From the Mid-West to the Mid-East

It's been longer than you think...

I know guys, months. No one is probably even checking this any more, but on the off chance they are, I might as well blog.

I am now living in Jerusalem, a beautiful little apartment on French Hill. It's a bit out of the way from the city center and all the fun it holds, but I like the quiet streets and the chance to explore a new area. It's about a 10 minute walk to where I work (yeah, the internship worked out!) at Seeds of Peace. I am, in fact, at work now. Have been here for 2 hours. Checking my mail, googling everyone I've ever met, doing anything but actually working. So I guess my return to writing en masse is out of desperation more than anything. Still, I've wanted to work here for the past 4 years, and I really believe this is going to really challenge me and open doors for me as well. I just can't wait for it to get started.

I'm living in the apartment with Emily (my roommate in Arad who also works at Seeds), my good friend Daniela (she's working at Jerusalem Stories), my new roommate Rachel (working at the Jerusalem Circus), and a girl I don't know too well yet, Erin (works at the Abraham Fund). So far I'm really loving our dynamics, and I especially love the way we bring our work home. Daniela and I had such a great conversation about the importance of storytelling in conflict resolution dialogue, how it can be used as a tool to counter popular media that often plays upon people's worst fears and caters to their cruelest stereotypes. Reminds me of how much I used to love to write and makes me want to start up with it again. She and I had snuck into a hotel and were sitting on a beautiful balcony overlooking our neighborhood and she was teaching me about poetry, and I just had the best feeling about everything that lies ahead of me here.

Who knew I'd miss Arad? That last month or so I really got close to a few people, and it's a little hard to be apart. One strange evening I just needed to cut my hair, needed to, and I went to a little Israeli style shop. The hairdresser was a man with a perfectly circular bald spot with all the hair around it bleached blond and the rest left dark brown. I should have seen it for the obvious omen it was, but I let him cut my hair anyway. I went home, straight to the French girls and had them fix it. So it's short, like when I did Locks For Love and I think I'm going to keep it like this for awhile. Anyway, that night all my guy friends were suddenly even nicer than they were before, and I found myself in a serious conversation with Brian. There were a few days of "does he like me?" and "do I like him?" and then we were together. I must be naive or maybe it was as sudden as it seemed to me, but I didn't see it coming at all.

So let me take a moment to discuss Brian. He's 28, studied biomedical and structural engineering, is interested in designing waterparks in Israel and rollercoasters around the world and gets a little dreamy about opening an icecream store. He's so active, into hiking and skiing, snowboarding and ice-climbing, other ings I've never heard of before. He is just such an accomplished and interesting guy. So we were about three weeks on in Arad, then he went to visit America during the break so we were three weeks off. Now we're seeing each other, on the odd weekend, and it's funny that it's not at all what I thought I wanted from a relationship. I'm finding I'm not as serious, not as judgemental, more happy.

Here's a crazy story: while visiting Arad I was hanging out with some of the new people who have just arrived at WUJS. I was sitting in a pub, talking with one guy, and he was asking how Brian and I got together. The he says to me, I promise you word for word, "You know, you should dump Brian and get with me, because I'm better than him and you're cute." SHOCKED. Of course I said no and he laughed it off as a joke, and maybe it was, but it was one of the crazier experiences I've ever had.

He's not the only reason I miss Arad. I'm comfortable with guy friends, I enjoy having guy friends, and now in Jerusalem I have none. In Arad it was us girls (Emily, Daniela, Anna) and the guys (Evan, Petr, Findlay, Brian). Now Findlay has been kidnapped (is it still kidnapping if you go willingly?) by a yeshiva and even though he's in Jerusalem he might as well be in Siberia. There is also a great friend, Josh, who I miss. We traveled together over the break (a weird few days in Jerusalem with him, his sister, and ex-girlfriend; a horrifying night in Acco; a touristy time in Haifa) and I'm not used to talking to him less than 3 times a day. When I was waiting for a call from Brian on the tiyul it was Josh that called to say he was looking at the stars and missing me. There's also a few special girls, especially Anna who always makes me smile with her "whatevehs". Hopefully when work really starts it will take the edge off of their abscence.

Ok, that was a lot all at once, right? Maybe I'll write again in a few months....

posted by A Mus-Ed Blogger @ 2:35 AM