Reality Bites

The workshop is over. A month and a half of my life - sleepless nights, sudden trips to Ramallah, countless stops at the printer's to print budgets and schedules and CVs, but now it is done. It ended in an unexciting way - sitting at the border in Eilat. As usual my Syrian stamps caused me problems, and I had to sit and wait at the border for an hour, without explanation. My boss and participants were eager to get home, so they ditched me. Luckily my co-worker stayed and escorted me to Eilat where I got a bus to Tel Aviv, then a sherut to Jerusalem. Once I got the visa it took me over 7 hours to get home. I should've just rented a car and charged the workshop, but because I was in charge of the budget I knew there wasn't much spare money for it. But it' done. And after nearly a week of terse emails to America I have MOST of my salary in my bank account, and now just need a few hundred shekels and a couple JD to reimburse me for the expenses I paid out of pocket. Time to take a break from the Arava for a while...

Being back in Jerusalem is bittersweet. I must have started to idealize it, during the quiet nights on the Kibbutz. I should be grateful for the handful of people I DO have and to know a number of coffee shops where I can hang out with laptop and family friends where I can invite myself over for Shabbat - I need to remember to do that today.

One way to kill time is to see movies. I finally bought a membership to the cinematheque, which means I will be staying in Jerusalem for a few more months. Just because I can I need to see lots of movies. The other night I went to see a movie about outsourcing to India. It wasn't very good, but not so bad that I wanted to walk out. And I am trying to learn not to leave in the middle of cultural activities - I got pretty bad in London. I wanted to take a bus home since I had walked 30 mins there, but the street going towards the German colony was blocked with a police van and no one was walking through. I saw a bus stopped at a weird angle, heard some police yelling through a loud speaker, and then a loud "boom". There was an attack in Dimona a couple days ago, and people have been talking about the escapees from Gaza and how it's just a matter of time until something happens here. But this is the city of peace. And I am invincible. I walked home as quickly as I could and looked at Haaretz/JPost/Debka, but no news of a bombing. Maybe it was just practice or an unidentified left bag. Whatever it was I am back on edge again, and not very excited about it.


So there are good days and there are bad days. I need to work on getting Health Insurance and opening a bank account. And this whole job thing - go Japanese! But in between I should spend some quality time in Hebron, pick up some stuff from the boy's house in Haifa, read a book at the Austrian Hospice, take a road trip, and see my old Arabic tutor. And try to make some new friends, without a job or school to ease the transition. This could be interesting...