Or: Yes, all those cliches are true.
Hi all! Aviad told me to go write a post.
First, I would like to thank everyone who commented on my name-post, it was all helpful (any other comments are welcome).
We wanted to tell you about our Shabat dinner last Friday at my parents' very good yordim friends who lived in Even Yehuda. Wonderful people. And to the cliche part - really good Jews! We had a full Shabat kiddush with lyrics and music unknown to us. A Yerushalmi who is in the States for 1 year was also invited, and all 4 of us (Aviad, brother, Yerushalmi and myself) were the only ones around the big table who had no idea what was going on.. Our wonderful hosts admitted that they started this tradition 10 years ago. So, always nice practicing your Judaism in the Gola.
To other news, we finally acted as tourists a few days ago and walked around the "North End" in Boston. The Italians were having some festival there (sorry, Aviad would probably attach a link). It was amazing. Other than the fact that we seemed to have found Aviad’s heaven (Italian restaurants everywhere), the place was absolutely - how should I say - 'Chul'! Clean (well, besides the left-overs from the Saturday market), summery (mmm besides the cool weather), and with an impressive Holocaust monument (pictures to be attached later on).
I think we're gonna like this place.
Just to clarify to anyone who might be alarmed: we don't see ourselves as living in the Gola, we are just temporarily out of town.
Or: Who am I?
I've been driving Aviad, my brother, my parents, Aunt Judy, and lately my friend Mila, crazy with a question that’s been bothering for months: how should I complete the sentence - "Nice to meet you! My name is.." ???
The story is quite complicated, and I apologize to those of you who heard it a million times.
At birth I was given the name Avigal, after the 'Galim' (waves) in Bat Galim, Haifa, where my father grew up. My parents call me Avigal to this day.
For some reason, when we arrived in Israel in 1980, my name was written in all the formal papers as Avigail (my parents don't know how to explain this). So since kindergarden my friends/teachers etc. call me Avigail.
All my family in the States, including my brother, call me Abby. All my family in Israel, mostly from my father’s side, call me Avigal.
Now, since Avigail is an international name, when I first opened an email account in hotmail (..) years ago, I decided to put Abigail as my name on the address. That name went on with me to yahoo! and gmail.
So you tell me, how should I call myself here?!
Please note:
(1) If I present myself from the start as Abigail or Abby, I might be taken for a 100% American, rachmana litslan.. 
(2) Avigail is hard to pronounce, as I found out when I visited here in March.
(3) Some of my best friends in Israel call me Avigal, the way my parents call me (incidentally, they are not native Hebrew speakers).
(4) I don't know with which name I feel most comfortable with. They're all me.
