5 Months Later & I'm Still Alive

Well, this will be my last post from Israel, though I think I will continue to use this blog when I travel again later. Before I post my closing thoughts on this whole thing I want to relate a funny-ish story. If you recall, I started off this semester by rushing a drunk girl to the hospital and staying there for many hours. As fate would have it, I ended the semester in a very similar fashion. On my birthday, Baeli Regine, Popper, Elior, and I were walking up a gentle hill towards the bus stop to go out to the Irish House (a bar), which has two for one drink specials on Sundays and Mondays. Now, this had been a fairly bad day for no particular reason so I was in a bad mood and everyone was moderately surly. Just as we crested the hill, Popper's knee went out and he fell to the ground. Something had shifted in his knee and he was unable to stand or walk, but he also didn't want to go to the hospital, which is what Baeli immediately recommended (she has a thing about injuries). After we spent some time conclusively ascertaining that Popper couldn't walk, he decided to go the hospital, so we called a cab and everyone minus Elior hopped in. Of course, it wasn't until we were halfway to the hospital that we realized that we didn't really have any cash on hand. That discovery led to a frenzied bit of pocket-emptying and by the time we reached the hospital we has just barely enough. As with the last time, we had to get our own means of actually transporting Popper to the doctor, in this case Baeli found a wheelchair lying around, and we began the billing process (885 shekels). The most dramatic difference between this trip and the first one was that this trip was actually a lot of fun (also our moods all got alot better over the course of the evening). As long as Popper didn't move his leg he was fine, so we just kept him immobilized and made jokes and whatnot until the doctor saw us. Baeli and Reggie kept getting bored and wandering off, but they did get us hot chocolate at one point. I feel that we were really not maintaining the proper ER at 2am decorum, mostly because we were just sitting back, talking, laughing, and sipping hot chocolate while people with legitimate problems went ahead of us, but whatever, it was a fun way spend my birthday. It turns out that Popper has hyperlaxivity, so his joints are really loose and stuff can just move around in them without warning. He is going to be here until March so I am not quite clear on what he is going to be do about it but I'm sure he will do something.

Now on to my closing thoughts. I think that I have had an overall good time here in Israel. I got to see ancient things and holy places and tourist traps. I spent Christmas is Jerusalem, hiked up Mt Sinai, saw the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and got endlessly swindled by merchants all across the holy land. I have learned that cabbies always lie, Israeli waiters hate you, and that I hate doing the dishes after a meal more than anything (well, maybe just a bit less than wearing wet socks, but its close). I have gone to bars, nightclubs, nature preserves and hospitals. Hell, I have gone to the hospital more here than I have back home. There are some things I will miss, like my friends, the sight of the Mediterranean from the top of Mt Carmel, and the interesting feeling of independence which comes with cooking my own meals (which is not so say that I wish to continue cooking my own meals). There are also things I will not miss, such as the nausea inducing bus rides, the horny cats yowling outside my window at all hours, Shabbat, and the constant, unending tension. My only regrets are that I did not manage to see Cairo, Petra, or Istanbul during my time here, but I suppose I can see them later on when I visit this area again. Well, I suppose that is all I have to say. I am not sure how much I have been changed by my time here, but I am sure that I am stronger for it. Goodbye Israel, it was fun.