There And Back

Hello everyone!

After nearly a month long sanity break spent in the States recharging my batteries, I am now back in Tel Aviv for the second semester. I was thrilled to be home and thoroughly enjoyed catching up with everyone, friends and family alike.

The very first few hours after debarking the plane in Atlanta did more to re-energize me from the first six months abroad than any other single event. Breakfast at the OK Cafe with the rents, Mahal, Aunt Jeanie, Miss Vicki, and Stanley Williams was a pure joy and helped transition me back to an American state of mind.

Stanley was a particular delight. Her presence served as a physical reminder of the importance of family, both immediate and distant, past and present. She really helped cement the importance of my grandmother, who passed years before my birth, on the lives of my father, uncle, aunt, cousins, and myself despite the 'Cuz Crew' and myself never having had the opportunity to meet her. And her curiosity and incisive wit reminded me that some traits are simply too genetically ingrained to be dismissed.

Being back with my friends and my girlfriend granted an opportunity to catch up with the people I care about the most and the people that ultimately keep me going. I spent two hours having the most fulfilling conversation I've ever had with my cousin Brad. To my chagrin and utter amusement, I found Cody and Mitch, unperturbed and laid back as ever, literally sitting in the exact positions I had left them some six months previously. Arthur and Andrew maintained their dependable stoicism and snark respectively. Jeff, through his self-deprecation and devastatingly humorous cynicism, reminded me why we had been lifelong friends. James, as usual, kept me firmly on the balls of my feet with well-timed humor and consequence-free quips aimed at anything and everything.

Chandler, Schriver, Katie, Caroline, and Allison reminded me why we had self-dubbed ourselves 'The Family' throughout the duration of the visit. Because we behave like one--an extremely dysfunctional one in need of serious and routine counseling.

And regardless of whatever changes have taken place in all or none of us over the past six months, the fact is that there is nothing in the world I appreciate more than my friends.

And perhaps the most memorable event of the trip was February 6th, when members from both sides of the family were able to come to Mom and Dad's house for a meal and a rare get-together. Evan and Hillary made their way down from Marietta. Squealer came all the way from South Carolina. Brad rolled in from just down the road in Auburn and wasn't even late to boot. Aunt Joy and Uncle David came in from Wetumpka. Aunt Jeanie drove down from Atlanta. Grandmother, Scratchy, and Aunt Dorenda rounded out the gathering alongside Allison, who had spent the previous six months putting up with me from the opposite side of the planet.

Nothing else needs to be said about that Saturday. It was awesome and will go down as one of the best days in recent memory.

The trip home was more than a much needed respite from the academic grind and the intensity of every day life in Israel, it was a sober reminder of why I am over here in the first place. In an unraveling era of uncertainty and one looming crisis after another, the role that the Middle East is playing and will play on the future of America cannot be understated.

I was humbled to find so many people following my exploits and journey over here. It is no small thing to hear and see first hand the level of interest in this region and in this tiny but peculiarly special nation of Israel.

In the coming months, I anticipate many challenges, trials, and days of immeasurable stress, but I also anticipate a greater acuity with regard to the issues in this region, a tightening of the bonds holding our group together, and an incomparable experience that will carry all of us above and beyond our grandest expectations.

The second chapter of the story starts now.

Fried Camel is officially back in session.