זמנים קשים...

I've been here for almost a week now and in many ways, what a wonderful week it has been. It's hard though, for me to even talk about my week seeing as Israel is at war with Hamas.  I feel selfish. Like who are you, 23 year old American girl, to show up here in Israel in the midst of a war and just go about your life like everything's just fine and dandy. Eze chutzpah!! But on the other hand, this IS life in Israel. War happens. It's a fact of life, and a pretty common one when you live in this part of the world.

Despite feeling selfish, I won't deprive you of the details of my first week as an Israeli citizen. The first two days I was in Jerusalem staying with my friend Shay. I did a lot of sleeping and relaxing and hanging out with great company. Shay took me on his scooter (vespa) to Beit Canada, the building where I will be living beginning on January 13th. Since East Talpiyot is almost exactly the opposite side of the city from Mt. Scopus, where he lives, I got a great tour and welcome back to Jerusalem.  It was a beautiful sunny day and although my helmet concealed it, I was smiling the entire time. On Tuesday evening I found out that I could not pick up my Israeli ID card until monday.  You wouldn't think so, but this small detail has many implications. I need my ID to open a bank account, and I need a bank account to buy a cell phone, and I need some combination of these things to do the other bureaucratic shtuff. So since none of that could be done until monday, I decided to head north to Haifa on Wednesday morning.

I went to Haifa to see Dina, a dear friend whom I met on my Taglit Birthright trip in June 07. Dina is from Haifa, but now studying at Carleton University in Canada, where her Dad lives. She came home for winter break and leaves again on the 6th.  I loved staying with her and everything about Haifa felt comforting. Orel (8) and Osher (5), her little sister and brother, are so incredibly adorable and her mom just kept feeding me!! They moved into a new apartment and it is so beautiful and perfect for their family. I had a great time hanging out with Dina's friends who I've also come to love. We went out on Wednesday night for Sylvester (New Year's) to a great place.  It was a bar/club where they played great old school 90's music and had episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles playing on an overhead projector. Hilarious! Thursday we did lots of walking then eventually met up with friends at a cafe. We woke up early on Friday so Dina could say bye to a good friend, then spent the day walking, napping and eventually went to a club called Terminal at 1am.  We didn't arrive to the club until 2am and I was pretty tired as I'm definitely not used to going out so late!! Once we got inside I woke right up and we stayed there, dancing the night...errr morning...away until 5am! Needless to say we slept late on Saturday then met up with friends again later in the night. Dina and I had some really great conversations and it was SO great to be with her again. It's too bad we can never seem to live on the same continent at the same time, but maybe one day!

Now I'm back in Jerusalem and sitting at Aroma Cafe... waiting for Shay to get home. I'm thinking about my bus experience today in traveling from Haifa to Jerusalem. The bus was crowded with young people who were called for reserve duty. As you might've read, the IDF called up tens of thousands of reserve troops for the war. A bunch of my friends have been called already, and Shay is possibly going tonight. I couldn't help but stare at the soldiers on the bus and think about how much respect I have for them.  They were all approximately my age, within a few years, and none of them looked scared. I wanted to get up and hug each one of them and thank them for their service to the country that I can now call home. Instead I engaged in a conversation with a few soldiers nearby, telling them of my recent aliyah and how brave I think they are.  Of course, they responded that they thought I was brave for moving here! Hah. Really, there is no comparison. But anyway, for the first time I had an ounce of what it must feel like to grow up here and what the army means... when you see all your peers going to serve and it's something that everyone experiences together. Talking with those soldiers definitely struck something inside me though and I know that no matter what path I take here in Israel, I will be involved in some form of service to this country. It simply goes without question.

I have a lot to do this week. I have to get my life together, so to speak. And to be honest, I feel a bit drained. I'm sad about the war... for the people on both sides who DO want peace, but right now it's impossible. I'm sad for my fellow Israelis in the South who are unfairly being targeted by rockets sent from Hamas and I'm also sad for the Palestinians in Gaza who are being taken advantage of by Hamas. Who are having their homes, schools and hospitals compromised and dragged into the middle of a bloody mess.  No person, Israeli or Palestinian, deserves this.

In the end, we must remain hopeful.  Even in the face of this heavy, complicated war, we must  continue to look forward. I'm praying for the safety of the IDF soldiers and hoping for minimal civilian casualties on both sides of the border.

Lots of love and strength,

אלה