I’ve been living in Israel now for over a year.
Time flys in this desert heat.
I can NEVER get used to this heat man.
I don’t usually write much about living here, it’s not like I don’t have what to write about, I just kind of don’t know where to begin.
People usually ask about security- if I worry that I’m going to be blown up by a terrorist while I sit on the train.
The truth is, you kind of get used to the unknown.
I mean, I am a New Yorker- a New Yorker that was living in NY on 9/11- so I guess if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.
But most of my life, I have been the one telling people around me, or those who would ask, that everything you see on tv about Israel is kind of sensationalized.
I mean yes, you are often surrounded by gun carrying soldiers-
And by soldiers, I mean 18-22 year old boys.
Although technically after they leave the army, they cannot be called boys I suppose.
The women don’t usually wield fire arms.
All men and women MUST serve in the army.
There is no choice really.
The only way that someone can “get out of it” is if they are married, religious, or have mental or physical disabilities.
When you enter a train station, your bags are checked and you have to pass your belongings through an x-ray machine.
When you enter mall parking, your car is checked and you need to open your trunk for inspection as well.
These are minor inconveniences for security sake.
The other week, my husband brought 3 boxes into the house.
When I inquired what was in the boxes, he nonchalantly said “Gas Masks”
Each citizen receives one.
When I asked him why there were only 3 and not 4- he said that he had lost his years ago, and you can’t get a new one unless you return your old one. Because he has no clue where his is, he needs to pay a fine to a government office and only then can he receive a new one.
Seeing the small boxes that carry my girls gas masks makes me want to throw up.
Last weekend, there were rocket launches from the Gaza strip to areas not far from where I live.
Sirens were set to warn residents to get into a bomb shelter.
Most homes have a room that is a bomb shelter- with steel doors and windows.
Since my house is older, it wasnt necessary to build a bomb shelter room back then so we don’t have one.
Which is scary.
Truth be told, my husband and I slept through the sirens at 8am Friday morning. I didn’t hear anything and neither did he.
Rockets hit a school in a city nearby- but seeing as though it’s summertime- no one was in the building.
A man was killed on his way to pick up his wife- he heard the sirens, got out of his car to find shelter, and a rocket hit him.
His wife is 9 months pregnant.
You read stories like these and your heart aches.
It could have been someone who I knew.
But- in Israel, you kind of feel like everyone IS your family.
You are all living the same reality.
My husband’s college is in a zone where rockets can reach. He’s been receiving school texts that the school is closed until further notice.
Sometimes I just want to run back home.
flee this war-torn country.
people hate you for practicing your religious freedom…. for being who you are.
But it’s not all bad here.
I mean, if it were, the country would be empty.
People must fight for their land, for their right to exist.
Do I think I will be living here for the rest of my life- the answer is no.
But I wont lie and say that there is nothing magical about this country.
I can assure you that we will be back in the US within the next 3-4 years.
I just hope that until then, I don’t have to break out those small gas masks.
