And I'm...home?

                      Only less than 24 hours after my most recent blog post, a siren for rockets went off over Tel Aviv for the first time in 20 years.  I was walking to the gym and when the sirens went off, we ran to our bomb shelter.  No rockets hit anyone and it was largely very far away from us, though still nerve-wracking.  Within the next 4 days there were 5 sirens.  After the second siren, Israel started talking about putting in the Iron Dome around Tel Aviv and before we knew it, rockets were getting shot out of the sky.  Along with interceptions, there were talks of ground troops in Gaza.  Almost every Israeli we talked to said they were just waiting for the call to come in.  So many reserves were called up, yet university kept going.
                      The 5th and last siren went off at 6:42pm Sunday, and I was leaving for the airport at 9.  That was the second siren of the day and the last for the immediate future.  I got to Chicago on Monday and on Wednesday a bus in Tel Aviv was attacked.  But then Ceasefires were in talks and now we have one in place.  To be there during that time was life-changing and I wouldn't have asked for a different experience.  Here are my favorite links that show how eerie the siren really is.  Sadly I used to be really anxious around any siren sound, now my heart only beats when I hear the specific siren, but still.
                      Again, let me reiterate that I am still and will only be Pro-Peace.  There were victims on both sides of the conflict, and no one side is more right than the other.  And on top of that, both sides have faults.

My friend Adam was smart enough to continuously record the day when the 5th siren went off.  A really moving video with a very audible "boom" at the end.
Adam's Video

This second video clearly shows the rocket flying over Tel Aviv and the Iron Dome hitting it out of the sky.  Still very creepy to see an actual rocket over the city I lived in.
Rockets

                     But coming home helped me realize just how cool America is too.  I've been so focused on visiting all the places in the world, that I haven't really appreciated how different America is. And when I came home, I was happy to finally be reunited with the seesters and spend Thanksgiving in St. Louis.  This is my personal Xmas Card to all of you!  Happy Holidays from us seesters!

                 
               And from there, I have been in 5 states and seen 6 colleges within 11 days.  Megabus is now my best friend and I've successfully watched the show Revenge (all two seasons) within 5 days.  But my first Midwest tour stop was to University of Notre Dame where my friend Alex and I were to meet up with Merrick to see the campus (and the squirrels).  The picture doesn't show it, but the squirrel literally ate the M&M out of my hand.

                    My second stop was to the University of Minnesota to see Meghana!  I took a lovely 8 hour over-nighter to the actually oh so adorable Minneapolis.  The University is huge, but it feels pretty quaint when you head over to Dinky Town, or take the tram to Minneapolis.  We then went to a Goodwill outlet where I bought a Delta Tau Delta Sweatshirt.  I'm now officially part of the greek system, even though I know it's a frat.  It was just something to laugh about.  But something else I could help but giggle about was the Minnesota accent. Yes it does exist, and yes it is just darn tootin cayute!  Oh AND the legal gambling age in Minnesota is 18, so we went to a casino.  I won 3 bucks!


                   
                 Then on Tuesday I was headed down to St Louis!  Meghana and I are friends with a dude in St Louis named Johnny, and the original plan was that I alone was gonna visit him.  But, after a phone call Friday an Saturday night, it was clear that we had to surprise him with Meghana coming to visit as well!  So, Monday night I picked her up from the Megabus and 540 Tuesday morning we were on our way to St. Louis.  When we arrived, we had a good 2 hours to kill before we could surprise him, so we had planned to meet our friend Chen (Chenathy) for lunch at Washington University in St.Louis, aka Wash U.  For those of you that have never seen the campus, take that 5 hour Megabus trip there.  It is absolutely gorgeous!  Chenathy here, struck gold.  And after lunch, I forced Johnny to come pick me up from the tram station just so we could surprise him with Meghana's presence.  And from there we had a wonderful dinner, watched the Victoria Secret Fashion Show, and played with my favorite dog Chubie.  Chubie has a real name, I just can't remember it. The dog looks like Chubaka, so I shortened it to Chubie.  Sadly we didn't take any pictures together when we surprised Johnny, but no worries, I got one with Chubie! His butt at least!

                 
            Meg and I got home on Wednesday, and come Thursday morning, I was in the car on the way to the University of Illinois.  It was a good ol day trip that helped me realize just how many of my friends go there.  If I couldn't hang out with one, there was another person a text away willing to come chill.  So I hopped and hopped around, person to person.  And as the day went by, I remembered more and more people I forgot went there.  I only got to say hi to 8 people I knew there even though I knew a good 5 or 6 more.  It had been over a year since I had been there last, so it was cool to get a tour from a friend living that life.

               The last stop of my Midwest tour was a weekend stop to see the University of Michigan.  It rained the whole weekend, but that didn't stop my fun with the one and only Vicki P.  But Vicki P wasn't the only friend I had there, I also had Tarps (nick name).  So when I was with Vicki, I got to see sorority life along with the whole campus, because even though she goes to school there, she still gets lost.  When I was with Tarps, I literally saw the future of every choir boy in college.  He's on the glee club and so we hung out with 8 or so of the guys Saturday night.  The moment they broke out into song, I was in Heaven.  I couldn't stop grinning.  There was a song for everyone and everything and it reminded me how much I loved to have music in my life. This here is Vicki P before her formal Saturday night, she was lookin gorg!  

           So essentially this whole thing has got Meghana and me thinking about summer roadtrips to see the US.  I mean, to see my friends in completely different lives, and to see different parts of our very own country has really got me thinking about how awesome things like that can be.  But for now, I have roughly 3 weeks before I get back to Israel! So חג חנוכה שמח הברימ שלי and Merry Christmas! Let's hope we make it out alive December 21!