Although this certainly isn’t a “follow us as we make aliyah blog” – of which there are so many good ones – some funny tidbits from life in Israel are worth mentioning.
I didn’t attend ulpan for a multitude of reasons, though learning fluent Hebrew is still very much so in my long-term plan, but I’ve done my best to learn enough, read what I can and get by in Hebrew.
The grocery store offers hundreds of ways to improve, whether it’s figuring out why you didn’t get the sale price that was marked or understanding that economica has nothing to do with financial markets or supply and demand.
A lot of my working vocabulary has come from the products we buy, but it has its pros and cons.
For the life of me, I just couldn’t understand why someone would name their daughter Barley. Now Hebrew has some quirky names for things that appear in nature.
I know a beautiful Lilach. And our sweet neighbor, her friend, is a very kind Gefen. But really? Barley?
But sure enough, I know a lot of lovely people named Penina, and it’s right there on the package. Pearl barley is גריסי פנינה.
Oh. Right. It took me until this week to work out that the גריסי part means barley.
In other news, Penina, or pearl, is a lovely name for a girl, don’t you think?
Very funny! And I am honored to receive such link love!