Yesterday morning I woke up, tired and excited. It was the day I have to give my 10 min about my master's thesis to the group I applied for a PhD thesis at. I practiced my talk a lot, I did't want to repeat my mistakes from my thesis defense (they did not like my discussion part). Still, I was anxious, I had to prove to myself that I can make it...

I woke up 4 hours before the set time, planned my travel time to be there half an hour earlier. Went through my talk again and went out of the house with some Alt-J on my ears, to calm me down.

Of course it was a mess. I had to change my train twice, making me miss my connection etc. I was late, and I was worried. This is germany, being on time is probably one of the most important values, and I am fucking it up already.

I talked to the Prof., he said its okay, I arrived, surprised that there was no one in the room. Phew.

I had time to check if my slides were fine and have some smalltalk with the Prof. before he called his PostDocs in for the talk. And then I switched to english, and things went smoooooth, very smooth.

They liked me. He did, his PostDocs did and his Docs too. And I like them too!!! He asked me when I want to start... Wait a minute, 2 weeks ago I was confused, no direction, looking for advice what to do. And then I stumble into something that just turns out to be amazing! WTF?? Does it work like this?

I am lucky.

He told me it will take some time till my contract was set etc. so I wouldn't be able to start working before next month. And there I decided, I am flying back to Israel for 3 weeks. Eid al-Adha is on saturday and I know my parents would be happy if I was there to celebrate with them :)

So, a few hours later I booked the flights, for the same night. And so I found myself watching the sun rise over Istanbul while listening to Tycho's Awake, one of those moments I would probably never forget.

In less than 24 hours, I went from cold Düsseldorf in Germany to the warm and slightly windy Nablus in the heart of Palestine...

Everyone is shopping for the holiday. The streets are crowded with young guys selling toys, clothes, fruits and sweets. It wakes a specific feeling inside of me that reminds of my childhood. This ability to induce this feeling is long lost at my hometown in Israel but I always find it in the Westbank :)

Two crazy days, and I feel happy and ecstatic. Somehow, alive...