Shalom Shalom!

Hello from Jerusalem!

Right now it's 5:01 p.m. but it feels like 10 at night but it should feel like 10 in the morning. Traveling is disorienting but SO WORTH IT!

How about a travel update? Great idea!

Let's start at the beginning of this particular journey. On Saturday (excuse me in advance if I switch the days up, this time change thing is hard to do without any sleep) my entire family took me and my mom to the lovely airport that is CVG. We got to spend some incredibly tear-filled moments together before my mom and I headed to NYC for the evening. Once there, we got to spend some time with the cousins and enjoy an evening out together. Not only was I preparing to move to Israel, but my 9 year old cousins were leaving the next morning to go to sleep away camp for 4 weeks for the very first time! They were feeling mostly excited but also nervous, which was something I could of course relate to.

Jules eating his pizza on top of the playset.

Big man Eric driving around in his cool wheels.

After spending the night in New York, Mom and I got up pretty early to head to JFK. There, the tears continued. It's been a long few weeks for the Muhlbaums; Yaffa had her bat mitzvah at the end of May, and Abe graduated the very next day from Mason High School. Two weeks after that was my graduation from THE Ohio State University, and then after another two weeks (filled with packing etc) it was time for me to move. So much chaos, but all for great things! Anyway, Mom flew with me to NYC to make sure I got to Israel okay (and so we could squeeze in a few more minutes before I had to leave) which was awesome. However, it also meant that I was effectively saying goodbye to family members for two days straight. This is emotionally exhausting. Moving to Israel was very bittersweet, and I feel truly lucky to have a family I feel so close with that it's hard to leave. (You guys rule. Special shoutout).

Anyway, I am also lucky because I had a travel buddy both to NY and then also to Israel, since everyone's favorite ginger Brian is studying at Pardes this summer. Brian and I (finally) made it through security (note to all people: taking a super awesome travel ihome is a great idea, but don't put it in your carry on. especially because then they will go through all of your stuff and touch all of your camera lenses but not be careful. oy) and made it to our flight.

I had never flown El-Al before, so this was quite the experience. Lots of great people watching. For those of you who don't know, I am an incredibly enthusiastic people watcher. Sometimes to a fault. There was some tefillin laying recruitment happening, which is always an interesting thing to watch. I always feel very safe when flying to Israel. Maybe it's because of the extensive security, maybe it's because I'm superstitious and I know that there is a higher-than-average amount of Jewish prayers happening, or maybe it's all just perception. I was seated next to this awesome man of a certain age from Haifa. Joshua was an interesting fellow who managed to be simultaneously charming, bizarre, and borderline creepy. He was really great though, and we schmoozed (schmooze: to converse informally, make small talk or chat (from Yiddish שמועסן shmuesn 'converse', from Hebrew שמועות shəmūʿōth 'reports, gossip') about everything from religion to politics to musical instrument repair. Throughout the 10.5 hour flight he referred to me as both his newly adopted daughter and his mistress. And his wife, Nomi, was in the seat in front of him. What a character! I was absolutely blown away by his hospitality, though. Somewhere over the Atlantic he handed me his business card and instructed me to travel to Haifa at my earliest opportunity; he said he would be more than happy to host me and find me a nice Jewish boy. What a mensch.

So finally we landed (at 5 something this morning in Israel time) and it was time to go through customs. Now, I don't have my student visa yet, and my siblings are both named after my Israeli grandparents, so I was incredibly nervous (read: having nightmares on and off over the last few weeks) about going through customs. I was terrified that I would make it all the way to David Ben Gurion airport just to be told I couldn't actually go to Israel. These are my fears. Anyway customs wasn't a problem, and then Brian and I waited at the wrong carousel for our luggage. Hey, we were exhausted. So we got our luggage finally (for the record: one 89 pound bag, and one 95 pound bag) and headed for a sheirut, which is a little shuttle that takes you from the airport to Jerusalem. Our driver waited a while to leave, so I got to my apartment a lot later than anticipated.

The view from my apartment.

"A lot later than anticipated" means that, instead of getting there at 7ish as my landlady anticipated, I arrived around 9. After getting my suitcases up the stairs and into the elevator (because it always makes sense to have stairs leading to an elevator, right?) I arrived in my home-away-from-home for the next year.

This is David Ben Gurion. The airport here is named for him. You'll notice he has amazing hair.

THIS APARTMENT IS AMAZING. The views are beautiful, the location is incredible (six minutes to school!) and I've had all the windows open all day listening to the Israeli drivers screaming "REGA! REGA!" and enjoying the sound of birds being in the trees outside my room.

Another view of the apartment. That's a sign pointing to the Old City. #isthisreallife

I also went today to HUC to check in, meet the people that I'll be working with all year at the school, and got to kind of explore campus. It's always nice to make a first impression when you have absolutely no social skills, sleep, or blood sugar (oh hey, remember eating? yeah I forgot to do that. B''h I didn't pass out while walking around!). I got to get to know our friendly and helpful summer interns, and it's really nice start putting names and faces together.

I'm so excited to be in Israel, and it still hasn't really hit me yet that I'm going to be here for a year. For now, though, I'm sore from dealing with my ridiculous luggage (thanks to everyone who helped schlep, you know who you are) and so I'm going to go maybe have a siesta. Even though if I fall asleep now I probably won't wake up until some awkward time that's neither normal in Ohio nor in Israel. Typical.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more photos as I explore my neighborhood over the next few days.

Blackberry included for size comparison. That's 1.5 liters of the good stuff, friends.

Don't worry Mom--I'm staying hydrated.