ISRAEL AGAIN: AND THEN WE WERE FIVE

 

                                        Mom and Chris at their wedding dinner in Jerusalem

In 1982, Mom and I arrived in Israel with our dog Joe and cat Aviva. By the time we left Israel two years later, our family doubled in size. 

When we were living in the Philippines, I don't remember having any serious issues with Mom dating, but this time, I wasn't so thrilled about Mom's new romance with Chris, who was also a US foreign service officer. Perhaps I could sense he was the one, and it would no longer be just Mom and me. Or, maybe, now, I was a teenager and there was only so much I was willing to put up with. By then, all our moves, my parents' divorce, and the constant changes I had endured my entire life were starting to take a toll on my self-esteem. I wasn't about to make things easy. 

When I first met Chris, he had come to our house and we sat on our patio in the backyard. When Mom asked me to grab us some drinks, I got two beers out of the refrigerator, shook them up good and handed them over. Chris opened his can of beer first and the contents sprayed directly in my mother's face. Chris promptly turned the can on me and chased me around the yard. Chris handled it well - we had even laughed about it - but when I think of that scene now I can't believe what a brat I had been. 

Me, Mom, Tauna and Todd, Israel, 1984

Mom and Chris got married in a beautiful ceremony in an ancient church in Jerusalem, despite my resistance and my attempts to sabotage the relationship, and suddenly I had a stepfather and siblings, Tauna and Todd. My father had also gotten remarried and he and his new wife had moved to Prague. I was facing some major changes. It was fortunate that we were living in Israel, a place that was familiar.  

We lived in Herzliya Pituach, the same neighborhood we lived in the first time we were in Israel.  I also went to the same school for the seventh and eighth grades: the American International School. I ran around with a rambunctious group of kids, among them was Miko, who is now my husband. My friends and I sort of ran wild. We had the kind of freedom that would give helicopter moms of today heart attacks. We hung out at the beach, pulled pranks in hotels, snuck into high school parties, and sometimes played spin-the-bottle. This is how Miko became my first kiss. 

We had some memorable school field trips that included: going to Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights, to Jerusalem where we visited the Dome of the Rock (Miko got kicked out for doing somersaults on the rugs inside the mosque), to a field school in the Negev where we rode camels and stayed in a Bedouin tent, and an archeological excavation at the Apollonia National Park where we helped dig up crusader ruins dating back to the Phoenicians from the sixth century. The head archeologist would shout out about virgin soil, which brought snickers from us immature junior high kids. 

I also visited my dad in Prague during my breaks from school. I would fly from Tel Aviv to Vienna. Dad would pick me up there, and we would drive three and a half hours to Czechoslovakia, and cross the border where our car would be searched by stern-faced border guards looking for smuggled western goods, or Czechs trying to escape to the free world, on our way out of the country when heading back to Vienna. Despite the repressive environment, Czechoslovakia was one of my father's favorite posts.  The US Embassy and its employees were housed in the 17th century Schönborn Palace in the Mala Strana district. It had over a hundred rooms, some with thirty-foot ceilings, and three separate courtyards. The castle had a terraced garden and orchard with pear trees. The garden extended up the hillside where we could see a view of the city and the Royal Palace. It was the perfect place to have quality alone time with dad. 

Dad and I in Prague, 1984 (I was 14)

But Israel was home.  I had written a poem about it when I was thirteen or fourteen. One of the lines went: Israel is a place I'll never forget, a place where the sun always shines, and I'll always think of it as mine. Mom and I had connected with the country years ago already. There was a level of comfort there that I didn't feel in other places. This is where we had been the happiest. Israel was a theme that I would revisit over and over again in my life. 

Mom in Jerusalem 1983

When we left in 1984 and moved to the United States, I had an extremely difficult time adjusting to an American high school, the American lifestyle, and living with other children. But I eventually found my groove and the five of us became a family. I grew to love Chris. We now have a very close and special relationship.

But in 1984, I was still the bratty teenager, resentful of having to share my mother. She was the one constant in my life.