Mishpacha Chadashah

I've got a new family.

Today after class I brought my homework to the pool. I was laying out on my towel near the water, writing out sentences with new words we had learned today, when a heavyset woman in a flowered one-piece shouted from across the patio. "Is there somebody here named Mariel?" she called in a heavy Israeli accent. "Ken," I answered. I speak Hebrew just about everywhere, to just about everyone--to the extent that it truly feels strange to write out this blog in English. "You have a phone call," she told me.

It was Smadar, the Ulpan Mother. She was calling to tell me that I had an adopted kibbutz family, and they'd be by the ulpan to pick me up at six. It was ten after five, so I gathered my towel, notebooks, and Hebrew-English dictionary and walked back to my building to shower and get dressed before they picked me up.

They came in one of those motor wagons that everybody here has. It looks like an oversized tricycle with a motor and a white cloth roof. In the front seat sat my new mom, Shani, and riding backwards in the small bed were two four year olds. They're twins named Asaf and Gali. There is also an 8.5-year-old boy in my family, and an 11-year-0ld girl who is truly nechmadah. She showed me all the gymnastics she knows and I showed off my split.

They had me stay for dinner, which was really nice. It felt good to eat outside the chadar ochel, to sit down at a kitchen table with a real family and eat a home-cooked meal. Besides, there's no better feeling than having four-year-olds correct your grammar as you eat.

Both my cousins and family friends called me today, and I exchanged numbers with Shani so we can see and talk to one another regularly. When Sarah, my cousin, called, she told me she missed me already and where was I, how was I, please come visit soon, I'm always welcome. When Shai, our family friend, called, it was to arrange a visit to his house in another week, where I'll see my sister.

I'm thousands of miles away from my parents and all my college and high school friends. And sometimes, I feel really lonely. But it's also like this. Everywhere I go in Israel, with everything I do here, there is family.