Oh boyfriend, where are thou?

I actually know where he is right now. He wrote me an e-mail (thank you universe for inventing the world wide connection). They're in Pisa (I'm so jealous- never been to Italy) and heading to Sardinia tomorrow... (Have I mentioned how jealous I am?)

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Went shopping with my sis today. Bought a new pair of shoes (will be great for European weather) and 2 nice shirts, and my sis bought me a pre-birthday present- a really special shirt... Was a fun day for us in Tel-Aviv, and also- my sister went to an interview in an arts school called Minshar, and she got accepted for cinematography!!! I'm so excited for her. She got excepted to another school too (Camera Obscura) but she chose the other one. My little sister is gonna be a student!!!

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I guess I write more coz I don't get to talk to Rob, and I need to tell someone whats going on with me.

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Charles called me today!!! From Paris!!! They're landing here on Monday night, and they're gonna call again on Tuesday and we'll make plans!!! I'm so happy about it!!! Now I have to focus up- and stop feeling like the tourist in this country, coz I'm gonna have to take the role of the guide... I still feel a bit like a stranger here- everyone's so loud and blunt, in China they used to stare coz I was different, now men stare coz they're obnoxious. People tend to talk on their cell phones everywhere, and ask very personal questions even if they're just the person fixing your cell phone. Hmmm... how was I ever used to this??? Well now I have to like it, or at least have excuses for it- if I ever wanna show the nice things of this country to other ppl. And there are plenty of nice things here. Plenty.

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Good night. I'm really tired now... (Uggi my dog is so cute- every night waits for me to go to bed- to come along and sleep in my room...)

1000 visitors

Ironically, and realistically my 1000 visitor was someone that was looking for the meaning of "the world is my oyster". Why Ironically and realistically?

Because except for a few ppl - almost none of my best friends read my blog.

I guess this sounds a bit pathetic and well- you're probably wondering why the hell I even mention it here- but I mention it here coz it pisses me off.

And then they ask me what's up with me, and what's new in my life. And that really annoys me. But whatever. It's almost even liberating to know that. I feel a bit more free with my writing. Well, not that I felt not free before.

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Rob is on a surprise trip that his dad planned for the whole family, for the parents' 25 anniversary. I don't get to talk to him much (today was the 1st day out of 8), but when I called just to see if he already knows what's the plan, they were in Austria. He still doesn't know where they're going next.
I was invited for this trip as well- but since I wasn't planning on being in Germany when they leave, I thought that it doesn't make any sense to come there especially for that. Also I thought that I don't feel like being the only one not from the family on the trip. I just didn't feel like it's my place to join them for something like this. Yet.

It's been only one day and I already miss talking to him. Hopefully this week will pass really quick for me.

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Charles and Ana are suppose to come to Israel on Monday (in 2 days from now). I sent Charles an e-mail asking what's up. Haven't gotten an answer yet. Can't wait to see them here.

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Have a weird mood. Tomorrow I'm meeting my sister in Tel-Aviv for some nice shopping. Hope it gets me out of this mood. I love it that I spend so much nice times with my sister after so long I haven't seen her. It's so great.

Long time no write

Haven't written in a while... Tell you the truth it's been kinda eventful here- even though I've been doing practically nothing... Met most of my friends here, saw most of the family, went over most of my stuff and threw away a lot of things. Gave lots of clothes and shoes to charity. While going over my closet I realized that there's so many things in it that I'll never wear again. That when you live in the same place all the time you just keep them for that once in a season you'll wear them. When you go away for so long- you realize that you've managed with a lot less than that. You tend to keep only the things you really like and need. So that's why I threw out so much of my stuff. I still have 3 drawers to go over, and some boxes in the storage room.

Two of my best friends (the ones that are married) are pregnant. I'm not sure I'm suppose to tell anyone about it- but hey- if they're not reading this (and they better!!!) then they'll never know... When the first one told me about it- I was so happy for her. I mean- it's so weird - but I am really happy for her. Today the second one told me. And of course- I am so so so happy for her. And with that happiness I think I got a bit sad. It took me a while to realize what was making me feel this sadness. And in the car it hit me: I'm not going to be here for them while the pregnancy. I might not even be here when their babies are born. Well to be honest I will probably not be here then coz I'm gonna be studying German in Dresden at the time. And births- as you all know are usually not very planned... I don't even know if I'll be able to be here close to when the babies are gonna be born. And then I realized that I will not be around much when they grow up. I know that these are "just" friends- but they are not "just" friends to me. I feel like I'm gonna be an aunt or something, not just a friend of the kid's parents. So this is really weird for me...

We're having a girls night tonight- celebrating Goni's birthday a month and a bit late. She waited for me to be here, and for the others to have some time to be alone with us on a private celebration. I invited them over here to my house- coz my mom's not here for a week, and my sis agreed happily to go spend the weekend with her boyfriend.

I still feel like I have to shake this weird feeling off of me.

Back in Israel

Wow... I have so much to tell... And I had no time until now... So... I'll start with the last weekend- at Rob's parents' house. We got there on Friday afternoon, after picking up his cousin Vivica who came from Berlin. We were the first to arrive from all the ppl, and so we met all of them when they came. Well- his grandma was already there. Anyway, Friday night I met 9 cousins that I never did and 3 that I already knew. They were all so nice!!! They all spoke good English, so even though they were talking German a lot (and I actually understood a bit of what they were talking about sometimes) and had they're inside jokes (they're a really close family) I always had someone to talk to, and I could always approach them in English and expect them to understand me. OK, so the next day was the day of the big relay race. Rob and his big bro got a detailed plan for everyone- who's supposed to be where and when. I went with his dad to take a picture of the second change- between Georg and Ulrich- 2 brothers. We got there with Rob's Grandma, who was wearing her "Team Captain" T-shirt, and with Vivica. We waited for a while until the team number was announced (to let the next runner know he should get ready to run) and then finally Georg arrived and Ulrich continued with the race. Georg looked a bit worried and told us that he never saw Rob's brother- who was the first runner!!! They just told him that 154 (their number) has collapsed and he can start running his track! We didn't even know what happened to him until Rob's dad went to the hospital to see him... Apparently he ran a bit too fast in the beginning (so he said) and after a while didn't feel so good. A 100 meters (!!!) before the end of his track, he was running up hill and then he doesn't remember what happened, except for the Ambulance that took him to the hospital. Another runner had told him later that he caught him falling. Anyway this whole thing changed some plans- but the team continued running. I left the grandma's car, and joined Rob's car (he dropped off 3 of his cousins and himself), managed to upset him one time too (a big miscommunication) and "run away" from him, took some pictures of the runners and the changes between them (some are still on the camera's film), and generally have lots of fun! It was an exciting day, and everybody was really nice. I even got my own T-shirt with the same "85" in the front, but with my name in capital letters in the back... Was really cool. At the end we were all sitting in the beer tent, eating pretzels and cheese and other typical German food, and waited to hear what place the team ended up in. There were more than 300 teams, and "Elfriedes Enkel" ended up in the 159th place- which is not really bad. A good place in the middle. They were very famous for being one family, there was a reporter that wrote about them for the local newspaper- and made the grandma feel very special and a celebrity, and Rob's brother was famous for being the only one that was evacuated to a hospital that day...

The next day was my last day in Germany, we all had a big breakfast together (I helped Rob's mom bake Pita bread and make Tehina and Humus) and then slowly slowly all the cousins scattered away. I spent a few more hours with Rob (I miss you...) and then his big brother took me to the airport on his way home. We got there a bit too early (3 and a half hours before my flight) so I had a lot of time to kill, but it passed and I realized that I'm gonna see my sister soon... After a year and 8 months I haven't seen her at all... Slept about half of the flight, and then landed... Didn't recognize my sis (lost a lot of weight and got a new haircut) she had to wave so I know it's her... She looks great! I missed her so much... I used to dream about meeting her- every week since I went away...

Got home saw my mom, saw my dog (cute and old!), and met my best friends (except for Yifat- she's still not here- studying hard for her exams- I'll see her in 10 days), and tomorrow I guess I'll go see my grandparents and my dad and brothers.

That's it. Oh yeah- I already ate Humus!!! today... It was great!

Not much more to say,

Oh- Today is my sister's birthday!!!

Happy Birth Day Nitzan!!! Love ya!!!

Some updates and some thoughts

What should I begin with? the update or the thoughts? hmmm...
update- coz it's not gonna be very long... Tonight is my last night in this apartment (I should be saying my apartment, or maybe I should even say: our apartment) before I go back to Israel. Tomorrow we're going to Rob's parents' for the weekend and my flight back is on Sunday night. We're gonna meet about 15 members of his family- all gonna stay at his parents' house (yes, it's gonna be like camp or something). They are all coming for a special occasion called "Landkreislauf"= the Landkreis (= district) race. Every year there's a relay race in that region, there's usually about 200 groups, each has 11 runners. The big prize is winning the race, and everyone gets a T-shirt of that year (every year it's a different color...). This year Rob's family decided to celebrate his grandma's 85 birthday in a special way: 11 of her 19 grand kids are gonna form into a group and run for her in the race. They even got matching T-shirts with "85" in the front, and in the back it says: "Elfriedes Enkel" = meaning "Elfriede's grandchildren". I specifically wanted to see this race- and that's one of the reasons I stayed in Germany until now... They are all coming from Austria except for Rob, his sister and brother and one cousin. I already know I'm gonna hear a lot of German, even more than I did so far here in Germany, and I'm gonna be "the girlfriend from Israel"... I already met about 4 of his cousins, and they were super nice. So I still have hope to have fun this weekend... lol... I volunteered to be the photographer of the occasion- hope I get to take as many pictures of the ppl running as possible...

and now:

some thoughts.

well. I was watching the half finale of the Eurovision contest (until I was too bored with the poor quality of the songs) online (the internet is the best invention ever!), and a few thoughts popped out in my head. Especially the language issue. I used to love this contest when I was young, used to wait for it every year, maybe because it was a contest with Europe that Israel was a part of, maybe because I was allowed to stay up until it's over (which was really late for what I was usually allowed) and maybe because I like music (but that couldn't be a reason coz the music there was never my taste really). But I think that the main reason was the intentionality of the contest, and above it all- all the different languages I could hear. It was an introduction to other cultures and other languages- served on a silver plate. You didn't have to open the encyclopedia (back then we used real books- there was no internet and no Wikipedia!), you didn't have to ask a million questions when your cousin came back from abroad- you just had to turn your TV on once a year for a couple of hours and watch this contest. They even used to show short flicks about each country and their views and customs. But today it's all different. Today most of the countries send pop songs that all sound the same, they sing mostly in English- and if it's a good song it's nice- coz then I understand the lyrics, but if it's a bad one- it's terrible, for example: "You don't know how much I love you, you don't know how much I need you" in bad eastern European accent, they dress up really badly (or should I say dress down? they hardly wear anything on their bodies!) and they mix different cultures in one song- which usually I'm really not against culture mixing, I mean- just look at me and Rob and you'll say the opposite, but god, when a song starts with a man dressed in a 1001 nights costume, and plays the violin, and then another man dressed the same is banging a gong that looks Chinese and has a Chinese character on it, and then the singer (from Malta) sings in English- I say enough!
So the contests these years are a bit dull (if not very), un-educating in the cultural manner (which was the whole point) and generally lost it's flare...
But a habit is a habit- and it's hard to kick a habit- so I watched the half finale a bit, and hopefully the Israelis will make it to the finals...
Hope to write again soon, I'm not sure when I'll have time, there's a good chance it'll already be in Israel!

Home sweet (new) Home

That's it! We're done bringing everything to our apartment, it took us a week until everything was in place- but now it is. Finally I have a home- a place I live in, and there's no more need to open a messy suitcase in order to look for a shirt. My things are in a closet!!! Our place looks so nice now, and so pleasant to be in... Next Wednesday the internet ppl are coming to connect us, sadly it's 2 days before we leave to Rob's parents's for my last weekend here... My flight to Israel is getting closer and closer...
We went to the foreigner office where Rob's parents live, to ask what kind of visa can I apply for, unfortunately there's no such thing as a girlfriend/partner visa, so the only chance will be to get a students visa. There's a few ways to do that, and as soon as we know more I'll write it here. Now we have to search for German language schools around here, and go there and ask questions, and go to the foreigner office here as well to see if the regulations are any different. I hope it'll be alright... I'm not allowed to work here as long as I learn the language (coz they say I'm suppose to study and not work) and that's a bit of a bummer... We'll see how we get along next year...
So, this weekend we decided to finally enjoy our home, for the first time (we've been at Rob's parents' house every weekend since we came back from China) and then I'll only have another week till I go back to Israel...
Have a great weekend everyone!