Sweet Home Chicago

Wow, its been 4 weeks since I've arrived and I'm only now starting to feel somewhat normal.  Routine is very difficult to attain and considering I haven't had it in such a long time... Well, my adventures flying back with Iberia were pretty minimal.  Both flights passed by kind of quickly and I slept a bunch especially from Madrid to Chicago.  Landing back in Chicago was pretty cool.  I was filled with emotion and it was such a beautiful day- the sky was clear and bright and Lake Michigan was a beautiful blue.  This was my view from above:

Susan and Libby came to pick me up from the airport and by the time they pulled up to the arrival area of the international terminal I had already cried twice.  I took one look at them and just burst into tears.  "Happy tears" as Libby calls them, but tears nonetheless.  I was so incredibly overwhelmed and excited and scared at being home that it was just a whirlwind of emotion.  It was weird pulling up to 3550 and the doormen kind of looked at me and said, "we haven't seen you in such a long time!"  That's also what Louie said, although his sounded more like a meow.  Walking into my apartment was incredibly overwhelming.  Just looking at the boxes made me want to cry.  I knew that I had a challenging week ahead of me.  The best part of that evening was skipping down the street with Libby, bumping into Dana, and just hanging out in Lakeview and getting my bearing.

Unpacking my apartment was definitely not fun.  Just thinking back on those early days makes me stressed.  I am so very thankful to Jill for flying out and helping me.  The first day of "work" seemed endless, there were just so many boxes!  Unpacking gave me an opportunity though to go through and toss unnecessary stuff away!  After Jill left it really began to hit me that I was back in Chicago.  I think that I went through a lot of emotions that first week.  It was extremely hard being home.  I felt really out of place and it was incredibly overwhelming at times.  There were moments of tears, but plenty of soothing activities to juxtapose the craziness.  Regardless of those emotions, I conquered a lot in that week.  I had two job interviews within one week of being home, and within two weeks I had 3 job offers to consider.  Its remarkable that things all kind of fell into place.  

I promised myself that when I left Israel I would do things a little differently.  I wanted to make sure that I left enough time each day to have time for myself and do things that make me feel happy and special.  I've managed to be able to fulfill that promise.  I've enjoyed painting, reading, taking walks, runs, spending time in the sun, going out... Its been really wonderful.  I even accepted a job (actually two!) and have gotten back into the rhythm of work.  I will blog more about that next time, but for now I will leave you with a beautiful moment captured while running on Lake Michigan... ah, Chicago.

Final week in the homeland.

I'm not really sure that I can wrap up my experience in Israel as one post, nor do I really think that I've even begun to process a smidgen of that journey, but I will try and at least capture the last week with my family...

I was really excited to take the train to Ben Gurion airport the day they arrived and waited really impatiently at the arrival area.  All around me were screaming Israelis who were equally excited to see their loved ones.  Finally the doors opened and I saw three zombies walking towards me.  I felt the tears in my eyes as I ran around to the entranceway and threw my arms around my brother, mother, and finally father.  Its been years since we've been apart for such a long period of time.  The reunion was really nice.

The week provided us with many opportunities to see family.  It started with a beautifully emotional reunion with my dad's uncle Joe who is 88 years old and lives in Brazil.  It just so happened that Uncle Joe was visiting Israel at the exact same time.  The last time my father saw him was in Egypt in 1959 right before the Matalon family escaped and went in all different directions.  Joe was extremely excited and waited for us outside.  He was so happy to hug my father and throughout the visit hugged him and patted him so many times.  It was really nice to see.  When we took a family picture he started to cry.  Its crazy to think how the family became so divided.  Another example of a moment in Jewish history where families were "exiled" and split up.  The 4 brothers (my grandpa being one of them) divided: 1 to Israel, 2 to the US, and 1 to Brazil.  A strong family spread out in a way that doesn't allow for the grandchildren to really know each other very well.

Here are a few photos with Joe:

This was on the street where he was waiting.  Look how chic he looks!

The other woman is his girlfriend Sima.  How cute is that? 88 and still on the scene.

Other highlights of the week included a final trip up north to the Hula Valley.  We did a nice little hike there and saw a whole bunch of wildlife.  The bird migration season had just ended but there were still other interesting animals to see.  They had a 3-D movie there where you sit in moving chairs and they spray you with water and air and all kinds of other things.  I actually screamed out loud at one point, was super fun.  Dinner was at "Dag al Ha Dan" which is an amazing fish restaurant that sits right at the points where the Dan river meets another river (I'm blanking on the name at the moment).  I went there in March with Jenni and Basti and it was fun to revisit and say goodbye to.

It was quite sad leaving Israel.  I didn't sleep the night before I flew and I had many waves of anxiety throughout the week about my decision to go home.  I think its fair to say that perhaps at a different point in life I would've stayed longer and seen where the journey would've taken me.  My final moments in Israel included the man behind me in line running me over painfully TWICE with his cart.  I think the real Israeli in me came out as I turned around and yelled at him in Hebrew, "once wasn't enough to hit me with your cart!?!?!"  :)

Landing in America was super emotional (and extremely rocky.  I think my pilot was a first time flyer) but I'll leave my homecoming stories for another day...

Some final pictures from Israel:

Dinner with my mom's cousins

With my cousin Yanki and second cousin Elisheva

With my bro

Up north with Eva

Dinner at Dag Al Ha Dan with Eva

Brunch with my pops

Last dinner with Helene <3

Dinner with the fam, Eva, and Helene