one month later

So tomorrow will be exactly one month since i arrived back in Israel and became a citizen. It is crazy! Part of me feels like i just stepped foot off the plane and i am trying to figure out this crossword puzzle that happens to be in a language I don't speak. At the same time I feel like this has been my home forever. And the fact that I spend my day trying to help other people just like me figure out the same crossword feels so natural.

It is so bizarre. I am kind of in limbo. I am working 9 to 5, and having a social life and going to the gym and really living my life like I have been here for years. But then the reality of the fact that I don;t have health insurance yet, and that i had to have a Hebrew speaking friend set-up the voice mail on my phone because the recorded Hebrew voice speaks way too quickly for me to understand coupled with the fact that i have internet on my phone but can't really use it because it is also only in Hebrew makes me feel like an alien.


I am learning some Hebrew at work though. Although I do work with all English speakers, the vendors, the maintenance and construction guys and the cleaning lady, who i have to communicate with all day, have decided that they will not speak English to me and have actually stuck to it. In realty the cleaning lady and i have no choice but for her to help me with my Hebrew because she is Ethiopian and speaks no English and i clearly don't speak any Ethiopian so we work together with her perfect, and my broken Hebrew. More often than not, a conversation that should take 10 seconds often ends up taking a minute but it is another example of why i love this county and this culture. And, I now have an extensive vocabulary related to vacuuming, funny smells, plumbing, alarms, multi-line phone systems and a bunch of other stuff that once i walk out the door to work i never use.