11 months

I've been in the holy land for 11 months now, and a lot has changed since I last wrote. I have been at my job for 2 months, and am very happy with the work I'm doing, and my co-workers. I work for a startup company in online advertising. I started my job as a content writer, but have been working on website design, and can now even create my own webpages from scratch! I can't believe how much I've learned, and how lucky I am to have a workplace that I enjoy coming to everyday. My weekly meetings are in Hebrew now. One day, the CEO looked at me and said, "we consider you one of us now. You're Israeli. This meeting will be in Hebrew." I couldn't believe it! What an honor. No I didn't understand every word, but I got the gist.

The other day was my b-day, and I really couldn't have had a better day. My roommate took me for breakfast, which turned in to lunch, which turned into a beach day. My roommate Levi works for a nice hotel in Tel aviv. The other day he messaged me telling me to leave Hebrew class right away and to come to the business lounge, Natalie Portman was going to be there. I knew had to go, when would I have this opportunity again? So I left class, and ended up sitting at the table next to her while I ate lunch.

For my birthday I reserved a table at one of my favorite pubs downtown. I got a table for 15, but by the end of the night, almost 30 people came.. including almost all of my co-workers. Fourt months ago I was new to Tel Aviv. I can't believe how many amazing people I've already met in such a short amount of time.

One of my BFFs is Alina, who I met on the Kibbutz. She's one of the coolest girls I know. Just finished her service in the army, and is going to start "kevah" soon, which mean she's going to be a soldier, but as a career. 

In two weeks I'll be going back to the States for Thanksgiving. It's been almost a year since I've seen my siblings!! I'll be home for almost two weeks. I'll be working from home for one of them. I can't imagine what it'll be like being back. I haven't been to the states since my decision to make Aliyah. I left an American/Canadian, and will be visiting as an Israeli. I have a lot to look forward to in FL (family, shopping, food), but also a lot to look forward to when I come back. Tomorrow night I was asked to do a segment on channel 2 news, one of the biggest news channels in Israel, about my experience as an Olah Hadasha. Can't wait.

Tel Aviv