שלום מתל אביב

And so my journey begins.

I departed LAX Sunday at 12:55 PM for Atlanta. I spent the 4.5 hours mostly sleeping, but also watching "The Proposal" on and off. It was a good flight. Glad I slept. Got to Atlanta around 8:25 PM (their time).

My next flight was from Atlanta to Israel and left at 10:45. The 12 hour flight consisted of: Black Swan/dinner, 1/3 of Water for Elephants, a nap, Soul Surfer (yes. don't hate), 1/4 of Eat. Pray. Love., nap, and breakfast/Tangled (which was left with 20 mins to go.)

I arrived in Tel Aviv around 5:30, and by the time I got my luggage and left the airport it was 6:40. I was greeted by my cousin Adi and our friend More. Adi and More stayed with us for about 5 months when they came to CA, so they're like older sisters to me. I was ecstatic to see them. From the airport we went to my grandparent's house because the rest of the family was over there.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Jewish mourning process, when someone dies, the closest family to the person who died (so usually spouse and children) will stay at one house and mourn for a week. They begin early in the morning and pray throughout the day until the evening. During this time, others who wish to pay their respects will come and mourn as well. Men will sit in one area of a room and women will sit in another area of the room. So when I arrived at the small apartment, my aunts greeted me with tight squeezes and tears. It was good to see them. After the prayers were over, I went and said hi to all my uncles and grandpa and gave them tight squeezes.

Around 9:30 or so, other guests left and it was just our family and some of Adi's close friends. The mood lightened up with sounds of laughter over the language barriers between Farsi-Hebrew-English, most people only understanding 2 of the languages. I went over next to my grandfather and he put his arm around me and I put my head on his shoulder and just talked to him. It was really nice. We joked, I told him about what was going on in my life... it was just a really great time (given the circumstances.) I wish my grandmother had been there too, just so I could hug her one last time. I definitely felt as though I was missing something.

Adi, My Saba (Grandfather) and I

It's about 12:45 right now. Tomorrow we'll wake up and go to my grandparent's apartment for a little so I can see other family, and then we'll go shopping in Tel Aviv.

Lyla tov.

[good night].