Bombastic Week

What a strange few days this has been.  Soon after I had returned from a really lovely and relaxing Shabbat service and dinner, the rocket alarms went off.  This was a strange occurrence and had only rang once or twice since I had been here.  The process is to go down to the bomb shelter and stay there for a while till some of the Israelis start to leave.  From the first sound of the alarms, you have one minute to get down to safety.  Luckily for me, the shelter is right next door to me.  After that first alarm, there were another three later that evening / morning.  These alarms kept going on daily, Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  The first day of school was supposed to be on Sunday, but that day plus two more were all canceled so that the students would remain safe.  The first time the alarm went off, I knew what to do since I had experienced it before.  There were about 10 people down in the shelter.  I wasn’t confused but more surprised that the alarms were ringing again.  The previous alarm had rang over a month ago, therefore I was not expecting it.  By the time the next three went off in the next 12 hours, people were becoming concerned about the whole situation.  There was nothing that I could personally do besides being safe and making sure to get to the shelters every time.  Even though school was cancelled on sunday, the office still had a meeting (ironically about safety).  No alarms had rang for the previous 12+ hours, but then twenty minutes after the meeting had ended, another alarm went off.  I rushed down the stairs to the closest shelter and waited for everything to clear.  We then went to a cafe for lunch.  The cafe was sadly out of schwarma so I had falafel instead.  In the middle of lunch, another alarm went off.  Once we emerged from the shelter, we were able to look directly up and see where the rocket and interception had been.  That was scary to see that it was so close so where I was.  I knew that the rocket wouldn’t have hit the school and would have kept going, but it was very close, too close for comfort.  A different rocket actually hit relatively close to me.  It hit a school in the same ‘neighborhood’ as me.  It hit about 30 seconds away from where I went to Shabbat services the next Friday night.  This made the situation all too real for me.  It’s strange to be living in this environment in which I constantly have to worry about rockets.  Sadly, this is normal for Israelis.  My roommate doesn’t even go down to the shelter during the alarms.  He thinks it’s a better idea to stay calm (than to stay safe).  I can’t imagine this being my life.  It is so different than the natural disasters that I have to deal with in America.  I feel so helpless and uncomfortable knowing that at any moment another group of rockets could be hurdling towards me and this city.  By Monday, the office was advising people to leave the city.  They were providing hostel rooms for people in Tel Aviv, but I decided to go against going with the group.  My friends in Jerusalem had already called and messaged me to make sure that I was safe and I thought that a smarter decision would be to go and stay with them.  I left later that day and spend the night and Tuesday in Jerusalem.  I had a much nicer time there.  I hadn’t realized how I had been impacted by the trauma of the rockets.  People kept asking about the events and I had to keep describing everything.  While I was in the situation I stayed strong and calm not being bothered too much by the alarms and rockets but once I was out of the city I realized how bad it was to live like that.  I was much happier to get out of the city and be able to safely sleep through the night without being woken up by rocket alarms.  I will admit that those alarms were much more effective at getting me out of bed than my phone one.  Having lived through the plethora of alarms, my body tenses at all loud sounds.  Motorcycles sound exactly like the rocket alarm especially when they are stopped at the traffic light by the dorm and then speed up and start driving.  Also, I notice the sound of doors slamming a lot more now.  Tuesday afternoon I received a text that school would be back on the next day so I caught a late bus back to Beer Sheva and began my first day of class.  There was an official ceasefire so I could pay attention in my classes without worry that the alarm would randomly begin.  Little did I know that later that day, twice, would alarms ring, even though the ceasefire was still in play.  In coming to Israel, I wanted the true Israel experience and now I’m getting it.  This is what normal Israelis have to live though and deal with.  It’s definitely not the ideal situation and I’m not happy that it is occurring, but it does give me a stronger look into life here.  I am safe here and that is truly what matters.