Deep Thoughts: Israel Edition

I'm in Israel for the first time in four years and it is truly amazing just to be here--to be able to daven at the Kotel on Asara b'Tevet, to learn in Michlala (and that other seminary where my sister is studying), just to see signs in Hebrew and be in a place where the buses stop an hour before Shabbos and the mall food courts are kosher.

Random thoughts before bed:

• It's true that Israel really does close down in the snow. Two inches of snow will get you kicked off of a bus on the side of a highway desperately trying to catch a taxi for an hour in the freezing cold. Somewhere in the last four years I forgot that. (Though my year in Israel actually taught me that a foot of snow will get you three consecutive snow days.)

• It's amazing how one person can think my sister and I look exactly alike and someone else can think we look nothing alike. (I, for the record, think we look nothing alike.)

• If you don't sleep for a semester and then sleep for an entire week and then go to Israel, your body will be too confused to be jet lagged.

• Israel is colder--and wetter--than New York. Remember that while packing.

• I am insanely addicted to caffeine. How much Pepsi Max (so caffeinated it's illegal in America) do you think I can bring back with me?

• It is so, so good to be in a place where all anyone is doing in learning Torah. It is so, so good to be learning Torah. Maybe I should do Shana Bet now. Maybe.