Within three weeks I have basically made a crazy effort to see everyone who's important to me in my life. I was excited to be at home with my parents and grandmother in Newton and be welcomed by everyone at shul. I couldn't believe how big Ben and Tess got. Ben and Tess live down the street. When I met them Ben was 3 and Tess was 1. My first babysitting job was for them on Ben's 4th birthday. Now Ben is taking drivers ed and preparing to get his Learner's Permit in a couple weeks. I am loving the New England weather and, to go with that, central heating. Though really my third floor room here is as freezing cold as it always was, but the rest of the house is nice and toasty.
And then came the fun part: my 2008 East Coast Tour. Usually my annual tour is a simple trip to Philadelphia to see my grandmother and Teaneck for shabbat to see my cousins. This year I had to fit in going to College Park too. The past week was without a doubt the most exciting part of my trip back to America. Last Sunday, just five days after I arrived in the US, I flew down to Philadelphia. When I told my grandmother how long I was there for she gave me a sour look and said "Fine, I'll take what I can get!" I give her a tremendous amount of credit. She is on the verge of falling apart physically but insists on living on her own in her own house. She has people who come in to help her but she is adamant that she do as much as she can on her own. There are sometimes disasterous results, but this is what's important to her. Going to Philadelphia is never the most exciting part of a vacation but there are always stories to be told (gotta love the skeletons she pulls out of the closet from my family!) and she spends a good five hours or so telling me everything that's wrong with me but ending with "I love you anyway."
And from Philadelphia I went to... MARYLAND! I was so excited the second I saw a sign out the train window for Elkton, MD, right near the Delaware border and even happier when I caught site of a Maryland flag on the side of a Coca Cola factory. From Union Station I went to Kemp Mill to visit the daughters of someone who currently teaches at UMD but got her masters at Brandeis so has known me since I was the age of her oldest girls. I babysat for them and came for shabbat a couple times while I was at UMD and they complained that I didn't visit enough, so I had to work them into my trip! From there I went to University Towers to see more friends (arf!), and then Rebecca #2 picked me up to bring me to Silver Spring to see yet more friends who conveniently live together. I got to see Alan AND Noam AND Margo who despite what Alan implied are ALL my friends. The following morning I got on a bus to College Park. I was jumping up and down in my seat the entire way there.
College Park is beautiful. I could smell the fresh grass the second I got off the bus. Okay, I know this is an insane comparison to make, but I was full emotion like I was when I got off the plane in Israel back in August. I felt like I was home. To continue with what I wrote in my last post, on Friday I went to DC to see the Cherry Blossoms. It was too bad all my friends were too deathly ill to join me (or had class) but I enjoyed walking around icky humid DC on my own. I also visited my dinosaur friends (ie the skeletons) at the museum of Natural History. For those of you who don't know, one of the best classes I took at UMD was Dinosaur Class. When I got back to College Park I went to the Book Exchange to get a fresh pair of sweatpants. Then checked out Rugged Warehouse because UMD was 20 degrees warmer than the weather I had packed for, and basically I didn't wind up wearing 75% of what I packed for the trip. Then I went to CVS and was thrilled to get Jason as my cashier. To explain, Jason is the best CVS employee in the entire world. I want to be best friends with him. In the thirty seconds it took me to check out he caught me up on his life and I caught him up on mine. Does anyone know his last name? He must be on facebook. Anyway, that's when you really know you're at home somewhere - when even the CVS guy is happy to see you.
It was a typical shabbat at UMD. Friday night we had a meal at Shira's. On facebook she classified it as a protest against me leaving and encouraged people to picket. Stu made the best (and only) sign calling for me to get out of Israel. I can't wait to hang it on my wall in Israel and have lots of people see it and get the wrong idea. For shacharit the following morning, while you'd think that after almost a year I could sit through shacharit at Hillel, I didn't even bother davenning there at all. I just went for the end to see people... and it was so great seeing people. Shabbat lunch was at Chabad so I could catch up with all of them. My friend Doni was also in from Israel and in College Park for shabbat. He's in the army so I never ever see him. He said it's crazy we both had to go 6000 miles to see each other. It was good having him there... nice reminder of where we've both gone with our lives. Shabbat afternoon I did the unthinkable and went back to Hillel for mincha (not that I went in) and seudat shlishit so I could see more people. Even though there are like billions of freshmen at Hillel now I am happy to report that the community is still holding together. It was good to be back. Since I clearly wasn't going to stick around for havdalah, I left early to go have some quiet time on the mall. I can't believe I spent four years on that campus and that my time there was really all over. I was remembering when I sat out there during my orientation trip and thought about what had brought me there. But that aside ("ha'mevin yavin") it was a special few minutes. It had finally cooled down and campus looked fabulous as always.
When I'm in Israel I probably tell my few friends there how much I miss my many friends back in College Park way too often. I realize that I was very lucky and got in with a great group of friends really quickly. Even so, I was saying a week or so ago that even a total loner has friends in college at this point in the year, even if it's just one or two people they can reliably hang out with at night or on the weekends. When I left Hillel Saturday evening really feeling happy about the great people I met and became friends with in college I saw a kid standing by the walkway of Hillel facing the fence on the side and basically staring at his feet. Okay, maybe not everyone finds their niche. It totally broke my heart. I wished he had at least been pacing up and down the path so I could have said hi. Sigh.
Saturday night me, Shira, Dan, Stu (I miss listing all of us together) and Minnesota Sara (who is just as important) went out on the mall to blow bubbles. By now this is a scripted ritual. We start on the steps of the Administration Building, Shira and Sara stop to waltz by the fountain, following by sprawling out on the sundial and then ending up by Testudo in front of the library. And this time Shira and Sara stopped to make out behind a tree, but what else is new? So glad nothing has changed. Just like old times and all that. Glad everyone got at least slightly healthier to go out Saturday night. That night was really what I visited for.
So with a few more pats on Testudo's nose than usual I got ready to leave College Park. I still feel such a connection to that place and know that even long after all my friends have graduated it will still be important for me to come back there. It's crazy that I chose to go to UMD for such a silly reason and it wound up being one of the best decisions of my life. When I accepted admission to the school I had barely seen the campus and knew little about the programs there. Now I have been taught by some incredible professors, especially in the History department, lived in a crazy college town, spent every day walking along perfectly trimmed grass into tall brick buildings with white pillars, and I have friends I can't imagine living without. They even picketed against me leaving!
ends I can't imagine living without. They even picketed against me leaving!Sunday morning I stagged out of bed (or rather rolled off the air mattress) bright and early to leave for Teaneck. I'm glad I left visiting my cousins for the end of the trip after College Park or else I don't know if I would have ever left. My little cousins (Aharon, Adina, and Eitan) were well aware that they had less than 24 hours with me and milked every second of it. Eitan and Adina whisked Spotty and Peter off to feed them (cottage cheese as always) and Aharon showed me the report he was doing on the computer using Google images. 9 year olds are smart these days. Aharon got so tall I'm not even sure I can call him a little cousin anymore. I love watching them grow. They are so cool. I could say a zillion things about how cute they are. Monday morning. #1 on that list is waking up Monday morning to Eitan opening my door to crawl into bed with me... with Spotty, who slept in Eitan's bed for the night (Peter slept with Adina). Being adored is wonderful.
I was exhausted when I got back to Newton yesterday, and today I was out playing with my cousin Devorah all afternoon. What a trooper! She hasn't been feeling well for awhile and just spent a few days in the hospital because she was so anemic. Today, thanks to a healthy blood transfusion, she spent over an hour bouncing around at the park. She commented that she had to wait a long time to see me, and it was only two weeks since I last saw her. So cute.
Tomorrow I have two more playdates. Sam and Michal are coming in from Israel. I'm spending Thursday with my mom. My sister is coming in Thursday night. I haven't seen her since my college graduation. My time here is flying by, and as I said, it's extremely intense seeing everyone in three weeks and knowing I won't see them again for awhile. Thankfully my next trip back is only four and not seven months away. My cousins were a little more forgiving about letting me go this time. I can't even think about going back to Israel right now. I'm glad I'm going back, but I just don't want to think about it. Being here is too special.
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