Exodus: The hammer strikes back

Tonight, I am packing my bags in preparation for leaving Israel. For the first time in a year I will be returning to visit my parents in Ventura, California. I will be going with my little sister, who is spending the year in Israel.  Our visit will be for one week, where we will also celebrate my cousin Alyssa's Bat-Mitzvah.

After a difficult half-year on kibbutz Lotan, I returned to Jerusalem. I then went on an excellent trip to Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland. While in Eastern Europe, it was nice to see people waiting in lines and to be amongst non-Jews again, eating pork for breakfast and drinking beer for lunch. It was also nice to see my Hungarian friend Marton Lombos, who I met at Ulpan Etzion after making Aliya. 

To a certain extent Eastern Europe reminded me of California, where I always lived amongst non-Jews. Because I am not religious I didn't stand out and therefore didn't experience the prevalent anti-Semitism in these countries.

Upon returning to from the trip to Eastern Europe I felt lost. I started another Hebrew language course for people seeking employment, but ended up daydreaming during class. 

I started applying for work. I applied for one job in which I would have been a telemarketer, working over night. The job entailed selling phone cards to people in the United States. During the interview I fell on my face. When the interviewer handed me a pen and told me to sell it to her I didn't know what to say. I was sweating and stammered trying to think of something good to say.  The following week I found out I didn't get the job.

I had another job interview at a bio-tech company. I was never good at science in school and had no science related work experience. To top it off, the interview went poorly and again I didn't get the job.

To a certain extent it was embarrassing, but on the other hand I didn't feel so bad as it was just one more sign that Israel wasn't the place for me.  Besides, I always had the option of returning to California, where I was familiar with the culture and language, as well as having family there. 

I stopped writing this blog for many weeks and was feeling down. I had no energy to write. Fortunately the Jerusalem Post decided to let the blog remain after I contacted the editor and wrote to her that I was still interested in writing it.  

Like a prisoner I started to count the days until returning to California. I had a plane ticket for January 9 and had two more months in Israel. I was going to be one of the many immigrants from the United States that left Israel after a short stay, in my case, a year and a half.

Then something magical happened. I was set up on a blind-date with an Israeli girl. I dislike dating as I find the process to be very uncomfortable, but went through with the date because I had nothing to lose. Besides, I could tell people in California that I went on a date with an Israeli girl.

Anyway, I had another date and then another and one thing led to another and suddenly we were spending most of our time together. I liked her a lot and wanted to find a job to show her I was doing something respectable with my life. I was also happy to be going out with a Jewish girl as that was something that was always important to me, despite not keeping kosher or keeping Shabbat.

I quickly found work at a matzo factory in Jerusalem and after a week of stacking 25 kilo bags of matzo flour for 8 hours a day my back started to hurt.  I decided to try doing something with my brain.

I ended up calling a media company in Jerusalem and told them I was willing to help out in anyway possible. Money or no money, I needed to be busy and do something productive. I came to the office and after meeting with the soft-spoken, kind boss I was immediately put to work. 

I enjoyed the work, as well as my new girlfriend and due to the wonderful turn of events I will be returning to Israel after my one week stay in California. Moreover, I'm planning on remaining in Israel for the foreseeable future.