Yonni's Aliyah: It's Not all Fun and Games

This was my first week back from my Passover break, and I must say that it was really hard to get back into the swing of things after being off for about two and a half weeks. Luckily I've readjusted, but it was tough to come back after two and a half great weeks with family and friends. I celebrated my first Seder in Israel in over 23 years, and I even celebrated a Mimuna for the first time, which is a Moroccan holiday at the end of Passover that I didn't even know existed. I swear I learn something new about Judaism and/or Israel every day here.

I couldn't be happier about my first three months here. My family has been extremely supportive, and I've made some great friends in such a short amount of time. The first half of Ulpan was really fun, and I wouldn't take any of it back, but now I can feel myself changing gears in an attempt to be more productive. I'm doing everything I can to set myself up for the future after Ulpan; locking down a job and then an apartment. I've even started discussing my future living situation with a few friends as possible roommates and things seem to be progressing well. Being productive sounds all good and well, but it's also really tiring. I don't know how some people here are holding down jobs that are nearly full-time, when I feel like Ulpan in itself is a full-time job when you factor in the class time, homework time, and for me in particular, extra homework time. Of course, some people here went to Jewish day schools and came here fully able to read and write basic Hebrew, whereas I came with minimal reading and no writing ability. That being said, I guess I'm not doing too bad.

It's just funny how when you move to another country the things that you're used to doing on a daily basis are suddenly far more difficult. Exhibit A: driving a car in manual. I've been driving for eight years now in the states with an almost squeaky clean driving record (one speeding ticket and one tiny fender bender), but that was all on automatic cars. I've recently been taking lessons with my uncle on a manual car, and I am absolutely terrible at driving manual. No joke, and I have my driving test this Monday. I don't know what I'll do if I fail a driving test; I'll be beyond embarrassed. I'll need to come up with a new adjective that far surpasses embarrassed, maybe mortified, but I don't even know if that word would do the feeling justice.

Exhibit B: Finding branches of stores and/or hours on the internet. Yesterday I was trying to look up the hours of the local post office for myself and a friend, and I got nowhere. The website even had an English equivalent which was also of no help whatsoever. I don't know why, but I feel like Israeli websites are so much less user friendly than American websites. Whenever I wanted to find the address for a branch of company, or the branch closest to me and the hours, I would just go online find the store locator tab, which is usually located at the top of the website on the homepage, and it would be that easy. I swear here the companies don't want any business because the websites are so un-user friendly that they make it impossible to find anything out unless you call. Even the public trans website is a struggle for me, so I just call now if I need to know what bus I can take to get somewhere and the schedule for a certain line.

Well that felt good. See kids, Aliyah isn't all fun and games. There are stressful times too, and I knew that it would probably take me a couple of years to feel totally comfortable here. But let me tell you, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world. Even with all of the bullshit with services, drama with the surrounding nations, and financial issues, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I'll try to start writing more often! Meanwhile here are some pics:

Here's a view from the tayelet (promenade for you non-Israeli folk) in Armon Hanaziv. I took this on one of my walks; notice how in the distance you can see the Old City of Jerusalem, so cool!