moving on up: A Night at the Musem

Our major tiyul over Channukah was arranged by Misrad Klita (Absorption Ministry) and the Haifa Association for Immigrant Absorption who hosted a program at Madatech (Science Centre) during after hours. We thought it sounded like a lot of fun. Our local Anglo community even coordinated a bus, to make it easier to get there.

The amount of disorganization is something that one can come to expect from Israelis. Our bus dropped us off on the opposite side of the museum from where we were entering. We entered through an outside gate, where tropit (Grape drink) and suganiyot (Jelly Donuts) were being served as the only refreshments for the evening. The promise that the tropit would be served later in the evening, in a more contained area to avoid allergy exposure, did not come to fruition. Along with refreshments, we were given tickets and bracelets to help organize the meeting and schedule.

We spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out where the different activities are. There was an announcement for everyone to gather around the open area between the two buildings for speeches. The first speaker was a representative from the Mayor's office, with a dvar torah about the miracle of Channuakah and the miracle of Eretz Israel.

That was followed by announcement for instructions for the evening. The first set were in Hebrew, with detailed instructions of where all the events were taken place and when, along with an explanation of the bracelets. That was followed by the first attempt to make announcements by the Russian interpreter. As the instructions were complicated, they ended up taking a time out to stop and explain everything she needed to announce. During the pause another interpreter took the opportunity to make an announcement in French, that there were not going to be any instructions in French or English as everyone was expected to understand the Hebrew. Next up was the English interpreter who said that if anyone didn't understand they should speak to her privately. Finally the instructions were given in Russian. They concluded with a message in Hebrew, all activities were going to take place precisely on time.

It was time to move on to candle lighting. People were asked to stay (even though it would have made people late for the activities) A Rabbi with a chair and a menorah was brought to the middle. He made the brachot and attempted to light the candles. It was not an easy task in the strong wind. There wasn't any singing afterwards, which was interesting as they had been playing the music half an hour earlier.

Now that our family knew where events were taking place, our family headed to the motion simulator movie. Shlomo was flagged for not meeting the minimum age 6, while a whole bunch of 4 year olds took their seats with no issue. In the end, I stayed for the movie, while the rest of the family explored the museum.

I am not a big fan of motion simulators. Unless the presentation is designed around the motion technology, such as a race car or roller coaster simulation. Otherwise I find there is too much shaking for the sake of having the ability to, rather than creating a multi-faceted experience. I found the same to be true in this case.

It was a cute presentation on the solar system, starting from the big bang, through the solar system all the way to the outskirts of the Milky Way. They then did a zoom in on a cell in the body, showing how the universe is just as expansive in the other direction, as they went down to a quark.

There were two awkward memorable parts from the presentation. After covering the death of the dinosaurs they transferred in to: A meteor will hit the earth, causing destruction to most of the species on earth. The sun will expand and swallow up the inner planets of the solar system before becoming a white dwarf. Only after declaring a need for humans to find new places in the galaxy to live, did they mention that it won't happen for a long time. That traumatized some of the kids, who thought we were talking about their life time. Some Mom's appeased their kids by saying that nobody has any way of knowing if such an event could take place. I also saw a kid turn to their mom and ask 'What was it liking living your whole life, thinking something was a planet and then one day find out it wasn't.' Who knew that Pluto's planetary demotion could make me feel so old.

After the movie, I rejoined the family. We decided to skip the 2nd presentation as all the kids were having a great time at the different exhibits. It was much easier to explore when the individual exhibits were all mostly empty.

Overall everyone had a great time. It was a good reminder of the level of organization to be expected at these types of events.