Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The Chaviva Has Landed

Photo courtesy THE Benji Lovitt, who greeted me at the airport!
My mouth hurts from smiling. And I think the delirium is obvious. 

I have three suitcases with various sundry items like clothing in them. They're staring at me saying, "Where on earth are you going to put us? Do you see closet space? Are you going to live out of suitcases for the next month?"

And I don't have an answer. There's a desk in this Nachlaot apartment, but I might have to relocate the desk and acquire an aron -- a sort of closet that isn't a closet. Something like what Belle had in Beauty and the Beast. Yes, the movie. The Disney movie. Am I delirious? It's possible. I've been up for quite some time, I didn't sleep on the plane, my arms are like spaghetti from the schlepping of the bags, I'm hungry but have no desire to pay for food or make food, I need to shower but kind of want to fall over sideways onto the bed and just sleep, my inbox is crawling with emails, I have so much work to do that my face might explode, and these CLOTHES ... what am I going to do with them?

I can't believe I'm here. Utter and complete disbelief. As I walked around with a good friend and her kids to Marzipan (a well-known bakery) and a few other stops, it just felt like home. Like normal.

I'm just going to have to figure out the language, my fear of spending while in Israel (yes, for some reason buying things at stores in Israel makes me anxious, however buying coffee and food at restaurants and cafes doesn't), and my schedule.

I have a bunch of things I wrote on the plane, sort of a play-by-play if you will, but that's going to come tomorrow, as well as the experience of arriving and the paperwork and onboarding that occurred. I'm too tired. I'm too dirty. I need to shower, I need to sleep. Time to put my sheets on this bed, make up my comforter-duvet, and put myself to sleep.

From an olah chadasha -- a new immigrant -- I wish you all a sweet lilah tov (goodnight)!