Missing the Returned

Does it sound religious?

Just last week, with only words to assume action, a prayer was released by the Israeli Masorti (Conservative) Movement, noting זמן שמחתנו the "time of our rejoicing," a name for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, and praying in thanks to God for seeing to the release of Gilad Shalit, praying for his healing and success, and asking for continued calm and nonviolence in the region.

Everything Has a Story

Nine days have passed since landing in Newark Liberty International on a clear Wednesday morning in May. I'm way behind on emails, forms, and most importantly, my blog. I've sadly left you readers in Berlin, at the beginning of deeply moving week in March. Don't worry, I intend to spend the summer continuing the story of this year. In any event, I want to share how I've begun my process of returning to this country of united states.

My loving mother drove me first to IHOP because I missed those pancakes so. As we passed through northeastern Philadelphia, I took note of the dress, the large vehicles, and the street signs. They reminded me of this odd emptiness I felt when I got off the airplane at Newark Liberty and crossed the threshold. A large sign above me welcomed all to the United States of America. But there was nothing to it. No pictures. No quotes. No Hebrew, Arabic, French, Hungarian, Czech, Slovakian, German, Hindi, Marathi. Just English. Just one language, that I speak fluently. 

How foreign.

GCU: Political and Cultural Germany in a Nutshell

While the date of this post reflects when the events described took place, in reality this entry was written long afterward. I apologize for any inaccurate details or incomplete ideas...


As with most days, we started off Wednesday morning with breakfast and the dispersion of brown-bag lunches with Bagels! (GCU loves their bagels). Today was dedicated to political Germany in a nutshell.
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