Checked the mail today. Being in a new district, outside of Jerusalem, makes for interesting mail. Tzur Hadassah is technically a part of Matte Yehuda (מטה יהודה) but it borders Beitar, which is technically in Gush Etzion, however… yeah.
So in the mail, I usually get telephone books for different districts, catalogs for different shopping centers. [...]
Haven’t done this in a while, but here goes.
Aliyah
At this point, I’ve been living in Israel for three and a half years. Seems like so much longer… I can now count ‘old friends’ I had when I first came, I have a lengthy list of apartments I’ve lived/crashed in, I’ve been married for nearly two [...]
Russian man with silver teeth: grumbles something in heavy accented Hebrew (or maybe it was Russian?) and points to a package of frozen dough
Me: “Slicha?”
Russian man with silver teeth: grumbles something else in Hebrew, pointing to the price
Me: looking confused
Russian man with silver teeth: smiles big, “Aaah…. Priveyet, russian russian russian russian russian…”
Me: smiles back, [...]
Continuing from the last post, here is an email I wrote after a couple weeks of living here. It’s kind of funny how much more I know now… Which makes me wonder if I had thought I did enough research before moving here… But then again, we moved here on pure recommendation from friends. Here [...]
Since my self-mutilation on a roller coaster story formed, I’ve been making a lot of people laugh with it, and who am I to stop people from laughing? I’m reposting the tale for all of eternity:
This has to be my second most loserish thing I’ve ever done.
So last night I met up with two friends [...]
Usually when I touch down in JFK, flying over Queens at dawn, I get teary-eyed and patriotic for my hometown. I’ve been pretty emotional about New York since I left; even before I left.
Maybe it’s because I landed here today coming off the Presidents Conference, or maybe it’s been a year and four months since [...]
I want Elie Weisel to come tuck me in at night and tell me stories… They don’t all have to be depressing just because they come from a Nobel Peace Prize-winning, bestselling author of a Holocaust survivor.
Although they would probably all be dramatic. Here is Mr. Weisel telling his favorite, inspiring story at the end [...]
Spent the evening strolling around the Yom Haatzmaut celebration going on in the Tzur Hadassah elementary schoolyard. Clowns, kids, silly string, shaving cream, noise makers, cotton candy, lights, balloons… This no singles’ event.
I started reading old entries from a few years ago, describing my purpose for moving to Israel, my role in the aliyah movement, [...]
My professor had us draw a chart describing an experience of separation we’ve gone in childhood, teenage years, as an adult and also one that we expect in the next five or so years.
Oddly, the easiest phase to fill out was the last; it came to me immediately and it’s a wonder that little introspection [...]
After almost a week of driving back and forth to work through trees and hills (the way God intended, no doubt) I have to say that it’s as if I’m only just now settling into my Israeli life. Jerusalem is more international, more global… in importance, position, people. It was a very different Israel, if [...]