American Adventures (and more)

So the last time i posted i was in the airport...I've since left CDG, been with family, in many more airports, and sof sof arrived back in Israel 3 days ago or so.

I finally got home in CT around 8pm and spent that weekend with the family. I'm tan compared to them...haha, that never happens. Dave Pistrang came to visit too which was good fun. Next time I hear from him it will be from India...mmm, India. I can't deny that I'm jealous. Perhaps I'll be there sometime in the next two years?? So yeah, Rosh Hashanah was lovely; sad that Mimi and Rosy and the kids couldn't make it to CT, but it was nice to have a smallish crowd for dinner. Alexandra, Rich's youngest is absolutely adorable. Smart little cookie, that's for sure. Kids are so into technology these days too...she was playing a game on Ishay's palm pilot and asked him if she could "save it" before she went home so that she could play the following evening...right. Anyway, it was fun to hang out and despite my constantly being a little bit cold (yeah, it'd been a while since i was in 50 degree weather!), I loved being home for a bit. I can't say I was without culture shock. There's nothing more AMERICAN IN YOUR FACE than Walmart and Starbucks. Not in a good way. But yeah, it was ok and I only started to speak Hebrew to people once every couple days.

I spent about 24hrs in Boston, mostly not sleeping, but in a good way. It was really great to see Leann, Rachel, Amitai, Josh and even the old Children's co-workers...it's much more fun to be there when i don't actually work there :-P nahh, it was good. everything seems to have continued as it should have. one of my old bosses was down in DC so I didn't see him, but I met my permanent replacement there and she seems sweet. It was funny to be in Boston and TOTALLY not live there...not even on a break or something. But yeah, besides missing Anna's and my buddies, I wasn't too nostalgic.

The wedding was GREAT! I met Kate, Dianna and Mary's friend and flew out to Akron, OH. Seeing Dianna and Jared in the airport was amazing. I was a little bit in shock that we were actually all in the same place (and crazy that the place wasn't one of our houses in CT) and Dianna was in some random time zone and a little bit all over the place for the weekend adjustment wise, but it was amazing and so so awesome to hang out with them. The wedding was beautiful. I can't say that I wasn't a little bit confused and unsure about the whole Catholic thing, but I did manage to turn to Kate during this part when we're supposed to wish each other something and say thank you to Jesus and I wished her "Shabbat Shalom" like the good Jew that I am :-P

Mary looked AMAZING and i managed to sing at the reception without messing up the words and they even thought I sounded nice (I could have sounded better, but whatever, it was fun) which is all I care about. Kate and I hung out a lot during the weekend and it was really fun. Sad that I didn't meet her earlier since we were both in Boston all last year! oh well. Now we can be pen pals :-)

Our trip back from OH took a while, but luckily we got to stop at Chipotle on the way to the airport, which made my day. Mmmm, Mexican food. I miss it here sometimes. When I have an apt and a kitchen I'll at least be able to make it for myself! Our flight was delayed and by the time i got home to CT it was pretty late. BUT Andrea came to visit...so i got to see pregnant drette-ola, yay! she said her tummy was bigger mostly from food, but you can still tell :-)

The flight back was rather uneventful...except that it got delayed, then my suitcases weren't put on the EL AL flight to TLV because there 'wasn't enough time' -- and yet we sat there for a half hour...right. so yeah, now i'm back in Israel, without my two suitcases...woohoo. Luckily i had some stuff here in Petach Tikva and then the morning of erev chag (yom kippur) Iris and I went to do a little shopping. I bought a nice white shirt and wore light green pants and called it a day. It was funny to sit up on top and not see anything or really hear well what the rabbi/chazan was singing (orthodox synagogue style) but good to be at Kol Nidre nonetheless. Walking around the streets of Petach Tikva with it being sooo quiet otherwise, no cars, etc, was great. It finally felt like Yom Kippur should...a whole lot of nothing. People just hung out in the street and talked as if it was the middle of the afternoon on Shabbat. very cool. Iris and I spent the majority of Yom Kippur lying in bed half sleeping half talking and listening to music. Last night after breaking the fast we went with Michaela and Dov and Suki to Jaffo and walked around -- got good ice cream at Doctor Lek, etc. mmmm...good times. Iris had never been to Tel Aviv/Jaffo so Dov, Michaela and Suki all did a bit of explaining of what we saw along the way...we learn a lot outside ulpan it seems...in a good way.

This morning we went to this crazy huge busy shuk in Rosh Ha'ayin and bought things we didn't need, but to our defense they were really cheap. I finally found a thumb ring I like (I've been looking to replace the one I lost about 6 years ago...) and I got the Harel Moyal cd for only 40 shekels :-)

It's nice to be back. It was the first time that I didn't cry leaving Israel and DID cry leaving Boston/CT. I guess it's always sad when you don't know when you will see people again exactly and when I left in the end of July it was like, ok, see you in a couple months...now...who knows. Apparently I escaped some awful new england weather, so at least i can enjoy the sun here!

ok, enough rambling for now...perhaps i'll write again later since i think today is going to be on the slow side. I'm supposed to maybe go out tonight with Eyal's girlfriend, but if my suitcases don't come, who knows what i'll do...anyway.

later...