A day in the park

Yesterday was our fourth shabbat here. To mark the occasion, we took another walk! Last week, we went to Liberty Bell park and noticed that there is a theater right next to the dragon (pictured last week). It's a satellite branch of the train theater and every shabbat they put on puppet shows for children. This week was "Peter Rabbit", a favorite story of Silvia's, so we decided to go. Since the shows are all in Hebrew, we decided that I (Aaron) should go to show with Silvia, while Debra would play in the park with Miriam. I was a little worried that Silvia wouldn't understand it, but decided that since she knew the story very well, she would be able to figure it out.

We got there early to buy tickets, and about ten minutes before the show, we heard, to our great surprise, "Debra! Aaron!". We looked up and saw a woman walking towards us. As she came closer, we realized that is was the very nice woman we had met three weeks ago at the Tiyelet. She was out walking for Shabbat again, and happened to bump into us again! We're beginning to think that this is how Jerusalem works: A big city where you run into the same people all the time. So while Silvia and I were at the show, Debra sat outside talking the whole time.

The puppet show was great. It was Silvia's first time at a real puppet show and she loved it! The show was actually based on the Beatrix Potter, but it was really a very different story. The puppeteer was very good at involving the children and keeping them interested. I was trying to watch Silvia's face during the show, and she was smiling and laughing at the right times, and it was clear to me that she was understanding most of what was going on. Only twice did she ask me what was happening, or what was being said. I had expected that it would be the standard with Silvia: no real outward show that she was enjoying it while it was happening, and then she would tell us she loved it afterwards.

And it seemed that I wasn't wrong, except when we talked about it later on, the things that she kept mentioning were the curtain over the front door and that Peter Rabbit rode a bicycle, which I have to say, was a very cool puppet. Not the most important or significant parts of the story, but I guess they were for her.

I think we'll go again, though I definitely want to wait a month or two until her Hebrew is stronger before we go to a story that she doesn't know. But over all, I think it was a very fun day.