My official miss/NOT miss list! (2/20)

Over the last week or two, I've seriously thought about what I will miss about life here. What I will miss about WUJS, but also what I will miss about Israel. You don't live somewhere, mostly happy for 5 months, and then just get up and leave. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Although I have sometimes complained about life here, I will definitely miss things. That being said, I'll also NOT miss a whole bunch of things. Ready for my list? I am! Here goes:

What I will miss about life in Israel and on WUJS:

-- Tsipora 5 (the dorm! the people!).

-- Shabbat lunches with everyone in the building, especially the Israelis, and especially outdoors in nice weather!

-- not having to rely on a car (I really like taking public transportation everywhere, for the most part!).

-- seeing my Goldsmith cousins every few weeks like I have, since I've been here.

-- being able to celebrate Shabbat every week with no problems (such as trying to get out of work early).

-- the lovely winter that does not involve a single snowflake. Oh how I will miss that next winter.

-- learning and improving my Hebrew. My confidence level has skyrocketed and I'm afraid it will decline, even just in a month of traveling through Europe. Hebrew classes in NYC anyone?

-- taking awesome field trips every single week, including some overnights. Never else in my life will I probably sightsee as much as these 5 months.

-- volunteering every week at the soup kitchen near the shuk, working in the garden in Talpiot Mizrach, studying at Pardes twice a week, and working at my eco internship.

-- being in the Holy City of the Holy Land, and realizing how lucky I am to have spent this time in a place where some people are never able to come.

What I will NOT miss about life in Israel and on WUJS:

-- the school bells that chime every 15 minutes in the mornings.

-- the garbage truck that comes to empty the dumpster in the 6am hour.

-- the cats that roam every street and dumpster. Yeah, cats are not pets in Israel, they are just gross.

-- the pushy Israelis getting on buses and in grocery store lines. Seriously, ever heard of a personal bubble and some patience?

-- having to start the work week on Sundays.

-- the craziness of Fridays when you can feel the rush and pressure of Shabbat coming.

-- cigarettes. They are EVERYWHERE. Outside of course, but inside too. It's illegal to smoke inside in Israel, but unfortunately no one enforces it. Way to go, Holy Land.

-- needing to speak Hebrew to understand nuances and detailed conversations. I'm by no means fluent so this is something very frustrating.

-- dealing with currency in shekels. The whole time I've been here, I still pull out my calculator on my phone and divide by the exchange rate to put things in dollars, just to make sense of it.

-- dealing with temperature in celsius, distance in kilometers, and weight in kilos. America really got it wrong when it decided to implement its own system of measurements, but I'm trained that way and it'll never change.

-- my Nokia Israel Phone. Really, I just want my Alias 2 back so I can text (unlimited!) on a QWERTY keyboard.

-- the lack of recycling here. They do only certain items here and it's not as much as in NY.

-- being many thousands of miles away from my closest family and friends.

Well that's what I've got for now; stay tuned for more to be added to the list.