Shalom, (hi)

Right now (it is the same day) I am in my relatives' house in Omer, which is a town near Beer Sheva.
Classes were canceled today. I walked to the university before I found out. Confusing scene there. No one sitting outside where they usually sit. Everyone looking around at each other. People were standing only next to buildings and under overhangs. It felt like everyone knew something I didn't. It was my relatives who told me I didn't have class today.

Apparently five rockets hit Beer Sheva this morning.
We only had one alarm though because the alarms have stopped working here.
One rocket hit a high school this morning. Luckily no one was in school because classes had been canceled the night before. They didn't cancel our classes until later.


My relatives are watching the tv and listening to the radio to know when we have "adom" or red. The alarm. Whenever the phone rings everyone rushes to pick it up thinking that it is someone telling us it is an air raid siren.
We had one more alarm since I've been here in Omer with the relatives. Being here shows me I was a bit in lala land in the university. We just stayed behind thick walls there when we heard the alarms. Here, after the alarm my relatives went running directly to the bomb shelter, yelling to make sure everyone was in. Then they locked the door and stayed in for minutes.

It is required here that everyone have a bomb shelter in their house, or a room that functions as a bomb shelter with reinforced walls. It all seemed like overprotection before, now it jsut seems natural. We have some place to run to.

I'm going for now.

Tried reading, am not interested. Everyone milling around the house here. No one allowed outside. I think I will go to Tel Aviv tomorrow for a wedding in the family even though my cousin here tells me it's not safe to take the bus to Tel Aviv. She says this because the bus takes a route that brings it closer to Gaza on the way to Tel Aviv.
I think it will be fine.

You can see how we disassociate from Gaza though. It is really this area one just tries to stay away from.

I feel so inept with the children. We just ran into the bomb shelter again, and one of the kids started crying. When I went near her she just started crying more.
I kind of wish I were still at the university though everyone is leaving there. This morning there was this weird sense of community. The security guard was joking as he checked us all more closely than usual at the gate. And I became closer with my roommate running to get to shelter with her. I think the students have a better way of dealing with this than what's going on here. Here I can't even walk out of the house, where as at the university we were walking around with freedom.

Some perspective -- it's impossible to have perspective couped up in the house with all my relatives tense.
I went online and saw the protests in New York against Israel.