It is a beautiful
Wednesday night in Seattle area.  I love
summers here, it is the best season. The sun is shining still at 8:00 pm,
everything around is green and beautiful, I even have nice herbs at my backyard  for tea, and  strawberries that keeps coming back and even
expending each year.

I love the
NW in the summers. The biggest and a very well-known joke about Seattle is that
A new neighbor asks a seven year old kid in their street, after a few rainy days:
“Hey, when does it stop raining?”, and the kid says: “I don`t know, I am only seven”.
This is the joke, but it is not true for summers, it rains at times, but you do
enjoy the lakes and, parks and the comfi temperatures.

I remember
the first day, sixteen years ago, when I first got here. My husband and I had a
two year old, and I was at the very beginning of a second pregnancy. I remember
that while we were driving to our first location, I noticed beautiful Mount Rainier
popping out and disappearing, gorgeous Lake Washington on the left of the road,
and me thinking that you don`t really need to die just to get to Heaven. But
the grey, never ending rainy days came later.   

I love the
NW, but it took me a long time to get used to it. I was born and raised in
Israel, where everything happens all the time. There is no down time there, it
is active and crazy, lively and beautiful, emotional and sad, and my emotions
are always so mixed up thinking of my one and only Israel, whom I always miss
so much, and care for like a little baby, and yet, life is so complicated
there.

When I moved
to Washington I thought that I am dream walking most of the time. Nothing ever
happens here. The biggest news speaks about the weather, and Baseball, and the
new Soccer team we have, and about the fact that we no longer have a Basketball
team. And the rain…The rain drove my nuts, it could rain here for weeks without
a break, and people would check the records to see if it broke it or not.

It took me a
long time to get used to the fact that not everyone needs to be involved with
my personal life. In the beginning it felt so lonely, but I started likening
it, and now when I think about life back in Israel I am a little worried it
would be just too much for me. I am not used to it anymore, so I stay on the
fence, I do not really belong here, but not even sure I belong there.

I am a migrator.
One of my best friends (an Israeli-American himself) once told me that he and
his family are people of the world, and they belong everywhere.  I find it hard to feel the same, so I am still
asking those questions, and not necessary having answers. I am wondering how it
is for other people…

P.S. The lecture
in Berkeley was a fun and a successful one. I am looking forward to my next
lectures, meeting with people, telling them about my book.