Sunday 7/15

David went back to the army as usual. He always comes in and wakes me up to say goodbye. It is really great to be here on a permanent basis; it makes Sunday mornings infinitely more bearable. David and I can be around each other like normal human beings without having to be sick with dread and worry that the number of precious minutes we have together is steadily dwindling. It is really quite liberating!
I woke up whenever and called my friend Ariel. I have been borrowing her clothes pretty much every time I've been in Israel over the past 2 + years and now was finally my chance to lend some of my clothes back to her!! My suitcases were also a complete mess with clothing strewn all over David's basement.... I couldn't find anything. Ariel came all the way out to Efrat to help me sift through my clothes, find where everything is, borrow some, and help me put everything back together so the basement will be semi-clean-ish for the coming week while I won't be there. It's always fun to have someone to sit and catch up with while having to sit and organize the majority of your material possessions. We finished up surprisingly fast and then just started schmoozing. Ariel had to head back into town to do some shopping with her mom for bar mitzvah stuff. I hung out at David's house and worked on my blog and waited for a ride into town with his parents. ]
I went straight to Ariel's and took a nap. Daddy called a little before she came home. It was ok because she needed to work on more bar mitzvah stuff with her mom and sister. Then mommy came on the line. We hadn't really spoken for real since my aliyah and now was our chance. Ariel has these great amazing hammock chairs in her back yard and the weather was fabulous so I went out back and spoke to her for about an hour. It's really hard for me to be away from my parents but at least with technology I can speak to them almost whenever I want.
I had to get off the phone so I could head to town where I was meeting Craig for dinner. We went to cafe Rimon and sat outside. The weather was really just so spectacular! It was warm yet there was a refreshing breeze and as the sun started setting it became almost chilly. I hadn't seen Craig since the airport so it was nice to spend some serious time with him. Obviously we were in Israel because my friend Monica walked in for dinner just when we were getting ready to leave!
Craig had already met some of my friends at the airport so we went to go meet them. We went to Emek Refaim (the main drag in my new area) where Craig had never been before to meet up with Dana and Yael who are on the same summer program together. As an extra little surprise Elisa Abramowitz was also there! I hadn't seen her in a few years and she was visiting her parents who made aliyah a few years ago.
After sitting with them for a while I headed back to Ariel's. I found Ariel and Rebecca (my future roommate) on the couch watching one of the most awful chick flicks I'd ever seen. At least they were making fun of it also because I was starting to get a little scared! We didn't stay up too late because I had to get up at 7ish to go to a bris.