In the H.S. dept...

File in the holy shit department:

I received an email today from my friend Justin who I haven't talked to for two years. He was a friend of mine from 10th grade, when I spent the year here in Israel at a boarding school up north. Before we reconnected two years ago (and only talked once or twice), I hadn't talked with him since college. But apparently, I made it onto his bulk email list.

The email begins:

I've meant for a long time to send you an update on us -- sorry for the lag. We are settling in nicely now, after just a month and a half here. Our apartment is feeling like home. We have a beautiful back porch where we sit and soak up the Jerusalem evening air, and where Arielle plays in the afternoon. We splurged and bought the world's most glorious fridge for our kitchen. And we have no TV. Those are good things.

Holy Shit! Turns out he made Aliyah in August with his wife and 18 month old daughter and is now living in Abu Tor (which is about a 20 minute walk from us). I called him today to say hi and when I told him where we now live, he said "Holy Shit!". I'm hoping to find a time to get together over the next few days and find out the rest of the story, but of all the people I thought I might reconnect with here in Jerusalem, he was the most unlikely, but I'm happy to be back in touch.