Just a few more days...

My work experience in Israel is getting to a close... Juste a few more days of work left, a couple of free days and boom, back to Brussels. Wow.

Has it really been that long? Almost three months have gone by but sometimes it feels like it's just been a couple of weeks.

What to say... This experience has been incredibly enriching, eye-opening and a real challenge. Many a time did I want to quit, a couple of times I ended up in tears after a long day of not being treated very well (not to be rude...). But I couldn't give up, not when I was so close to the end.

I don't like looking back on things, looking forward is the way! But in the situation that I don't actually know what is to come yet, I guess that gives me the time to look at these three months.

I won't bore you with a deep analysis and will rather opt for a short list of points...


  • Work: Exhausting. I am trying really hard to think of what I have learnt but nothing is coming to my mind... I have met some truly amazing and inspiring people at work, some of which I feel honoured to know and have had as colleagues. Some amazing people work at the Times of Israel.
  • Social life: None. Working six days a week while being treated like a Chinese child in a Nike factory makes you tired and not in shape or even the mood to go out. It's a good thing I have flatmates, they are my only social interactions outside of work.
  • Relationship: Long distance is horrible, I get it now, I'm never leaving again!!
  • Family: Some needy sibling, who I will not name, sometimes - always -, seem to be angry at you for wanting a life and wanting to do something with it, and that doesn't help the mood. Then if you have a cool mum like I do, she will visit, and that's fun.

It will soon be time for me to pack and head back north to Belgium and then inevitably England!

I had some fun and a lot of stress (I can't find a word that expresses the amount of stress I have been under, and I'm usually a very chilled person).
Because I hate stress so much and because of many other aspects I think the negative outweighs the positive, but the positive still made it all worth it in my mind. I don't regret this experience, I always love a challenge. But I won't lie, I am counting the days.
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

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