oldilocks

I'm in Jerusalem for one last day, and have moved on up in the world to one of the nicest apartments in all of Israel, I'm quite sure. Sarah Barefoot lives in a high rise on Hevron Road, which is apparently turning into the new American colony. It's decked out with Ikea furniture from Netanya and lots of stainless appliances. Ooh la la. Now if only they had a dryer.

So something that has been gnawing at me has been the fact that everyone i hang out with in Israel is between 22 and 27. This is totally understandable, as it's a classic gap year sort of thing to do - come study at a yeshiva for a while, or come here with the intent to make aliyah, except find yourself in a relationship and then happy to move back to whatever g-dforsaken part of the diaspora you live in, content in the knowledge that you will have a jewish home and jewish babies.

But it means I don't meet anyone my age. I finally did, the other night for Shabbat - I had a lovely dinner with friends of Mickey Heimlich's from his Bat Ayin days. They are 32. I asked them about the topic and they agreed that most of their yeshiva era friends had long since returned to Montreal and NYC and LA, and that they pal around at this point with Israelis.

I haven't met a single Israeli in Jerusalem. It's hard when you know a bunch of American yeshiva nerds. They all hang out together all the time - everywhere I go I see the same Pardes crowd. If I were ever to study there, I'd have to have my own life somehow. In this sense, I am looking forward to getting back to Tel Aviv where I know some locals.