Culture
Eating My Way Through Israel
How a new kind of comfort food helped me settle in to life abroad.
This essay is the fifth in a series called “Finding My Place,” which explores how people make cities feel like home. Read the first, second, and third, and fourth installments here.
In September 2010, I moved to a small city in the south of Israel with two suitcases and no knowledge of the language or culture. I had never been to the country before I left New York City to join my husband, who would be attending medical school in Be’er Sheva. I was filled with excitement as well as fear that I was in over my head. When an older Israeli man helped me with my luggage, I realized that I didn’t even know how to say “thank you” in Hebrew.