nearby town). They didn't have electricity or running water, but they were safe. She was just a girl when the Holocaust started. Her mother died in Auschwitz. I didn't dare ask where Mazal was during the war. She and her father came to Israel. Her son, Haim, told me that her family had been fairly aristocratic in Greece before the war, but after, she ended up in a developing country without utilities or any of the comforts of home, but alive.

Mazal asked me to come visit her. I gave her my phone number, and I really hope she calls.

I have the most interesting host family! Today my host uncle is taking some clients hang gliding, and then he's going to take some of us to the beach. And tonight is the beginning of Tel Aviv's centennial celebrations. They'll go on all spring. I'm going to try to catch up on my journal this evening, so I'll have lots of new posts soon. Maybe one of these days I'll succeed in doing two post of week, my goal.