thoughts from Israel: Sometimes i'm glad i don't live here anymore

coming back home is great. i love being with the family. there are so many things i love about being here that i'm not even going to count them.

but every once in a while something happens that makes me mad and makes me happy that i don't live here anymore... i wish i could just take everybody i care about and transfer with them to some island.

one obvious example is the way people here drive. the road is an ongoing battle, which no one ever wins.
so we're driving to work in the morning, traffic isn't bad at all, we're standing in a traffic light waiting for it to change. someone in a run-down car behind us honks at us right as the light turns green (dude, have some patience!), then rides our tail for not driving fast enough, and as soon as he possible can, makes a dangerous pass in a two-lane road (there was traffic coming in the opposite direction). only to (you must have guessed it) stand right beside us at the next light.

the next day, i had to pay something at the post office. there were 4 people in line (including me). an old guy comes in, starts talking to the guy standing in front of me (very loudly, i must say -- they made plans to meet sometime for a chat). then he looked around, saw me and the other guy that were standing in line, and put himself right in front of us. i would normally just laugh about it, but i was in a hurry, ben and ella were waiting in the car, and the clerk was impossibly slow with the customers (but did take the time to dig up a phone number for someone on the phone that dialed the wrong number and got the post office), and eventually when it was my turn they said i can't pay with a credit card.

i'm so glad that 99% of the people i see during my visit are family, friends and co-workers... i can almost block out incidents like that and pretend that the people i know are a complete representation of the entire population :)