All joking aside, I wish I could work, yes, even at a crap job like yours.

, - That thread brought up so many emotions...

Honestly, this has most likely been the shittiest year of my life. But coming on Subeta, being with all of you, has been something to look forward to and has helped me through some very dark days.

I normally feel very alone and like I don't really have any friends in real life and very few here. That topic really made me stop and think about the friends I do have here and how much I care about them. I really wanted to include and but I was at work and running out of time and words were failing me. So I will just post here to both of you, I am so happy to be able to count you among my friends here. We are lucky to have you on staff and blessed to count you as friends,

To you I already pinged as well as and

Sad news from Eric today. His sweet grandmother, Nana, has passed away. She died at home where his mom had been able to visit her two days in a row since she was just released on Monday. Eric says he is doing okay but I know he is going to need our love and support as much as we are able to give when we do see him.

- Thank you for the unfortunate news about Eric's grandmother. This year has seen so many passings for so many people I know. My own grandfather (last grandparent) just passed away about a month ago. He's not suffering any more, though, which makes it all okay on my end.

I definitely feel similarly to you. I'm trying to reach out more in real life and have actual friends. It's so hard though to be who I am. I'm in constant fear of being rejected (yay, anxiety!). I am very appreciative of all of you here in this group. You have accepted me for who I am and you life me up when times get tough. hugs to all

Thank you for the update on Eric, sad as it is. It's always hard to lose someone you love.

I'm a little shy in the public forum so...

Thank you for the nice words, I'm so glad to have you as a friend here! you are a good example of a strong independent woman who works her ass off and still surviving and raising her head up, nothing can break you down!

Thank you too, It's amazing to know that without SubetaLodge, you and I probably would never talk here unless we sell/buy something, so I feel so lucky to know you and be your friend, even more, as part of a family :)

One day you will travel around the world, you just need to say "what the hell" and take the first flight haha I learned that life is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we shouldn't waste it on fears and problem, in some sense I live a gypsy life, it;s unknown where I'm going to be next year or in 3 years, who knows? but it's fun! I hope that you'll experience this a little bit and see the world more often! :)

Our recent amazing member of the family! I can't wait to know you more and to experience many good and tough moments here with you! :D

I just admire your good heart and you teach us all how to be a better people (but we are still good! :P)

You are my first friend here and we have a special connection, I just hope that you will get through this hard time, I think about you every day and I wish you will recover soon, I just love you friend!

I love your courage, your willing to fight, I admire everything that you did and still do! you are a good mother, a good leader! keep going and never give up! you can achieve anything that you want! :)

❤️ Thank you so much. I'm having a great time getting to know you all and I'm so grateful y'all are so welcoming!

Sorry to hear about your grandmother. My thoughts are with you and your family.

As an extreme introvert, I actually love to see the world through the computer screen. I've been able to have friends from around the world and see things through their eyes :D

anxiety is tough. Outside voices, rejection from others is hard, but in many ways easier to deal with than that horrible voice inside your own head.

I'm so happy to hear that you feel that way!! :D

buuuuut there's a huge different!! xD Let me tell you, the moment when you see Pisa Tower or Eiffel Tower from far and you get close to it little by little, it's a feeling that I can't describe! it's just your heart beats fast and you are speechless. I can't wait to visit Canada and the US, I want to go to Orlando for a theme parks trip for example or Toronto, I really want to experience the cold and the snow, I still need to see snow, can you believe it?! xD

I agree there's a huge difference!

Orlando and its theme parks is fun, but what I loved best was visiting the Kennedy Space Center. That thrilled me!

You'd probably enjoy Toronto, but if you only ever visit Canada once, I'd skip it. Toronto's too warm, even in mid-winter, unless you happen to arrive during a blizzard, you'll mostly experience dirty, gritty snow and slush. Depending on the time of year you'd visit, I'd look at visiting the Rocky Mountains, Hudson's Bay area, maybe even the arctic. Problem is Canada is so huge and diverse that no one visit could encompass the Canadian experience, its just not possible.

Kennedy Space Center sounds so interesting! the center in France didn't have night trips (so strange!) so it was useless to go tbh

tbh we were so close to move to Winnipeg last year but he got the position in Costa Rica, so we chose a warmer place lol I read that it's one of the coldest cities in Canada "^_^ wow the mountains looks so beautiful, makes me wanna take the first flight now haha the arctic, that means there are penguins and seals?! You are right, I've seen some pics, maybe it's worth to visit at the end of a trip..

I know there are many Israelis now in Canada, there is a employment agreement between the countries, so it's really now..

Well, the coldest of the large cities anyway. There are smaller communities further north that are much colder. I actually love the weather here, yes even the cold. Record lowest temp was -48c and record highest was 42c. We never quite know what the weather's going to be day to day, gives us something really innocuous to complain about.

LOL, sorry no penguins in the north, they are southern creatures. But lots of seals and polar bears. The arctic is beautiful, worth the visit, but you wouldn't want to stay long.

, - I've been to Toronto many times as a kid. It was closer than driving to NYC, and we'd go see big shows, baseball games, and historic tours. I've also been to Montreal once. That experience was "meh". I think part of it was the company I was with... (now ex-boyfriend). I would love to go out to the western parts of Canada, mostly BC and Alberta. Outside of traveling around the US and the Great Lakes portion of Canada, I've only been to South Korea (again, ex-boyfriend involved). There are a whole bunch of places that I would love to travel to, but need to get the finances and all of that figured out.

I was born in Toronto, but I've only visited it a handful of times. LOL I've passed through the airport a gazillion times though. BC is beautiful, but it makes me feel claustrophobic, all those mountains cutting off the sky.

I'd like to visit the arctic someday.

wow it's so cold!! I've never been to under 0 before! LOL ok seals are fun too!! did you ever interacted with one?

Yeah I really want to see the nature of Canada, it looks amazing!

omg my husband lived in S. Korea for 9 months, he worked there too, we didn't know each other yet, after those 9 months he moved to Israel and we met 1 months later haha

- I would love to visit Israel at some point. When I got married, we were originally planning to go to Egypt, Turkey, and Israel for our honeymoon. Then the whole Arab Spring events started and we thought that it might not be the best time for traveling, so we went to D.C. instead. Boy, was it hot! I think it was almost 100, if not higher, each day we were there. Northern NY can get pretty cold too - the town where I went to college had a couple of times where it was too cold for the school buses to start. I think that was around 30 or 40 below 0. It's even snowed in south Florida since I moved here. I think it was 2007, there was snow in Miami. :o

You made a good choice and just a suggestion: it's better not to have any stamp from an Arabic country in your passport before entering Israel or to a flight to Israel, they will do the annoying interviews and checks.. it happened to my husband every time he went out from Israel for a conference or family visit when he live in Israel and had a working visa lol because he was in Egypt and Jordan few years before xD

haha 100 for Israeli is nothing, actually it's cold xD I lived in desert and we reached 118 many times "^_^

Wow you really describe the global warming perfectly haha there's cold or hot weather in places that it like shouldn't!!

no wild seals for me. I've never seen them in wild, only in zoos. I've only had pretty normal wildlife encounters - rabbits, raccoons, foxes, deer, bears, bison, rams and skunks. I've only been two places where seals live in the wild, and never saw any in either place. I've never been to the arctic yet either. LOL I've never even seen the two Canadian icons, the beaver and the moose, in the wild.

Most of my travel has been city to city. The times I've been "in the wild" have mostly been in well traveled and relatively tame national parks.

The most exotic thing I've done was outdoor camping in mid-winter. But it was near a nice warm, safe chalet in case of trouble. But I did literally sleep in the snow! We built these large mounds of snow, let them set for hours, then dug them out to make hollows and slept in them. They're called quinzee and are an easier/simpler version of an igloo.

I've always wanted snow for my birthday...never got it though. Closest was a few years ago when there was snow just 5 days before my mid-june birthday.

Have you never been on a lake? We used to go to Canada for vacation every summer when I was a kid. I remember seeing many beaver dams. Supposedly they were great spots for fishing. We also visited the dumps many evening to watch the bears. This was decades ago and tiny towns and campgrounds had their own dumps. I am sure it is very different by now.

I've been on lots of lakes and rivers. Even been on a canoe trip or two, but never saw a beaver or dam. Just weren't where I happen to be I guess.

Normally we pretty much ignore bears, unless they are really close. But one time, when I was camp counselor at summer camp, we spotted a baby bear, but couldn't spot it's mom. That was scary. We got all the kidlets inside and kept them there until the baby wondered off. We never did see the mother. We were much more careful about the garbage after that.