Just Visiting

One thing I always need to remember; whiskey, even just a teaspoon, always gives me a hangover. I can dring Vodka with the Chabadniks, and Arak with the Sephardim, but give me a teaspoon of whiskey and I'm clutching my skull the next day. The quarter-shot of whiskey I had last night was no exception. I figured it had probably been five years or so since I last had whiskey, and I had probably gotten over it. Think again, man!

Anwyway, while recovering from my wild whiskey and crembo party, I've thought about the apartment thing, and I decided to look for a place in Kiryat Mosheh. That would put me walking distance to the yeshivah (Machon Meir) and still downtown. So my goal will be to spend the next week looking for a place there. If I can't find anything after a week, then I'm going to take the first thing I can find in some other neighborhood like Rasco, San Simon, Baka, or somewhere like that. I'm under time pressure to get settled, but at the same time, I want to get somewhere that I actually want to live. After all, this is a year out of my life we're talking about here.



Meanwhile, here are some more pictures I took while in Walnut Creek. Whenever I wasn't working, I was constantly invited over to people's homes for visits, or to go out and do stuff.


My grandfather drove out to Walnut Creek after our Sunday morning minyan to take me out for the day. Had a great time catching up, watching a show, and of course shopping. It was a fast day (Tzum Gedaliah) so no hot tamales during the movie



At my grandfather's house I saw a photo of the fam from years gone bye.

Later that night, I was invited over to Rabbi's to break the fast. It also happened to be my 29th birthday on the Hebrew calendar, so Rebbetzin Shternie prepared my fave, brownie cake!

From left to right: Eitan (local baal tshuvah,) yours truly, Dovber, Rabbi, and Nissin. Dovber and Nissin come out from time to time from the east coast to help out running the high holidays.

Shternie with my brownie cake: No, no, don't take my picture!

A couple of days later, I headed out to Sacramento to visit my company's office there and meet face-to-face with all the people I've been working with over the phone for the last year.

On the drive back from Sacramento, the first rains of the year began falling, and hard. Soon, they will come to Jerusalem too, God willing.

When I got back to Walnut Creek, I was invited over for dinner by cousins Jancie, Joe, and Lee.

Left to right: Janice, Lee, Joe.

They keep a kosher barbecue out back for kosher visitors. We had chicken, hamburgers, and corn. Man, it was fantastic!

Joe throws another corn on the barbie.

Making aliyah used to mean you get on a boat and leave your little shtetl forever. If you weren't killed by the Arabs or die of malaria, then maybe you could sent a note home from time to time. Thanks to technology and the Boeing 747, moving across the world doesn't mean disappearing over the horizon forever. I may have left the old country, and relationships require more work, but aliyah doesn't mean you have to lose your friends and family.