I'm Here!

I have done so much, met so many people, and seen so many things in the past week and a half that it's, like, not even funny (in the words of my sister, Noa). Let me sum up:

On the ride to the airport, from Bellingham to Seatac, we were stopped in around a half hour of traffic. Let me tell you-- when you are on your way to catch a flight that will connect you with an international group flight to a middle eastern country that you've never been too before, getting stopped in traffic is NOT a good feeling. It ended up not being a problem and I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, but I later found out the reason for the traffic, which took my breath away. Washingtonians may have heard: some guy went crazy in Alger at at gas station and started shooting people, leading to a shoot-out and car chase on I-5. Six poeple died. They closed down the interstate for several hours. This happened three hours before I was on I-5 south with my parents. Processing this information hours before getting a plane that would take me to Israel really made me think about danger, and violence, and chance, and fear. Before I left, people asked me many questions about safety in Israel, about the "political situation." Yet, I just left a country were I could have been shot and died driving to the airport, had my flight left three hours earlier. I don't have any epiphanies, or conclusions about terrorism or fear-- just ideas to roll over in my mind regarding what it means to be safe.

The first week in Israel was an intensely scheduled tour of Israel's tourist destinations. I've been to bars in Jerusalem, had Shabbat at the kotel, crawled through ancient caves, gone on a hike so vertical we had to literally climb up laters to reach the top, floated in the Dead Sea, slept in a bedouin tent, and ridden a camel. Oy, vey. I slept around three hours a night. Some of the first week felt a little like a hallucination. My life changed so dramatically; one day I was frantically shoe shopping, and organizing the JCC recycling center, and eating cupcakes in Wallingford and sandwiches in Ballard; and the next day, I'm riding a camel in the Israeli desert.

I've settled for the next three months in Natzrath Ilit, situated in a hill in the north of Israel. I'm living in an immigrant absorbtion center-- or Mercaz Kletah in hebrew-- with Jews from Ethiopia, Russia, and Romania. There are 24 of us OTZMAnagim from the US living at the Mercaz. I'm sharing a 2 bedroom apartment with four other girls-- I'm sleeping in the living room. When we arrived, I felt like I had been shaken up in a snowglobe and finally alowed to settle. Last night we went to a dance party on the basketball courts of the Mercaz, hosted by the Ethiopians in honor of thier new year. It was easily in my top three dance parties of all time. No one spoke the same language, it was completely free, poeple of all different ages and nationalities were just dancing and laughing and singing. It was maybe the purist fun I've had in a long, long time.

I would write more but the internet cafe is closing in a few minutes. Sorry if I didn't get a chance to email you-- this is the first time I've had internet access since I arrived. I'll try and check more regularly.

Love, Zara.