Precipitation

As I was checking Facebook yesterday, I was flooded by "first snow" "it's snowing in jersey!" "Yup that's snow" posts from most of my friends on the east coast. And while I'm not a huge fan of the snow (unless in closes school, then snow and I are bffs) I was missing home a little bit today. The first snow can be very exciting for the elementary school kid, or the start of a long winter for us college students. But in Israel snow is this magical gift from god that never shows up and when it does the whole city (country really) shuts down until its gone. But it didn't snow in Jerusalem. At least not yet. This week I was blessed with rain. For those who are familiar with the Middle East, it doesn't rain too much here, and the rain that does fall is cherished. Starting near sukkot, we start asking for rain in our daily prayers. And as I've just translated for my Mishnah class, if the rains don't fall, it is because we have been cursed and need to fast to atone for our poor behavior and bring on the rains. So luckily we don't have to fast. However, I was in Madrid during the first real rain of the season. I got all of those "omg it's raining" statuses flooding my facebook wall (no pun intended) and was a little bummed to be missing the big moment. However, this week, I got rained on. Twice. Once on the way back from the grocery store and once on my walk home from school. I heard the rain as I was hanging my laundry (and needed to move it inside to dry). Usually, I like to curl up next to a window and listen and smell the rain as I watch a movie or read a book. But in Israel, I was really glad I was walking around outside when the rain started. Check back in with me in a few months when it's raining all the time and see if I'm still so excited about it, but for now, I'm glad I got caught in the rain :)