19 Raziel Street

We got into the apartment on (19 Raziel Street) last night at about midnight after spending many ridiculous hours traveling.

I arrived in JFK yesterday at 3:00 in the afternoon, then waited there with some good friends until 10:30 or so, when Young Judaea finally arrived and we got to check in.  We then proceeded to take a 10 hour flight and arrive at Ben-Gurion international airport.

The apartment is not bad at all, although I didn't end up getting to live with Nathan or Scott (but they live close by).

I woke up at about 7 today entirely unintentionally and decided to go for a jog around the neighborhood.  It feels excellent to be in Israel again--I always feel home here.  While I was out, I passed by the supermarket, which, for some inexplicable reason, is named "Super Douche."  I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's true.  I'll take some pictures of it soon. :P  There were also some weird people while I was out on the jog--one yelled at me "Hey gever!" (Hey mister!) [I decided to ignore him].  Then another old guy, who I have concluded must be crazy as balls, saw me jogging and then pointed to himself, kind of doing an air jogging thing and sticking his tongue out at me.  When I passed by the block again, he was just pacing back and forth and throwing his arms in the air.  He gave me a jiggly-eyed gaze as I ran by.

Welcome to Bat Yam!

Leaving

I leave for Israel this Sunday, August 30th.  Although I have been away from home many times for extended lengths of time, this will be by far the longest I have gone without seeing my family.  However, I've found that I'm usually too preoccupied by other things when I'm not home to stay in contact with or miss my family.  For instance, I just returned from being a camp counselor at Camp Young Judaea Midwest and hardly remembered the outside world at all--but isn't this kind of inevitable?

In any case, I leave on Sunday, and hopefully these posts will become more interesting then.  In the meantime, I'm trying to get shit together so that I can be as ready as possible.

Shalom!