Goodbye Ein Hashofet

It's tough to believe how I've gotten used to Ein Hashofet this much, this quick. Now, that I'm supposed to be thinking of my next step, I keep coming back to the friends I've left at the kibbutz. In the five months of my stay, I've met some wonderful people that I hope will remain my friends for a long time. Mike, Matt, Iskra and Raya, I thank you with all my heart for being wonderful friends and people. I'm also happy that I got to work with a great bunch of guys. I know I haven't really mentioned any of them before so here are short summaries:
Matt - my brief roommate, covered in tattoos, a poet with a great sense of humor but a poor choice of sports allegiance (Red Sox still suck).
Raya - "Ukrainian princess", and a real down to earth girl with the most infectious laugh and a refreshing outlook on life.
Mike - an international kid from Baltimore who has a knack for languages, furniture and is extremely personable to a point where I'm expecting to see his name in the newspaper headlines soon.
Iskra - a little big girl from Bulgaria who became out little sister and our heart with one smile.
While I'm on a roll, here were my coworkers:
Itzi - Betar Yerushalaim, centerpiece of every conversation.
Gaston - Argentinian teddy bear.
Aiman - crazy funny Druze.
Haim - Morrocan ars.
So what did I learn in the first five months?
1. Hebrew is not that bad. It's a great language with mathematical precision and logic.
2. Making salads is economical and tasty. Overall, I have no idea how I lived without them in the morning. On the subject of food, my tastes have changed. I now love hummus, t'hina, olive oil and arabic coffee with hel.
3. Israel can be cold. For several long months.
4. I don't understand most russians.
5. I love Bulgaria.
6. Somebody needs to teach Israelis to form a line.
7. Betar Yerushalaim is the best team in Israel.
8. There are many benefits to a kibbutz. No bills, no unemployment, no rent. It's also amazing that a head of factory receives the same salary as his lowest worker. And this is the closest you can get to this land.
9. I hope I will never again have to live in a kibbutz. Yet, this choice was absolutely right for me and I loved it. Ulpan was great and so was my teacher, Irit. Work became fun. I got attached to people. I have a second family now.

Finally, on one of the trips back from Haifa while sitting in an Egged bus late at night and listening to my MP3 player, I realized something big. I understood that I found one of the things that I was searching for. I found my music. Anything I will be listening to from now on, will be my music here. Because I wasn't really looking for music, I was looking for Israel.