Going Home and Coming Back

I have to admit, as I was getting on the airplane to go home, I was freaking out a little bit. Even though it sort of feels like no time at all has passed since I left in September, and I've definitely done a good job keeping in touch (at least I think so), I was still gone for seven months, which is a REALLY long time to be away from home. So it was just so weird to be FINALLY going home again and I was going a little bit crazy.

A 12 hour flight later, 11 hours of which I was fast asleep for, I landed back at good old Newark. Mom cried when we finally saw each other (big surprise), although Marcus made me pull out the hug voucher he sent me months ago before he would hug me. I don't know anyone else on Nativ who talks to his or her parents as much as I do, so needless to say I was really really really happy to see them again. And (almost) even happier to go straight to blue swan and get chocolate chip pancakes (I won't write here about what non-Kosher not-available-in-Israel side dish I got).

I was home at a really good time, because a lot of my friends from home were still on spring break. The next week was a flurry of eating at all the places I'd missed (Applebee's, blue swan again, Marcus and my favorite sushi place, and P F Chang's), sleeping in my own bed and showering without shoes, watching TV (man I miss TV), and seeing all the people I missed - I got time with all of Dad's family on Sunday, as well as a night at Aunt Karen's with Nanny, both of which were wonderful. All of my friends who live far away came to see me, and I even got to spend a night visiting friends at Penn and a day in New York seeing my friends at NYU and Barnard. Overall, I, somehow, was able to fit in almost everything I wanted to.

Going home was strange for only about 5 minutes, and then it felt like I had never been gone. Possibly my favorite thing about being home was being back in my car and just driving around. I don't think I've ever offered to drive Marcus so many places as I did that week, simply because I loved being back behind the wheel. When I first got in my car I told Mom that I thought I missed driving more than I missed her - and I was only half joking. Also just being able to know my way around and being in a place that is so familiar to me was extremely comforting.

As fast as being home came, it went. Mom cried again upon my leaving, even though I'd be home 8 weeks later, which is just a drop in the bucket compared to the 7 months I'd been gone before.

I was really sad to leave home - it was much harder than I had expected to only be home for a short time and then have to say goodbye again. But once I landed in Israel again, I was really glad to be back. I got a hero's welcome at my apartment, where all my roommates had made signs for me and told me that they all really missed me. Coming back made me realize that I had missed everyone, and Yerucham, way more than I had realized when I was preoccupied at home.

I spent my Shabbat back in Yerucham with most of my apartment, and it was wonderful just to eat together again at our kitchen table and catch up on sleep (even though nothing compares to my bed at home). That Sunday, however, was what I had really been waiting for...going back to my gan. I had been away from my kids for two weeks, and I REALLY missed them (so much so that when I was sad about leaving home I simply had to tell myself that i would soon be seeing my kids again). At gan I got another hero's welcome, and it appeared that my kids had missed me as much as I'd missed them. I brought them all back fun-sized pots of play-dough, since I thought that would be a good gift from America as I've never seen play-dough in Israel. Buruyah and Etie were also really happy to see me. All in all, it was good to be back, although unfortunately I only had two days of work at gan before Passover break started.

Up next: The Passover Saga