There's been a general theme to my first week in Israel. Nobody asks me to repeat my name for them. If anything, they try (fruitlessly) to correct my pronunciation of it. I never have to worry about food being Kosher. A pharmacist saw my last name, pronounced it correctly, and asked what part of North Africa my family was from. I still get a warm and fuzzy feeling from seeing and hearing Hebrew everywhere, an extension of what I'd feel when hearing someone speak Hebrew on the subway back home, but it's starting to wear off and become the norm. Unlike the U.S., in Israel the average response to, "I'm staying in Israel for a month or two then backpacking across South East Asia" is something on the order of "that's nice. I spent 6 months in India myself." All of a sudden, after a lifetime of being different from everyone else, I'm average.

Well, not entirely. I still don't speak Hebrew fluently, which doesn't so much make me an anomaly but rather reflects negatively. That negativity was far more pronounced in the States however. When I'd meet another Israeli in New York, upon hearing I was born in Israel, he or she would immediately start speaking Hebrew to me, at which point I'd have to respond sheepishly "אני לא מדבר עברית".... "I don't speak Hebrew." The look of disappointment I'd receive was usually the same and always conveyed "oh, so you're not really Israeli. Your parents are." I'd feel like I had to apologize. Here, the response is the exact opposite. Because I've come to Israel. I'm struggling to speak the language when I don't have to and to connect with where I come from. In a country built by olim hadashim, such an endeavor is universally appreciated. So for now, I'm not entirely like everyone else, but I'm heading in the right direction.

At first, this new found assimilation is both comforting and disappointing. I like being different, but I also like the feeling of being home. Out of this dissonance comes a challenge for me to differentiate myself by my actions rather than my background. This trip came at a high point in my life. I had never been more content than I was when I decided to leave New York. I may not have had a job that I imagined myself working at for very long, but socially and introspectively I was at peace with who I was. But I left anyways, not just because it was a now-or-never situation, but because I needed to get outside of my comfort zone. It's only been one week and the resulting shake up is already proving to be a major turning point in my own personal development. I can only imagine how pronounced it would have been had it taken place in a more socially tumultuous point in my life, like high school for example.

So, apparently I'm trying to find myself by taking a year off to travel the world. What a cliché. I guess my actions aren't all that differentiating either.
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Tel Aviv is a fantastic city. There's a learning curve of course, but with a decent map in my pocket and a list of people I can call for help, it hasn't taken too long for me to get the hang of it. The fact that you're never more than a few blocks from the beach is an amazing, and beautiful, selling point. I'll post pictures just as soon as I can get Windows Vista to recognize my camera. I've spent many hours reading at cafes, catching up with my friend Jenna, drinking with Sara and her friends, visiting galleries, meditating on the beach, and aimlessly wandering and exploring the city. I've also spent a lot of time with my brother Tomer, catching up and walking along the beach to the ancient city of Jaffa for some seafood. It was late by the time we got there so I'll have to come back during the day to really explore the oldest city in the world.

My cousins Assaf, Rachel, Reut and I spent the weekend at their parents, my dad's younger brother and his wife, in Tiberius, a resort town in Northern Israel. They have a beautiful house with a gorgeous view of Lake Kinerat- the Sea of Galilee. My dad's sister Zehava and her husband Shalom joined for an afternoon as well. A lot of eating great food, looking at old family pictures, shopping in the town center, and relaxing took place. The first night there, Reut and her boyfriend took me out, first to a night club, where the biggest dog I've ever seen was lazily wandering round the dance floor, and then to a bar, where I discovered the best bang for your buck is Arak, both at nearby Kibbutzim. It was a really good visit.

I move in to my apartment on Thursday, and take a Hebrew placement exam at Ulpan Gordon Sunday. Today I think I'll do something touristy....