Today was a good day.

Sitting in a chill bar with my laptop and a shlish of Taybe. I was planning to just sit here and do some work and look at hip people, but there is live music in the other room. I am drawn in, yet don't feel ready to enter this scene. I need to make friends, but my computer isn't helping. Hmmm.

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It's been an interesting day. I went to a recruitment information session at an outsourcing call-center on the outskirts of town, in a new development. I had only seen it a couple of times from the highway, but today I went in. The building was still under construction. The whole development seemed new. This office park could be anywhere in the world, except that 80% of the guys in the cafeteria are wearing kippot. The group I am here to interview with is IDT. They handle companies like Walgreens, Barnes&Noble, AOL, American Greetings, Hess, Office Max, MacAfee, and Western Union. So rest assured you are not always calling India. Behind the security desk are inspirational quotes by Hillel and Herzl, and above the door, in Hebrew and English:

This year in Jerusalem

I sat in a glass atrium with people dressed business causal, but this is not dress-down Friday - just another Tuesday in Jerusalem. In another section of the lobby, out of earshot, there is a flat screen TV streaming news. FOX 'news'. Of course.

How did I get here? Private high school. 4 years of college, at a GOOD college. 1.5 years of graduate courses in the Middle East, in environmental studies and Arabic. A masters degree from a prestigious British University. If I work full time with this company, talking on the phone with America or transcribing, I am looking at an average salary of 6000NIS/month. Approximately $1,500. Wow. How did I get here?

This is Har Hotvim. Not to be confused with Har Hatsofim, which I have been doing for the last few months. My sense of space, place, and location was all wrong. Now I think I have it right, only it doesn't really matter. Timing is everything.

I got 100% on the computer test and did well in the interview. I left with a letter addressed to the Ministry of Interior, which is supposed to help me get a work visa. Now I just need my birth certificate, proof of health insurance, some cash, and a letter from my Rabbi saying that I am Jewish. Does that mean non-Jews aren't allowed to work here? I don't understand. And apparently having an Israeli boyfriend makes the process go faster, alleviates fees, and often gets you an open work visa, instead of being tied to a specific employer. I can think of one person who would probably agree, but am not sure I can ask him to be my "boyfriend" without thinking of the last 3 years of on again, off again wanting him to be my boyfriend.


After the Israeli company I went to Beit Hanina to meet with the water/sanitation coordinator at a large European NGO. Sitting in the office was a fake Christmas tree, which I found a little disorienting, yet refreshing. Our conversation was good, as opposed to our constant miscommunication on the phone over the last week. Each meeting makes me think differently, ask more questions, and opens more doors work-wise, but also (hopefully) socially. I really need to make more friends.


I have good days and bad days. This is normal, no? It's only been about 2.5 weeks. I have been here before so I have some people, but they have their own lives, relationships, work, and school. I am joining in the middle. Maybe the things that brought us together 15 years ago at summer camp or in carpool are not as relevant anymore. Friday night I was feeling very sorry for myself, sitting alone in my apartment, eating onion soup and drinking wine, thinking. I want Shabbat. I want to walk to a friend's house with desert from Marzipan, and enjoy a warm meal with good conversation, and be with Jews. I need to find the balance, but that won't work if every Friday I go out dancing until 2am in East Jerusalem. But I hate inviting myself over. It makes me feel pathetic and needy. I guess I need to suck it up and realize that's what I am, and that it's not the end of the world. This is a temporary phase, but in the interim, I need to ask for help - with my current freelance work projects, and with my life. Want to help me?

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The band has finished their set and my beer is gone. Time to trek back up the hill. While this somehow ended on a depressing note, today really was a good day.