an extrovert after all

This past weekend has been one of the best couple of days (despite the occasional breakdowns, per usual, of my feeling overwhelmed by trying to navigate the bus company and library websites without understanding Hebrew). I realized, with a spark of surprise, that it's because I got to hang out with friendly people. Not necessarily Americans, but Anglos who've lived all around the world as well so I didn't experience the usual language or cultural barriers.  Friday Shabbat dinner consisted of cooking for two hours, catching an hour-long car ride with our friends Kirsten and Or to the Messianic congregation they attend, and spending the next three hours sharing food, conversation, and play (in Declan's case) with really welcoming people. In Declan's case especially, he had a thrill following a couple of big kids around. I worry sometimes that he doesn't socialize enough with other kids, and he definitely had a good time at Shabbat dinner. The food I made turned out well, despite my using some unfamiliar spices found in the pantry, so that also made me really glad.

Then on Sunday night (yesterday), I ventured to Gan Ha'em around 8pm to meet the improv group that just started in Haifa, as a copy of the one that meets regularly in Tel Aviv. Feeling pregnant and fat and tired, I kind of wanted to stay home and be lonely as usual, but Daniel encouraged me by walking to the meeting place with me. It turned out that the four other people who showed up were waiting for me at the park benches, so it's a good thing I showed up, even if I was 20 minutes late. Improv turned out to be a refreshing challenge, and we stood around and chatted for half an hour more after the two-hour session ended. Everyone came from such diverse backgrounds! This may be the biggest plus to living in Israel, for me: meeting people from all over because of the international emphasis in this small country that's surrounded by enemies. Kind of like why Taiwan's such a mix of foreign influences as well.

The thing is, it wasn't just being in China or Israel that had made me increasingly depressed for the last two years... It was more because as I got pregnant and stopped official work, and then needing to stay home a lot more to care for the baby.... I became more and more estranged from people I usually hang out with, and being cloistered frankly sucks. Moving to four different regions in the world within a year's span didn't help the situation either.

Now that Declan's more and more able to be cared for by not just me, I've had a little more freedom and can make more of an effort to, basically, rejoin human society, I'm trying to put out of my head the worries of needing to go through such a lonely time again when the second baby comes.