From New York to Beersheva to Chicago and back and forth

Wow, where to start? I guess I should begin where I last left off. My parents came to visit me from the 11th thru the 21st...it was great to have them over in my apartment. We also had the little surprise of seeing that my gray fat male bunny was not fat, nor was he male. He was, in fact, a she, and gave birth. Just as I feared, I came home to 7 bunnies, not 2. I called the pet store, and they reassured me that they had no clue, and had they, they would've held on to the bunnies for profit. Either way, they came and picked up the babies after weaning, and I even got 25 shekel per bunny.

The weekend of the 18th-20th, we celebrated my parents' 25th "silver" anniversary, with 2 nights at the luxurious Carlton (there went my loan money...well, that and the flying), the second night of which I crashed in the adjoining guess room and enjoyed the amazing Shabbat dinner buffet and the lounge access. I got a little sick that Saturday night and didn't feel much like dinner, but we said our goodbyes, convinced that we wouldn't see one another for a while (I was planning to come home for a bar mitzvah and surprise them, but we'll get to that!).

School went on for a little while, and I was feeling confused, misguided, and unsure of my path (like others in my program). Plus, my grandfather was feeling kind of sick as well and fainted in synagogue (he forgot to eat breakfast with his medication), all of this prompting me to use up a little more of that saved cash and book a flight home from the 7th-13rd, leaving an afternoon each way to tutor the bar mitzvah boy in person (I had been tutoring him since the spring, and then via Skype/phone). There was a huge storm on the 7th in New York, delaying my connection to Chicago by a day, but NBD, I got home safe and sound.

While I was home, things began to escalate in Israel, with rumors of an operation, later named Pillar of Defense, to take place. By the time I arrived in Israel on Thursday morning (thanks to a joint AA-El Al flight change to let me spend a little more time with my family in Chicago due to the delay in arrival), every single friend I called told me that there would be no purpose to return to my home in the south because of the rocket-fire. Instead, I went north (wrong train ticket, same fare) and spent the day on an hour of sleep with my friend at the Technion, asking for another hour nap in between. By evening, I decided that I needed to return to Beersheva to grab some things. I also called to see how much it would cost to bump up my Thanksgiving travel to the next day, since nothing would be happening in Israel. I made a new routing after an agent found me a low fare, from TLV-ZRH-JFK (NYC) on the 16th (yes, I was in Israel for only a day), to Chicago on the 18th, and then Chicago to NYC on the 21st, and NYC back to Israel via London on the 22nd. I flew the entire routing (the flights weren't super from Israel to NYC, but after spending two seconds criticizing my seat on that Swiss flight, being in a row of 3 with a row of 4 ahead of me, leaving me a split seat and a thing in between the bottom of the seats ahead to inconvenience my legs, I immediately fell asleep. I then bought myself some chocolates (and a hat and shot glass) that some guy bought off of me because he didn't have time (there was extra security for the US flight), but then ended up in the seat next to me and shared some with me. No kosher food, but no problem--slept through most of that flight as well. A good friend hosted me over that Shabbat, promising me that Wednesday before that if I were to find myself in NYC again and wanted to come over for a Shabbat, to contact him (little did he know how relevant those words would turn out to be). I then flew back to Chicago for a couple of days of R&R--pretty sure I slept 12 hours that first night home.

By the time I was ready to leave back to New York on Wednesday, I had a clearer picture of my path. I was going to continue down this road, seeing what medicine would have in store for me. That morning, despite a cease-fire later that day, we received an email that school would be out until the end of December. Frantically, I checked AA and noticed that they had a Tel Aviv travel policy, that if you had a flight leaving until the 26th, you could change it to a later date for free! I changed it to a random date in August, then flew to NYC as planned for the bar mitzvah, staying with some amazing people on both Park Avenue and in the Heights. The bar mitzvah was amazing--I was so proud of my student and wouldn't have missed it for the world. I also got to spend Shabbat with a friend studying in Boston, and the next few days staying in the Heights and seeing with friends all over, including one from MSIH!

I booked a round-trip NYC-Chicago fare, leaving the 28th of November back to Chicago, where I am right now, and returning on that same arbitrary August date, to in theory connect with the flight to Israel for the start of my second year. Who knows what even tomorrow will bring? In the meantime, here's to good friends, good family, and a very strange winter break! I can't wait until I fly to visit friends all over Japan using some of these many miles (including two JAL flights on the new dreamliners), and then flying from there back to Israel (in business class!!!) for some intense studying, difficult exams, and, most importantly, solid ground for a little while. Well, at least let's hope so!