3:30 am sirens

So, we are in Israel. Sound asleep. At 3:30 am the sirens inside the hotel go off. Imagine what goes through your mind??

In a split second...and I do mean "split second". You can have about 500 thoughts!!

Where's the bomb?
Is this a fire alarm?
I don't smell smoke.
Where are my clothes?
Is the room safe unlocked?
What's the combination?

And at the same time the other side of the brain starts praying for safety and mercy!

I have now decided there are multiple chambers in the brain that can all function at the same time because while the thoughts are going on, the body is in motion-up and getting dressed, stuffing things in the backpack, looking out into the hallway, telling April that the fire doors have closed...

What an amazing experience. What a wakeup call that we are in a country where the citizens live with this moment by moment, ever ready to move to a bomb shelter, never knowing if it is a fire or a missel.

We are just fine. Wide awake, but perfectly ok. The hotel system detected smoke somewhere. They came to our room to make certain that we were ok within 5 minutes.

But let me just say that we will now lay out clothes and pack our backpacks each night before we go to bed!!

And of course...we can't go back to sleep...again!