Am I now a real oleh?

My mother has just been here for the past week. It was great while she was out here. She got to spend some time with her grandchildren. I got to catch up on some family goings ons in person. The kind of stuff you can't really get through on the phone. We also got to take some trips with the children.

All in all it was a great visit.

So this past motzei shabbos I drove her to the airport, and we got to talk for a bit, saying our good byes.

Now, I'm not that emotional of a person. Particularly when it comes to goodbyes (be it b/c I'm a guy, or I'm just cold hearted) I don't get worked up. I have no problems with the good byes in the airport.

So I was a bit surprised when I had a bit of a strange feeling as I was walking out of the airport. It was one of here is my home. I'm escorting my mother out of my home as she goes back to hers. And this is my home. Be it Ben Gurion airport, or the winding river like roads of Ramat Beit Shemesh. I'm home. I go to Ben Gurion to pick people up or escort them home. I don't go there anymore to say goodbye to Eretz Yisroel.

I'm finally home.

Where's the Beef?

It's 20:30 (or 8:30 pm for you Americans), and Sarah and I want a burger. Ok, no problem, we shlepped along a brand new grill fromthe US. It's a nice one too. It's got a warming rack, and a nice little burner on the side so I can cook stuff. Like noodles or something. That goes good with meat right? I even paid some money to get a gas tank installed, I mean it's kind of hard to grill with out gas - or so I'm told.

Anyway, I figure, I live in Israel, the land of the Jews, the land of milk & honey, the land where they have completely kosher stores called Chocolate land and Candy Land. Surely I can run out to the local grocey and pick up some pre-made burgers or at least some ground beef.

So I run out to the grocery. I first look through the fresh meat case. Ummm. Nope, lots of chicken, I mean tons of chicken. Cutlets, shnitzel (thin cutlets), pieces, livers, even hearts. They have chicken hearts! But no meat.

Okay, off to the frozen meat section. First I get excited, a whole array of prepackaged meat stuff. But dissappointment settles in when I realize it's just veggie stuff. Okay next row - which when I mean row, I'm talking about a good 30 feet of frozen goods - what do I see, but more chicken! I mean I like chicken, but I want some meat - particularly the ground up kind that I can mold into a nice delicious burger, with a special bland of spices mixed in, and some BBQ sauce on top grilling in the open night air. Ahhhh. But I digress, I'm losing focus. Where's the beef!

Shuffling through the frozen chicken, I find the meat. But alas it's just hunks of meat. I mean I'm surprised as I haven't really seen this kind of stuff in the states. But no ground beef! I mean give me something. Even a small package of 1/2 a pound would do. I could make a burger out of that. But nothing!

I leave the store dejected. I wander around feeling down that I can't bring home the beef. What am I to do :(

I finally drag myself over to Grill Burger where I order up two burgers and sadly drive home with my find. I mean I'm a guy, I'm supposed to be killing my cow throwing it on the grill and calling it a dinner. Instead I have to resort to buying burgers, I mean who does that nowadays!

Well, If there's anything this outing has taught me, it's that I have to find myself a good butcher in this town of mine. And one that can grind me up some beef.