I don't know how I managed this, and this must be a new record for me, but I slept for fourteen hours. When I woke up, extremely disoriented, I looked at my watch and saw that it was eleven. It brought back memories of when I first woke up in Israel and could not figure out what time it was.

My mother apparently also thought it was time for me to wake up, because she came into my room and told me that it was 4 PM. What?!

It took a minute for me to realize that my watch read 11 PM. Meaning, if I were in Israel then, I would be checking my email and blogging about my day at about that time. So I guess this means I completely slept through the day according to my watch.

The first thing I did after waking up was to crash into something sharp in my room and scrape my knee. The second thing I did was whine to my mother about it. I realized that there is a real need to remove the obstacles from that place I call my room.

Another thing I soon realized was that there were some habits pertaining to my eating that needed some serious changing. My Israel menu of bakery pastries for breakfast, Bissli for lunch, and more bakery pastries plus something from a cafe for dinner, would certainly not do here in New York. (When we were in Israel, I joked to my mother that what I ate there would never go over with her here, where she would insist on a healthier diet.)

I toured the kitchen and mourned the absence of the cheese danishes and cookies and various cinnamon rolls that made mornings so sweet in Maalot Dafna.

"We need to go to the bakery," I informed my mother. "I want a cheese danish."

The great thing about the bakeries in Israel is that they are so cheap. I remember once going to a nearby bakery there by myself, taking as much as my arms could hold, and paying around $10. We're talking about a whole box of sugar cookies, some baklava, chocolate rugelach, and a bag of cheese danishes. (I visited that bakery a few times during our stay, in order to replenish my supply. My cousin in Ashdod was laughing at me because I brought a lot of baked goods with me to her house, and she had bought a bunch of pies and cakes.) Needless to say, there was no shortage of calories there in Israel. Plus, the whole 'touring and walking around the entire day in the heat' thing helped me burn those calories right off.

But it is really time to make some changes in my habits.... It does not look as if I have a choice though, because no matter how hard I look, I will not find cheese danishes or sugar cookies in the house now. (If I end up getting out today or tomorrow, you can be sure I will look for some, though.)

I will probably spend the day uploading my photos, gathering my thoughts, and writing a bit.