"That was some strange trip!"

So said my dad when I came home. "You were this low, then this high, then this low..."

I nodded. As much I really hated to leave Israel, I just had enough for this year. Everyone who knew about my trip this year (or at least almost everything) could understand the situation of how I was feeling and why I wanted to get back to the States. I also really wanted to get my hands on my credit and debit cards! (Which are now activated and safe in my wallet.)

The last day was extremely hectic. I got up early again (annoying my roommate once again) to do my laundry so I wouldn't have to deal with doing laundry and I needed to roll all of my clothes in order to fit everything in my duffel bag. Then I went to class and learned a few new things. Somehow I felt that I had made peace with Naomi or something. She handed me my essays back and said, "Well, I didn't think you were doing anything in the last few weeks but you're actually doing good work!" I looked over the essays, there were some corrections but not as many as when I was finishing up Yiddish at Michigan. I noticed that I had improved my word order in my sentences and using proper cases (accusative versus dative). But my verb patterns were still off. I was happy! I was able to do decently in Yiddish while having a blast in Israel! I said that I would try to get the essays re-written this afternoon before I head to the airport (which I never did because time flew by too fast while I was trying to prepare to leave). I also told her that I was glad that my Yiddish reading and writing improved because I was getting daily doses of Yiddish for the last few weeks. Now I feel a bit better about moving on in Yiddish, taking my hand at the rest of texts that I have that I can practice for the month of August with Zev. Naomi was a good teacher, she's just mellow and easy-going.

During break, I went to the bookstore to pick up my copy of Night by Elie Wiesel in עברית!

After class, I met up with my old high school classmate, Mike, for lunch at Aroma. It was fun talking with him about Israel and what we're doing nowadays. It was just kind of weird to see somebody from Rochester here in Israel. Maybe that's just me to see any American in Israel on a visit. It's like, okay, our topics are going to have to be based on how many times and how long you've been in Israel.... This was his first visit back (I think) since our birthright trip in 2005. Certainly a lot has changed since!

Then I went to the office to check out. I needed to meet Shiri at 2:30 and by then I was getting to be late. The staff member said that he could meet me in my room at 3:30 but not later than 4. Dammit! So I called Shiri and tried to explain the situation. But it all ended up with me just walking over to the dorms while letting her just park at the mall and wait for me there. Once I got the dorm thing all checked out, I went over to the mall to meet Shiri.

We grabbed some late afternoon snacks- her some soup and bread and I with my last cup of iced coffee and a scoop of gelato. It was funny when she gave me a strange look when I made my order in Hebrew because she had expected me to speak English. She couldn't figure out what I was saying when I said gileda to the waitress (who was awful by the way).

After we said our good-byes, I picked up a few things around the mall for my family. I would've liked to bring back one of the cakes but my suitcase was getting tight.

I went back to my room to finish packing. Man, it was so hot and humid that I was literally sweating the whole time. I couldn't be bothered to shower at all because I would just sweat again.

The whole afternoon just flew that every time I looked at my watch to determine my next move, it was already getting closer to my departure time- 7 pm! I wanted to catch the 7:40 train to the airport so I'd get there at 8:05 to start standing in the line.

But problems with the guard ended up costing me some time. He didn't want to hold onto a bag of things that I had for the Ravids to give back and Shlomi called back at the same time. So I got the two of them connected and Shlomi won the argument. I took the digital camera out and left everything else with them.

Then I got my bags out of the dorms. Oh my god, the pink duffel bag was way, way, way too heavy! It was not close to 50 pounds but certainly heavier than 30. I had a little help getting it down the stairs to the curb. There, I waited for the bus. But I was getting anxious and began looking for cabs too. I eventually flagged down one.

The driver looked at me and my bags and said, "25 shekels." I looked at hime, pleadingly, "Give me a break, please, I'm trying to get to the airport!" He shrugged and said, "well you're putting these in my car! I can't do less. But I can take you to the airport." How much? "130 shekels." I shook my head. It was comical at that point because the two of us were just standing there, having a stand-off. Then I said, "Fine, I'll wait for someone else then." He began walking towards his door and looked back, "Okay, if that's what you really want..." Then I muttered, "oh fine, just get me to the train station for 25 shekels." He put the bags in the car. Off we go.

In the short 4 minute drive to the train station, he learned that I was an American and that this was not my first time in Israel, that I was studying at Tel Aviv University, that I have family friends.... it was all enough for him to beg one more time if I could just please look in my wallet for anything more than 70 shekels that I had said when we first started driving. I meant to pull out the 50 and 20 shekel bills but ended up pulling out the 100 and he saw that. Then he said, "Okay, you have a 100! I'll take you for 120, beseder?" I rolled my eyes, he was actually pretty good company and I'd pay for that (as opposed to a silent driver who'd prefer to listen to music and the radio chatter). So I said, fine, take me to the airport. I was also very nervous at the thought of trying to carry my very heavy pink duffel through the station.

We had a very good chat on the way. I just had to hope that I could make it out otherwise I'd be left with 50 shekels for the rest of my stay without borrowing money. He was originally from Spain and made aliyah with his whole family 25 years ago. His family knew that they were always Jewish. He gave me some opinions about Americans and Obama. He actually liked Obama to some degree. Unlike Hadar, he agreed that Sarah Palin was a terrible choice for Israel. (I was really amazed that the Israelis knew who she was!). Israelis really loved talking about American politics as if they could participate in the US' electoral system.

When I got to the airport, I bummed around for 20 minutes before going to the first round of security. My security guard was pretty good with me, waited for the PA to be over before talking with me again. He smiled when he saw that I had been in and out of Israel 5 times (4 times from the US, 1 time from Prague). I was basically harmless. So he let me through. I went over to the counter and found at least 5 or 6 groups waiting ahead of me. When I got to the counter, they said "Stand by number 12, go behind the wall to the ticketing counter." Uh oh. I had checked the number of seats before and there were 8.... When I got to the ticketing counter, there was a family, one woman, and one guy. The one guy was chatting with the ticketing counter person. Then the woman and the family decided to leave the line for... I don't know. So I moved up. I said, "This is for Continental stand-by right?" He said yes. While the one guy was on the phone, he dealt with me. He told me, "Okay you're on stand by but I don't think your chances are very good..." I said, "Where am I on the list?" He replied, "You're number two." Then I looked at him and said, "Two? Who's number one?" He pointed to the guy who was on the phone before. He and I stared at each other almost awkwardly and said, "Oh, hi there." We almost cracked up.

I spent the waiting time eating my dinner (leftover falafels and pita and salad from Hadar), talking to Mor on the phone, and re-writing my Yiddish essays, just for the heck of it. In fact, I stayed at the table for so long that one of the security guards came over to see what I was doing and asked for my passport!

When I got back up, I began chatting with the Number One to find out his situation. He had to fly back to Mexico City for an unexpected meeting the following day. Ok, that's legit. Then again, anyone could say that. We got talking about Maccabiah games as that's what he was doing in Israel- playing soccer for Mexico. I asked about swine flu and he said, it's all true, everyone really stayed home and all the streets were empty. He blamed the US media for overblowing the whole swine flu situation. In all, it was fun chatting with him. Boy, I was having a good day meeting random people! Then the airline staff called as over. We stood there, waiting with our passports. A whole family of 5 checked in and went with security to the gate. Oh no.... not good. Then a guy claimed a medical excuse and paid up. Then there were 6 of us left on stand-by. One of the staff helping out with the seats looked at us and her supervisor, "A'hat (pointed to the Mexican guy), shaim (me), v'sholosh (the guy waiting at the far end of the counter)." I realized that there must be three seats left and they were looking for them on the map. Finally they called the Mexican guy up and after tense three minutes, they called me up. Wow. Then I went to my bag to find my credit card.... my wallet wasn't in my backpack! I looked at them and freaked out, "I can't find my wallet! It's downstairs!" The supervisor said firmly, "No, you need to get on the plane now!" I groaned a little because I had enough of losing things.... but I kept it in perspective realizing it's only 50 shekels in there, plus my parents' credit card.

On the plane, I discovered that I would be sitting next to two children, probably about 6 and 8 years old. I gritted my teeth, I didn't exactly want to be sitting next to Israeli children (who typical did not behave very well). Surprisely, they seemed to be very quiet. My seat was also a window seat so I coaxed them to take it and neither looked at me and shook their heads, nooooo way. I couldn't believe it! These children didn't want to sit next to the window??

Actually, turned out that these children were Americans as I saw them again at the passport control in Newark. So that's why they were so quiet and well-mannered....

When I waited around Newark, I felt a sense of disappointment. I mean, one minute I'm in Tel Aviv, and the next I'm in the United States.

Did I make the right decision to leave Israel? Israel never makes life easy for me.