Good Byes
Everyone in my program is beginning to leave. I totally missed Aly by an hour when I came home from Haifa on Monday night. Then Gina left on Thursday. Finally Dena and Jess left tonight. Now I have the apartment all to myself! I also had a farewell Shabbat dinner with some of the Rothberg people last night- I took my last challah out of the freezer for the occasion. It was still delicious- was gone within 10 minutes and eaten before the store bought ones! I don't like to say good byes so I just make them quick. Technology makes communication a lot easier that it almost feels like you'll hear from them before you know it. You know? Anyway, most of the people are leaving tomorrow.
I also had to say good-bye to my now officially stolen wallet.
Hellos
The CJU (Colgate Jewish Union) Birthright trip came to Jerusalem!!! I walked over to their hotel (Olive Tree) in East Jerusalem and searched for them in vain for a while because they were in discussion groups in various places around the hotel. I chilled with Rabbi Dave for a bit after the groups broke up and then went off to do walking tours. When they came back, I hung out with some of the graduated seniors... I really thought that I wouldn't like to hang out with Americans again so much but these guys... even though I never met them before, they were so easy to hang out and talk to. I realized that Israeli guys really don't know how to create friendship with women. So I smoked some hookah and had great laughs with them. In a way, I forgot how much of eye-candies the Colgate guys were :) I saw Jess, Rob, and Brian (admittedly, I totally blanked out on his name when I saw him). I also met some people on the other buses including some guy who came to the States from Russia who ended up hitting on me (which really creeped me out- left him pretty quickly after he asked what I'd be doing later tonight). Even more wild was that I ran into Kelly and Sarah, my interpreters from my birthright trip two years ago!!!! They were on another trip. They couldn't believe that I was in Israel! I also met a student from RIT who used pad and pen to communicate with me and another one who asked about my cochlear implants. In call, those 7 1/2 hours at the hotel was mad insane.
Before dinner, I saw Hilary! I didn't think she'd be coming to Jerusalem but she did. So while the trip went off to listen to a speaker before going out to Ben Yehuda, Hil and I decided to go for drinks on Ben Yehuda. She acted like a big flirt when she thought she lost her wallet but the driver still wouldn't give us the price that I wanted (20 shekelim) but he gave her his card "in case she wanted to be pick up later on ." Boy, Hil still needs to know about bargaining with the drivers (She takes shreut around Tel Aviv). Anyway, I had a great time talking with her and we shopped along Ben Yehuda a bit. Then we met up with a couple of other people- including one Colgate girl who's working in Jerusalem.
When Hil (on the left) said that even though it's been a week, she already feels like she's been here for a month. I said, for me, even though I've been here for 5 months, it really feels more like I've lived here for a year and really am living in Israel. What I love about living in Israel and in Jerusalem, in particular, is that people come. I told her about how I went to the airport twice to pick up my family and the scene, really, is incredible when the people come out of the baggage claim and meet up with their loved ones.. it's a big lovefest. Though I didn't cry when I saw the CJU people but having them here made me feel very confident of myself, for being part of Israel... For me, Israel is really home and even though I don't need to say it to my visitors, but I feel like saying "Welcome to my home, I'm glad that you came!" It's very strange in a sense the way I felt when I hugged my friends. Of course, I missed them, but not in a way that I felt like if they didn't come, I wouldn't cry, beg, and plead to see them. You know? Like I can live to be here.
Not like as if I was living in Prague or London. I think what Melissa the American Olah (who I met a few weeks ago) said about have support in Israel to make living in Israel easier is absolutely true. It really helps a lot to have a network of family friends here to pull me out of deep water and to give me a home with homemade meals and lots of family loving when I want to get away from my (now lonely) apartment. (And of course, loans when I absolutely need it) I look forward to calling them and to seeing them. Once you have that, you don't feel the need to leave the country because you "have nothing." I am currently seeing my return to the States as a extended "visit." My parents and I are definitely glad that I have one more year of Colgate left... without Colgate, I'm not sure if I would've really left Israel unless I had something concrete back in the States awaiting my return.
Which is probably why I'm extending this internship with Yad Vashem- got turned down for everything in the States for the summer. If there's nothing in the States, then, why leave?
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