How Is This Only Day 2

Life in Israel is insane. It's not like life in the States. It's not like life anywhere else that I've been. It's just so FULL. Every day feels so saturated to me, so much happens and everything is intense.  Turning the volume up to 11 :).

Arrival

My flights were fine, uneventful and on time. Baggage claim and airport security took me only 20 minutes! Amazing. And Ben Gurion is the easiest, most beautiful of all airports.  When I landed, it just felt right. I was beaming the entire time.

Rivka picked me up and brought her little puppy, Tuna! Here we are, all happy.

Rivka is the sweetest! We talked about all the fun things we're going to do together over the next year... she's a nursing student but she works as a tour guide part time, so she knows all the best places. We're going to explore caves, and go see my relative's sculpture in Tel Chai (Dad, she knew the one... I said "Do you know Tel Chai? there's a statue there..." and she said "The lion statue?" and I said yes, and that Avram sculpted it, and she said she'd go with me!), and do "sup" (which I think is a kind of surfing? maybe?), and eat wild grapes on her Moshav, and go to her parents house on the settlement, and all kinds of fabulous plans. She is so sweet to include me and I feel so welcome. I love her!

Anyway she drove me to Jerusalem and we found my temporary apartment and walked around a bit and got delicious food.  Tuna almost got eaten by a German Shepherd. And a pitbull! The pitbull had a muzzle on bit it was still terrifying.  Yeesh.

Jerusalem is so beautiful. It's called "jerusalem of gold" for good reason.  All of the old stonework just lights up from within when the sun is setting, like it's glowing.  And there are mountain breezes, and palm trees and pine trees everywhere. I just couldn't stop smiling. It feels so amazing to be in Israel and Jerusalem.

My apartment is great! Great location, with a beautiful balcony with pomegranate trees surrounding it. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow. It's enormous... there are supposed to be 4 fellows in it, but they've already found permanent housing, so it's just me.  There are at least 6 extra beds... come visit :).

One funny thing is that my neighbor, a cute old man, is from Brookline! He lived near Washington Square, like me! I feel like this little happy bubble follows me everywhere here :).  He decorated the hallways outside our apartments with posters of Cape Cod, haha: 

There are a lot of religious people in the apartment. When Rivka and I got back for dinner, it was time for post-Shabbat prayers, and there was a huge minyan (gathering of pray-ers) in the front entry way. I thought maybe we had to wait, but Rivka just wove through them to the door so I followed her :).

A Funny First Date

Last night I admit I had a bit of a panic attack. I usually do the first night of a trip. I think it's mostly because I hadn't slept in a very long time. However, as my panic attacks go, I handled this one pretty well! I found a panic attack log thing on the internet and I filled it out and that was helpful, and I talked to a few friends online, and I watched Dr. Horrible for a bit.

The thing about when I panic is I fixate on a few things that really aren't a big deal but seem, in the moment, like a HUGE DEAL. Last night, it was the idea of going to the tech store and getting an Israeli sim card with limited Hebrew. Logically, I knew it would be fine, but I was not feeling at all fine about it.

I was talking to this dude on OKC, and he was like "hey, when I moved to Israel, I got pretty ripped off on my first cell plan, why don't I come with you and check the Hebrew contract for you?"

And I was like... SURE!

So today, the first thing I did was go on my own to get health insurance.  This felt like a big accomplishment because the office was not where it seemed to be on the map... so first I walked into the old Knesset (Parliament) Building, in which a soldier* asked me what I was doing and I said I was buying health insurance and he said not here in the old knesset building... and then I went into a Russian lawyer's office and sat in the waiting room listening to an old couple get agitated with the lawyer in Russian until I figured that was probably not the right spot, either.  So then I found it!  And they were super nice and helpful and I got my insurance card right there on the spot.  Whew!

So then I met  TheDude and we went to the tech store and got my sim card.  It was also really easy but I was grateful for TheDude's insight and Hebrew prowess.  I have an Israeli number now! E-mail me if you'd like it.

Then he got me some felafel and we sat by a fountain and ate it, and then we wandered alllllll over the city. Through some parks, the old train station, Ben Yehuda, other parks, German Colony.  He was just moving out so I decided to help him pack since he helped me with my sim card, which seems like a sketchy idea as I'm writing it but it didn't seem sketchy at the time.  So up we go into the German Colony apartment and as we're cleaning and packing he tells me he's a Cohen.

So I'm sure you know people with the last name "Cohen", but you might not know that this signifies they are in the priestly class of Jews.  Their ancestors were the priests of the tribe and it's passed down through blood. They don't necessarily have religious jobs or anything, the Cohens I know do not, but I guess they could? The rules are a little hazy to me.  Cohens have certain "privileges," I suppose, they're invited to read the first prayer at various services, they can deliver priestly blessings.

They also have certain restrictions, mainly concerning marriage:
-They can't marry a divorcee
-They can't marry a convert
-They obviously can't marry a non-Jew.
-I learned today they also can't marry someone who's had sex with a gentile. Huh!

They also can't enter cemeteries or be "under the same roof" with a "dismembered organ."

"Can't" carries various weight depending on where you are and what kind of Jewish you are. Lots of American Cohens don't give a shit and do what they want and nobody stops them.  If they were to ask an Orthodox Rabbi to marry them though, it wouldn't happen.  And in Israel, marriage is controlled by the Orthodox Rabbinate, and so they literally cannot marry against the rules.  It's not possible in Israel.  Just another one of those ways Israel likes to balance its extreme progressive awesomeness with medieval lunacy.

Anyway, this was an interesting conversation to have over the dishes.

Marriage laws in Israel complicate dating on all levels. Not that this came up specifically about us, or has come up for me before, but think about it.  If you know you cannot marry a person, how does that change things from day one of meeting them?

We got some pizza and then I went off to see an apartment. It was gorgeous! And the roomie is very cool. I'm seeing a bunch more, but this one has a lot of potential.  The view... whoa.  I can see myself writing there for sure.

Now it's 12:30 and I'm not tired at all.  Even though I've had 3 hours of sleep in the past 72 hours. I need to be sedated.

Tomorrow I'm seeing a few more apartments and attempting grocery shopping. Pretty sure that will quickly devolve into dress shopping :).

New Hebrew Words I Learned Today:

Slice (like of pizza) - משולש, Mshoulish? I forget the vowels. I guess I didn't learn it very well.
Your name? - שם שלך, Shem Shelach, "Ariane!" I told the barista at Aroma
Napkin- מפית, Mapit

Also, the guy at the corner store spoke to me very quickly, and I didn't catch all of what he said, but I think he said I'm יָפֶה -  pretty. Well thanks, CornerStoreMan!

Deeds warned me Israelis would make fun of my accent and give me a hard time, but so far they've been nice and very helpful. Maybe I just can't understand them making fun though, that's always a possibility.

Notes

*Soldiers are so funny here sometimes.  They're trained and armed and in uniform, but a lot of them are just kids doing their mandatory service.  I live right near the Prime Minister's house, and there's always a guard out front, and I watched the guard today get dropped off by what seemed to be his dad, carrying armfuls of snacks and drinks for his shift in the guard house, haha. It was really cute.