סוף סוף

At the end of the affair, I was feeling very sentimental.

It took me 2 hours to get to my voting station because the bus never came and it was a pretty day at that point and I wanted to walk around the city I live in and get some fresh air. It was some great quality time on top of being election day…

Guy at the bus stop (before I realized the 24 was not going to be running today at all) was an older Mizrachi guy who chatted me up until his bus came.
Where are you from? Do you understand me? What do you study?

Who are you voting for? Are you right-wing? Center?

I’ll tell you something, if Sharon were in this, things would be different. I’m a good friend of Olmert – so I’ll tell you – he doesn’t look strong, he doesn’t sound mean, but trust me – he will be very strong, he will fight what needs to be fought, he hates Arabs and he will be a good leader.

I liked the guy at the bus, he was patient with my Hebrew and really nice to me.

Anyways, I got to the voting station smiling, and it felt great to hand them my teudat zehut and be crossed off and escorted into a classroom by this happy old guy.

Then they checked my numbers again. I took an envelope and left the t.z. with the 2 volunteers.

I went behind a cardboard stand and found before me a tray of notes, for the 32 parties running. Hebrew letters, sitting in their little sections, waiting to be picked up. I wanted to pick them all up and hug them.

So I only picked up one, slipped it in the envelope, and walked back to the table with the volunteers and slipped it in the big blue box: (nytimes)

~~~~~

I voted:

– because I miss Sharon
– because I hate Bibi
– because I want to go forward
– because the man at the bus stop