Catching up...and other news.

How often do you feel like you're playing catch-up? Lately, I feel like that most of the time.

Today, I'm catching up on blogging.

I logged on and realized I haven't posted since Christmas? Oy. My apologies.

I was going to post awesome pics of the New Year's party that Itzik and I had tickets for, but then I caught strep throat, missed the party...and almost two weeks of my life. Now I'm playing catch up at that (life), too. So, let me catch you up a little bit about the goings-on in my corner of the world:

At some point (after the penicillin kicked in, methinks) I realized that I needed to make some serious changes, restore my health and officially move from the nomadic, transient head-space I've been inhabiting  since I graduated from TAU (yes, thats right, I actually finished my MA! Baruch HaShem!)

But which changes? First and foremost- yoga. Yoga is an expensive habit I picked up in Boston. Only, in Boston I was volunteering at a studio and was getting my fix for free. When I left for an adventure in the Middle East I let my student-budget put my practice on hold. However, I am no longer a student, I've been sick all winter, I've put on a few lbs, my face has been breaking out for four months, and in general I haven't been feeling at my physical peak. So, this week, I made the executive decision that yoga can no longer be classified as a 'want' rather than a 'need,' and I forked over the cash for a membership at a studio. I've been to several classes, and I can already feel myself returning. My skin is clearing, my thoughts are clearing, and my muscles are shouting at me for more. I have found great value in a habit which works my body, and lets my mind rest for a few hours every week.

Sometimes I go to the beach in the morning to do a little yoga. 
It could be worse.

Until I receive my working visa, my employment options are a bit limited,
so I've been babysitting (what any recent MA grad wants to do) and enjoying the opportunities to get outside, play with children, and walk around Tel Aviv.
Every day I fall more in love with this place. Ellie (the 1-yr-old I pass the time with) and I have been on a mission to find the best playground in Tel Aviv. It's grueling work. We both really hate it.

Also, I experienced my first Israeli election this week. Did you hear about it in the news? If you don't live here, it's likely that you didn't hear much. The outcomes were, politically, a bit unexpected, and interesting (at least to me). But what I want to highlight about Israeli elections, what surprised and delighted me, was the incredible sense of unity and community that comes with an election here. The population is small, and voter turnout was at an all-time high - around 65%. That's a big deal.

One difference between elections in the US and here is that in Israel, Election Day is a bank holiday. Everything is closed. Public transportation runs, but by making Election Day a holiday, the election itself becomes something that you can't ignore. Parents take their children, who see that citizenship is something important and worthwhile. Families spend time together. And it felt to me like everyone had a stake in what was happening that day.

Itzik and I visited his mother outside of Tel Aviv so he could vote, and on the way there it seemed that all of Israel was out and about. We actually cut through the market on foot cause it was faster than sitting on a bus in traffic (I, of course, took the opportunity to grab a smoothie and a donut).

Yes, moving through this crowd was faster than the bus.

Love the shuk. It's never dull.

Itzik's brothers and sister all joined us at their mom's place, and we all walked over to their old elementary school so they could vote. I kept high-fiving Itzik (which he hates) and shouting "citizenship!". I wasn't even voting, but I felt like I was a part of something important.

Afterwards, his mom rewarded me by showing us old family photos.
It would be a shame not to share these:

Itzik (the baby) is now the spitting image of his father (the adult)

Playing dress-up for Purim

In other news...
I've also been making a concerted effort to catch-up with friends and family from back home. My old boss from The David Project, Charles, and his family were in Israel last month and the opportunity was seized to have a DP reunion!

Charles, Libbie, and I

CJ trying to Skype someone in from back home

One of the best parts of the evening was welcoming Maggy and Kurt back to Israel.for good!

They flew in a couple of days prior, and I am LOVING having so many people from home around these days.
More on Maggy's return in a later post.

Okay, I think this is a pretty good catch-up for the time being. We have covered a lot of ground. What do you think? Have any thoughts about the election? Want more pics of Ellie? Into the street art?
Hit me with some feedback, I'd love your thoughts.

It is my solemn vow to you, dear reader, that I won't let so much time pass anymore between posts, so that they are not as jam-packed moving forward.

Hungry? I was.

I had a really special visit with my family in Erie. Mom and I spent time with her sister and my cousins at their summer cottage on Lake Erie, watched the sunset after grilling burgers and reminisced about the long long ago. I spent mornings (and afternoons) chatting with my father over coffee about life and love and finances and politics. I visited with a few childhood friends and caught up on the changes that life has brought us- boyfriends, babies, and a penchant for alliteration (apparently).

It was truly refreshing. And fattening. Honestly, I think I've gained like 10 lbs since landing on US soil. If you'll remember, this doesn't come as huge surprise- food is my favorite part of being American (well, its my favorite part of living, I guess). My entire trip has been oriented around how to procure my favorite meals. Erie was the most artery-clogging, soul-rejuvenating menu of all. Steak and fresh sweet corn, deviled eggs, hamburger stroganoff, John's Pizza, eggs goldenrod, standing rib roast and mashed potatoes (Christmas on Labor Day!), ribs (the day before Labor Day), donuts, burgers...ugh, theres more but instead of telling you I'll just show you. 

Dad puts on his game face for Christmas dinner 

Aebleskiver (swedish pancakes, a Christmas morning tradition)

Eggs goldenrod (aka hard boiled egg heaven)

Jill's Maine-themed experimental brunch- popovers, jam, and millions of other treats

Yum. To all of it.

 It's a good thing that I'll begin sweating this all off as soon as I step off the plane and smack into the wall of Tel Aviv humidity that awaits me next week.

Home is wherever I'm with you.

A few days ago I rented a car (Budget rental = balagan)

 and made the nine-hour drive to my parents' house in Pennsylvania.

It was nothing but me, blue skies, and the open road...

...oh, and the radio playing Taylor Swift's new song "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" 

three times an hour- you do the math.

Being home with my parents is like coming up for air. I'm used to being away from home, but there's something imperceptibly harder about being on a different continent from them. I can't fully express the feeling of peace I get from being with them. Lunches with Mom, mornings with Dad, steaks on the grill...

life is good.

Dad asked me the other day what I missed most about America. 

"Besides you? Target."

Truth.

Besides fawning over my parents and shopping at my favorite discount stores,

I've been enjoying catching up with old friends. 

Holly is one of my best friends from high school, and when I left for Israel she was VERY pregnant. 

Now she's a mom, and my mind is officially blown.

Her son, Kieran, is incredible, and we (of course) loved each other immediately.

I know, he does't look thrilled about me, but just trust me on this one. We had some laughs.

Lately I catch myself referring to many places as 'home'...Erie, Boston, Tel Aviv. Is this self-delusion? A lie? Or is it, rather, an acknowledgement that a place becomes home because there are people in that place who you love and who love you right back. It's hard for me (someone who feels things very deeply) to say goodbyes. It always has been. But moving around the world has made me realize just how blessed I am to have so many different people counted among those I call family. And my family is always growing. 

Okay, I'll leave you with a little gem from my parent's living room. 

A reward for reading to the end of the post. 

Don't adjust your screen. 

This is real.

Shazam!

...and the world spins madly on.

(a foggy day in the Golan Heights, I'll post about that study trip eventually...)

There have been some emotional side effects of moving abroad which, while I didn't see coming weren't wholly surprising either. The best way I can describe it is learning to live with emotional dichotomy. I have felt keenly the effects of two opposite feelings:

1. the life I left behind is moving 

on without me far too rapidly. 

Sasha and Ellen, who I miss with a special part of my heart reserved for family, sent me a video of their daughter Liron reading a Dr. Seuss book last week. When I left Boston she was just beginning to say things! She is so dear to me, and in baby-time a year is a big deal. Kissing her little face when I get home is at the top of my priority list.

The people I love and do my best to keep up with are having babies, or have babies who are growing up, and I'm missing it. In the coming months I'll be missing a couple of  friends' weddings and other important life-events which I would normally move mountains to be a part of, but to my hearts chagrin I can't part seas also. I feel anxious to be a part of my life back home again.

Not to wax sentimental, the crux of this strange dichotomy I'm learning to live with is this, almost anathema reality:

2. The longer I'm here, 

the less I want to leave. 

I'm settling into friendships, building relationships with neighbors and locals (Shay the neighbor, Roni the owner at Shenkin 17, the street cats in the neighborhood) who are becoming characters in my life (and enemies...I hate the cats.) Every moment that passes is a moment here I can't get back, and I don't want to look back and feel that I wasted even one. And with each passing day it becomes harder to imagine going home after only a year here.

So, this is the new baseline of emotion I'm learning to function with 

as someone with my heart split between worlds.

I don't know what will happen after this program/year is over. But for now, I'm choosing to wake up every morning and make the most of what I have. Thankfully, the list of what I have (in the way of furniture) is slim, so I'm never really tempted to stay in and have a chill night at home. Whatever I'm doing (homework, chilling with friends, reading, etc) there's literally nowhere to sit and do it at home- it's a nice impetus for getting out and exploring the city (and making friends with couches...).

Classes are over this week, and now I essentially have two months of writing and reading ahead of me- my finals consist solely of papers to write. My goal is to structure time between work, practicing my Hebrew, getting sleep and staying healthy, and making sure I have as much fun in this city as I possibly can fit in the extra space. 

Oh, and saving money so maybe I can get a couch...

somehow, though, that's slipping lower on my list of TO DO's...

Yom Kippur

For my non-Jewish audience, this weekend was Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)- the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The most detailed description of observance of Yom Kippur is in Leviticus 16- which happens to be the chapter at the mid-point of the Torah, which shows the centrality of this holiday in Jewish religious life (and yes, I did go through some of my old notes from college to re-learn this stuff...) When I try explain it to my non-Jewish friends I usually compare Yom Kippur to Christmas for Christians- not in terms of what the holiday IS but in that even people who aren't particularly observant in everyday life tend to observe this holiday. Jews traditionally observe Yom Kippur with a 25-hour period of fasting and prayer, spending most of the day in synagogue services. In Israel on Yom Kippur everything shuts down. Literally. There is no public transportation, no cars on the roads, and many people don't even use electricity. People (generally) dress in white, in an effort to make themselves as akin to angels as possible- they are, after all, fasting and praying for the Lord to seal their names into the Book of Life for the coming year.

The holiday lasted from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, and on Friday night I went for a walk in Jerusalem (where I was staying for the weekend). What I found was hundreds of people out walking in the streets- cause they could. There were tons of kids out riding their bikes around in the abandoned streets and every once in awhile I'd even see someone just laying down in the middle of an intersection.

It was kind of eerie, and really cool. There was a palpable current of joy in the air, and I felt so fortunate to be in Jerusalem on such a special evening.

 I was invited to spend Yom Kippur in Jerusalem at the Applbaum's (friends of mine from The David Project). Ari and Na'ama have twin 2.5 year old boys, and this year Na'ama was in the States for work, so Ari was in need of some help caring for them so he could observe the holiday. I was more than happy to oblige. People kept telling me that I would move over here and be smitten by the handsome Israeli boys....

They weren't kidding. Look at those faces! I ate those faces for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Their names are Yuval and Roni, and it did not take long for me to fall head-over-heels. Yuval (bottom right) is sensitive, a little moody, but generally easy going and gentle. Roni (bottom left) is higher-octane, mischievous, and a total sweet-talker. Both of them had me wrapped around their little fingers- they're so sweet, terribly smart, and had me in stitches all weekend.

One of my favorite things to do when one of them seemed like he was headed down the tantrum-path (where one goes, so goes the other) was to yell out "belly bump!" cause this would happen:

I'm so into them.

So, basically I had the best weekend ever. I got to spend the holiest day of the Jewish calendar in the holiest city in the Jewish faith, and I fell in love with two of the cutest kids mine eyes have ever seen. Winning.

Highs and lows. Shana tova!

Before I begin my (admittedly late) Rosh Hashanah post, I must send my congratulations from afar to one of my oldest and dearest friends, Holly. It seems like just yesterday we were silly schoolgirls playing pranks and goofing off. But today you became a mother, and my heart is bursting. I am sad I cannot be by your side as you begin this next chapter, but my joy for you far outweighs that. Mazal tov, to you and Mike. I can't wait to meet your beautiful little boy.

--------------------------------------------

Last week I celebrated the Jewish New Year in Jerusalem with my Israeli friends. We learned about the holiday traditions, ate a delicious meal together (thanks Na'ama and Ari!), and then spent time sharing the highs and lows of the past year as well as our hopes for the year ahead.

For me, the highs and lows seem to have come side by side. Change is always difficult for me, and this last year has been rife with change and uncertainty. Living and studying in Israel has been a dream of mine since I first visited this country in 2005, even though I knew it would be scary and difficult to leave my friends and family. After spending some time working and living in Boston after school, this year seemed like the right time to pursue a higher degree (if I wanted a chance at employment other than nannying or admin work, grad school was an imperative). The road that led me to Tel Aviv University was long and winding, and after four years of living on my own I found myself hauling all of my worldly possessions back to my parents' house in Erie for an indefinite period of waiting to find out if I could attend school overseas or if I would have to start from square one- literally. 

Living with your parents again is not any young adult's ideal- I had no income, no car, and was living in a town that hadn't been my permanent residence since I graduated high school. But lo and behold! The Lord blessed me with the opportunity to rebuild relationships with childhood friends, and the gift of spending five whole weeks of quality time with my mom and dad before I would spend a whole year further away from them than I'd ever been. This unexpected time at home was a real high point in my year- and a gift I will always be grateful for. It was during these weeks that I learned my dreams of moving to Israel would come true- WIN! This was definitely another high point in my year...hell, in my life. However, the same news meant I would have to begin saying my goodbyes. Bidding farewell to my friends and especially my family was probably the most difficult thing I have done in a long time. Low, big low. 

Since moving (you may have noticed) I've been on a bit of a roller coaster- I am so happy to be here in Israel, and loving it more every day...but I also am missing home a great deal, and it's definitely been lonely. School won't begin for another few weeks, and until then my social options are limited. While I've enjoyed exploring Tel Aviv, hanging out on the beach, and studying the language... there is only so much that one can do alone before the loneliness and boredom become overwhelming (highs and lows...) Today was a microcosm of this roller coaster- this morning I cried for awhile cause the loneliness caught up with me, and tonight I spent time with Jen, we laughed and talked and I walked home feeling exponentially better about life. 

So, what are my hopes for the year to come? I'm pretty sure that the emotional roller coaster isn't about to slow down. Being a poor student in a foreign country is challenging. However, I am fortunate enough to have friends and parents who, during those emotional valleys, provide support and encourage me to press on. Their pride in me reminds me to be proud of myself.  My hope for this year is that I will drink in every moment of this dream-come-true while I have the chance. I hope I will continue to take the difficult and necessary steps on the road ahead, to become the woman I want to be- someone who faces her fears and learns how to overcome them, a person who refuses to accept a life that is less than what she wants, and who insists on leaving this world a better place than the way she found it. 

So, to my friends and family near and far- may the coming year be for all of us a sweet and happy one, filled with joy and blessings beyond the hopes we may hold for ourselves. Shana tova!!

And what about you, dear reader? What were the highs and lows of your year? What goals will you set for yourself in the year to come? I'd love to hear from you. 

A few of my favorite things.

1. Shopping and beaching in Tel Aviv.

Yesterday I spent the morning with Libbie's mom, Rose, at the shuk in Tel Aviv. I don't have expendable cash at the moment, but I needed a couple of things which can be acquired at bargain prices there, and Rose wanted to get a few gifts for friends at home. So,  I practiced my bargaining skills, we walked around the artisan market,and had a wonderful time perusing all the produce, baked goods, flowers etc. 

Eventually, Rose went to work, and I spent a few hours wandering around the city, walking along the seashore, and laying around on the beach. 

2. Babies!

I started a babysitting job this week! I thought it might be kind of creepy to ask the parents if I could photograph their toddler the first time I was officially watching her, so I don't have any pictures to post...but rest assured she is adorable. Her name is Maya, she is 2.5 years old, and she speaks both Hebrew and English. Her parents want an English-speaking babysitter to help her with her English skills, but I am already sure that watching her will help me with my Hebrew (my vocabulary will consist of animals and colors, but that's totally useful in the real world...) Maya and I had a great time together, and it felt great to be babysitting again. I am good with kids, I think because I genuinely enjoy spending time with them, and I think that this job will go a long way towards making me feel like myself again. It's definitely a confidence builder for me, and this is a time when I feel a little less confident in general (the language barrier, a foreign city...you know). In lieu of photos of Maya to post, here are a few of my favorite Boston babies...

3. Krembo.

Apparently, until about 25 years ago, ice cream was not available in Israel during the "cold" season (winter/autumn), and as a substitute the angels delivered...Krembo. Jen introduced me to this tasty treat from heaven a few days ago, and I honestly don't think I can live without it now. Krembo consists of a shortcake cookie with marshmallow fluff (only whipped more) on top, covered in a thin chocolate shell. Simply delicious. I'm planning to do a whole blog post devoted simply to the amazing food here, but this needed to be shared immediately.

Rosh Hashana began today! To my Jew-crew at home and here in the Holy Land...may you have a sweet, happy and healthy New Year! I'm looking forward to celebrating in Jerusalem with some friends tomorrow evening. I'll be sure to post about it soon.

Shana tova l'culam!!!