Omigosh I’m an Israeli: Part 2

On the way into the terminal I was skipping and dancing because I was too jazzed and happy to simply walk. The air-conditioning felt amazing. I was still so hot I could barely breathe when David reminded me that he’s the best boyfriend ever and had brought me an extra t-shirt to change into. So I ran to change and cool down. He gave me my newest army shirt commemorating his graduation from Officer’s Training from the week before. We moved back toward my little crowd and were standing around waiting for the ceremony to begin. There was food but I was way too excited to eat anything. Supposedly it was good so at least the guests had something to eat while they waited!! I thought that all of the surprises were over and that I could finally start to relax and let it sink in that I had just moved to Israel when David pulled out another surprise. It was a huge Israeli flag that he’d had signed by all of my friends who were in the army etc. and weren’t able to make it to the airport to see me that day. It had taken him almost a month to get the flag to everyone between all of their army schedules. It is so beautiful and meaningful and I almost started crying yet AGAIN when he gave it to me and I started reading the beautiful things my friends had written to me. I became interesting again becase a few people came over to take pictures of us with my new flag of my new country! Then we had the ceremony. We sat, not like I hadn’t been sitting for hours on end or anything, which was difficult because I was so excited I couldn’t sit still and I definitely didn’t listen to any of the speeches. Tzipi Livni the foreign minister spoke but since I don’t have the highest level of respect for her I didn’t feel bad for ignoring her along with all of the other speeches. I was happy just to be breathing normally and holding David’s hand. Once that was over it was time to go upstairs to the Absorption/Interior ministry offices. Everyone else went home/wherever they needed to be that day and David waited with me so we could get my bags and he could take me home. I was so lucky that he was on his week off. It was so nice to know that I could spend almost a whole week with him while I reacclimatize.
The mood upstairs was really nice and calm. After all of the craziness of the last hour there was complete calm in the air. NBN is again amazing and they had us in lines by last name with no more than 8 families per line. It was nice to be waiting around with all of the people from the flight just calmly waiting around and starting to process what we’d just done. It felt like I was in a private clubhouse sharing my afternoon with people who belonged to an exclusive group☺. It took me about 45 minutes of waiting and schmoozing to have my turn with the government official. NBN rocks and all of the paperwork was ready the minute I sat down. I received my Immigrant identification booklet, my cash (the government gives you money to help ease the absorption process) and the other documents I would need to open a bank account and set up health insurance etc. It took a grand total of 5 minutes. I grabbed a rugulach on my way back downstairs… it was amazingly delicious. I met David in baggage claim after setting up my appointment with the ministry of absorption to finish my processing next week. My bags all came off within about 5 minutes. Good thing David is in good shape because each of my bags was almost 70 pounds and there was no way I would have been able to lift them myself!!
We got all of the bags loaded into the car and starting heading to Jerusalem. I was tired but wired. In the car I felt so calm and at home. It’s a feeling I usually get when in the car with David. It was also nice to be driving through the countryside thinking that this was my country now and not just some place I came to visit. It felt so good that I almost started crying again.
We went into town to buy me a new cell phone. It was amazing. We were in and out of the cellcom store (including parking) in exactly an hour. And David also had to replace the battery on his phone! It was pretty much a world record. By then I was already really tired so we came back to his house where I caught up with his dad, vegged, ate something, and started to show David all of the things I’d been waiting 6 months to show him. Stupid things but its hard to be away for so long not being able to share even the stupid things!
We spent the next few hours doing a whole lot of nothing which felt great! I had wanted to watch a movie and ended falling asleep on the couch instead. Considering I hadn’t really slept in almost 2 days I didn’t mind. For dinner we decided to go into Jerusalem. We met up with his brother Ari and went to a place called Masryk on Emek Refaim (my soon to be new neighborhood) which is a personal favorite of mine. Our friend Yoni who had made aliyah a few weeks before came to join us and say hi. He was one of the friends whose job it was to stay in touch with me to make sure I made aliyah in the end. Thank you Yoni!
After our late dinner I wanted to drive to see my cousins. They were all leaving to various places and I wanted to make sure I had an opportunity to see them. They live about 20 minutes in the opposite direction from Jerusalem than David does, but he had a car and he loves me so he didn’t mind driving. My cousin Lia had just gotten home from a trip to Paris with some friends and she’s going into the army this week, Maya just got out of the army and was leaving in the morning to go be a staff member at camp, and Asher is leaving in a few weeks for a yearish in India after his army service. We sat around chatting with them for an hour or so and it was so nice. It was great to have to leave them and know that I would see them in a few weeks no matter what instead of having to wait years to hang out again. It was also nice to see them and my boyfriend getting along so well together and having so much in common. That’s one good thing about the army is that it’s a huge equalizer in the country. Turns out that one of Asher’s former soldiers is a good friend of Davids… Things like that make me happy. Its also great to see my boyfriend and my family liking each other and enjoying being together. It’s important to me that it not be a chore to be with my family.
That’s about it for my first day in Israel…it was crazy and emotional and long and I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I was so ready to continue my life as an Israeli after such a wonderful day.