Finally!

So I've been meaning to write this first post for about 2 months now. I have so much I want to share that I don't even know where to begin. Rather than posting an incredibly long piece, I'll give a brief summary of my life here and then update the blog more frequently with more insightful and fun stories. Here it goes...

On June 28, 2007, I made aliyah (emigrated) to Israel. A natural question to follow would be, why? Well, you will just have to read this blog to get an answer to that question (believe me, I have many answers:). Anyhow, things over the past few months have been going great! I have taken care of the basics and am now living a fairly hectic and full life. I'll try and cover the highlights:

I live in Tel Aviv, in the heart of the city. I found a great room in a three bedroom apartment that I share with two Israelis. Living two blocks from the beach is tough, but someone has to do it and that someone might as well be me.

My time during the week is split between ulpan and work. In the mornings I go to ulpan (intensive Hebrew class) and in the afternoons I work at my great new job (I think my boss is going to read this blog:). I work for youlicense.com and I will write more about my job in a later post.

The nightlife in Tel Aviv is non-stop. There is always something to do or somewhere to go. The city gives off a very NYC vibe, but it's really so much more intimate due to its size. Tel Aviv is a truly international city with people here from all parts of the globe and all walks of life. Before I came here I thought that I would have a hard time keeping up my Spanish, but I've found lots of people to speak with and made many new friends in the process. Speaking of which, the people in the picture are my two buddies from ulpan (also new immigrants, Pepe from Mexico, Ben from France) and my friend, Adam, who was here from the States for the summer.

Basically, life here is going real well. I'm as happy as ever and feel so fortunate to be so lucky and have had all the pieces fall in the right place. There are a lot of people I want to thank and who have contributed to my happiness here, but for now I just want to single out two. Leora and Ariel Wine are near and dear friends who have made the daunting transition of moving half-way around the world so much easier and I am very grateful! Stay tuned to "Live from Israel" for more shout outs:)

So there is a lot, I mean A LOT, left to write about, but for now this post is long enough. Thanks for reading and I promise no more mass e-mails. If you have any suggestions, feel free to post a reply or e-mail me at ewertheim@gmail.com.

B'shalom,

Evan