After what felt like a nonstop whirl of fun and quality time with my mother, stepfather, and sister the past 2+ weeks, life for me has resumed to "normal" - or at least quiet. My ulpan studies take up most of my time, especially now that I'm with a new teacher in a higher level class. My new teacher is the polar opposite of my previous one - she hardly smiles, has extremely high expectations, and assigns approximately 2 hours of homework a day. She says we'll thank her at the end of the course for the level of Hebrew she'll bring us to... but I'm telling you, my peers and I are crying every step of the way! :-)
It was wonderful to have my family here with me. They brought me two overstuffed suitcases with more clothes and personal belongings... so that about wraps up what I'll have from back home here with me. It was hard to say good-bye when they left, because it just feels like such a shock to realize how far away we are from each other. It's not easy. But life gets back to normal, you get back into the swing of things, we chat on skype, and look forward to the next visit. What I keep reminding myself when I have sad moments like that is how much I love living here, how complete and peaceful I feel, and I know that missing my loved ones is the one sacrifice I had to make in order to be this happy.
The heat, though, is starting to be too much... I who swore I would never complain about the heat am starting to reach my tolerance limit for the temperatures here. It's just so hot! You couldn't walk at a quick pace outside for more than 5 minutes if you tried. Everyone is sweating, all the time. It's very sticky. But I know how crappy of a summer Boston is getting with all that rain, so I'll refrain from further kvetching! :-)
Last night though was a shocking turn of events for the city of Tel Aviv.. a gunman attacked a gay youth club and killed 2 people and wounded 15. At first everyone's immediate assumption was that it was a terrorist attack, but we know now that it was a hate crime. Today I went by the site of the attack and saw hundreds of Israelis gathered in a support rally, bringing flowers and signs and showing their support for the gay community. It was a very sad and very touching sight. But it's nice that when something this tragic happens, people come together, and mourn together, so that it doesn't feel like a distant event, but something relevant to all of us. We can take a tragedy and use it as an opportunity to express love.
And I love Tel Aviv.
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