Thursday, June 17, 2010

How do you say "Breakdown" in Hebrew?

In two and half months exactly, I will be on a plane flying over the Atlantic with one happy husband, four over packed suitcases and a pissed-off husky on my way to my new home in Israel.

Right now, at this exact moment I am freaking out.

During certain moments in the past few months, I have allowed myself brief periods of complete anxiety induced breakdowns.  I don't have any triggers per se. I don't know when or why they occur. 

Let's go back to Thursday of last week for example.  I woke up on a beautiful Thursday morning, had a relatively normal day at work and the drive home was equally as uneventful.  I walk into my apartment and BAM!...DH enters a firestorm.

As I am frantically tearing through the kitchen drawer for my notebook to re-check the June to-do list, simultaneously I am pacing the kitchen floor, figuring out how many blankets, winter clothes, toiletries, picture frames, books we can fit into the monstrosity of box we're shipping and coming up with a brand new entirely worthless list of items we need to purchase before we go.

Let me share a few thoughts a crazed type-A will come up with during a anxiety-induced-I'm-moving-half-way-around-the-world breakdown:

Oh no, I don't know the word for Tampax in Hebrew. 

I wonder if they will let me pack stuff in the dog's crate.  Aha-there is room!

Sweet baby Jesus, my hair straightener won't fit into Israeli outlets.  I'm going to have to live with frizzy hair forever.

If I get to Israel on Wednesday, sleep off the jet lag on Thursday, get back on a plane on Friday then I can make it to the first Alabama football game on Saturday.

I need to go to Costco to buy 300 ibuprofen and a jumbo box of grits.

Normally, I am a perfectly rational human being, excited about the adventure that awaits and who thinks logically about this move most of the time.  During these periods of sheer panic, I am not. 

Today, as if it were the first time my brain realized it, I am freaking out because I can't speak Hebrew.  Most days I am aware that learning a new language will take time.  I usually give myself credit for taking on such a daunting task.  Today, I am freaking out.  Tomorrow, I am sure I will return to normal, but today...

8 comments:

  1. Aw, you poor girl! I'm sure everything will be just fine. Remember to allow your self these moments of freak out though, they are healthy, you can't bottle everything up. I'm so excited for you to start this journey, it's going to be so incredible!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow. This sounds like you are on an amazing journey. Congratulations and good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are going to get some great writing material in this new life. I'll be checking in to see how it's going. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like quite an exciting life change! Good luck.

    And don't worry, English is widely spoken in Israel. And you can always mime tampon for them if they don't understand (they'll love that).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ahh..yes, the universal sign for tampon. I forgot about that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You can get tampons right at SuperPharm, which is in pretty much every mall in Israel.

    What town are you moving to? I'm just south of TLV. I did this around this time last year, and I still don't know Hebrew. I have a job and am doing just fine. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for the boost of confidence Rachie! We're not quite sure yet where we are moving-maybe North TA though. Good luck with your journey as well!

    ReplyDelete