A few random notes about things

I’m at home for another week, then I’ll be flying off to Israel for (just under) two months.  EEK!

This is about when I start to panic……  Yeah…  So I will attempt to distract myself by writing about random things here:

Question:  Do I try to get in touch with my sort of friend who’s in Isreal this semester to get together and grab coffee while I’ll be there, or should I just ignore the fact that he’s there, and wait until the fall to talk to him?  If it were any other friend who was in Israel, I would defiantly try to meet up (Except the Birthright kids, who will be there while I am, but who are just too hard to get together with, since they can’t leave their trip at all.)

Note:  There is a list of security regulations a mile long for my program.  It’s tempting to laugh.   I am only allowed to ride in cars with yellow licence plates, and only on two bus lines, and we can’t cross the green line for any reason at all, ever, well, unless we want to go into the Old City, but even then we can only go to the Jewish Quarter, and only through one gate, and only in groups, and on and on like that for about a page and a half.   Laughing is perhaps not the right response, but it is amusing. In a really dark way. 

Note B:  Most of the stuff from my list is done.  Really, all I need to do now is pack and finish the shawls.  And get coffee with one person, and dinner with another.  One more week should be fine.  Should be.  I keep telling myself this….   

Note C:  Amazingly, I should be posting more once I’m in Israel, rather than here, since I’ll be setting up a blog for my friends and family to read, and I’ll most likely cross post some of that stuff here.    Sorry for being gone so long, but home is really a different schedule than school, and I spend much much less time at my desk, working on my computer.  What at school is easy to do as a half hour break from work at home becomes something I need to set aside time specifically for, and that’s much harder, especially when I’m trying to spend as much time with my family as I can.  I can say, however, that I miss writing, and keep meaning to get back to it.    Thanks!

Planning stuff

So, this is basically a brain dump of everything I need to do while home:

- (Done) Replace my sandals.  The Teva flipflops that I love so much really only hold up to a years worth of wear.  Which isn’t bad, given that I live in them from spring to fall, but still, must be done. 

-travel clothes.  Lightweight tops that aren’t sleeveless or low cut.  Ha, like that will be possible….  Plan B: Knit lightweight cotton shrugs to go over sleeveless tops. 

-Go to yarn store. 

-Finish knitting shawl A, plan for shawl B to come with me to Israel.  sub-task) Figure out if I can fly to Israel with circular knitting needles in my carry-on bag. 

-(Done)Find a purse to bring with me.  Something big enough to hold a nalgene, and my notebook, but not awkwardly huge.

-Visit my friends, and HS teachers.  This is mostly done, but there are still a couple people left. 

-Pack.  Yeah, I’m going to ignore that for now.

-Make hotel/hostel reservations.  I really need to get on that….

-Find books to bring with me.  Yeah….

Back! (again…)

Ok, so I have a good excuse for being gone so long.  I had no internet at home, since our provider was out of service for several days.  Yep.

 Anyway, I’m back now and preping for my trip to Israel.  I have so far gotten about a million vaccinations (well, three, but it feels like more), and made tons of lists of places I need to see, and things I need to get before I leave.  So exciting. 

I’ve been home for a little less than a week now.  I hate packing my room, with a passion.  It was a bit easier this year than the last two, since I know I’ll be coming back to the same place, but even so, it’s hard.  You come into your room in September, and you unpack all your things.  You hang up your posters, and put your blankets on your bed, and turn on all your warm lights, that don’t flicker, and you put all your books on the shelf, and your food in the fridge, and the place becomes your room.  It’s not just an industrial dorm room, with no character, it’s your home.  And you live there for 9 months, and people visit, and you have dinners, and conversations there.  You study for tests, and write papers, and watch tv on your computer.  And then, after all that, after all that time making the room yours, you have to pick up, pack up all your things, put away your posters, and your lights, and your blankets, and your books, and you leave, and there’s nothing left in the room to tie you there.  There’s no longer anything in the room that says you lived there, nothing to speak to the things that happened there, the people who lived their lives there for so long.  And I know that the person who lives there after me won’t think of me anymore than I think of the people who lived there before I did (which is not at all, to be honest), and somehow that makes me sad.  I feel like in some way my whole life is being packed up, and put in boxes, that I’ll leave as little trace on the people there as I did on the room.  I know we don’t really keep in touch over summers even, how will we ever keep in touch after next year when we all leave, and start real life? 

Sigh….

At least I have a great summer to look forward to.   *Ignores existence of graduation*

YAY!!!!!!!!!

I’ll be in Israel this summer**!  WOOHOOO!!!! *Runs around room screaming her head off, laughing like an idiot.* 

Ok, I’m better now.  (Hee, the first time I typed that I typed pretty rather than better.  I amuse myself.) 

As you’ve probably all guessed, the MDA program worked out, and I’ll be in Israel for almost two months this summer; a bit over a month with the program, and a couple weeks after it ends touring around.  Amazingly, my parents are letting me fly out early, and come back late, which is more or less my dream trip.  I’m really blown away by how much trust they’re giving me with this.  They’re letting me fly to a country that they’ve never been to, which is at war constantly, alone.  As frustrated as I might get by them at times, they really do have an awful lot of faith in me. 

I spent yesterday working up a rough itinerary of what I want to do in my touring time.  It’s hard, because I don’t want to schedule too much in any given day, since I want plenty of time to just wander around.  At the same time, I feel like I have to do everything now.  It took me a while to come to grips with the fact that I can’t do everything this trip, and that I don’t have to do everything this trip.  I can always come back; this is not my one chance to see Israel.  In this case, that means no Eilat, no matter how good the diving might be.   It’s just too far away from everything else (How funny is it to say something is too far away in a country the size of NJ?) 

That said, there is no shortage of totally cool stuff to see there.  EEEE!!!!!!  *Starts planning with graphs, and calenders, and guidebooks, and maps, and notebooks, and lists, and pictures* 

I also feel about how I did about going to college.  I have this weird emotional disconnect thing going, where intellectually I know that I’ll be there, but part of me doesn’t believe it, and the rest of me keeps thinking that I’ll be living in another country(for college it was another state) for almost two months (4 years).  That’s really living somewhere, not just visiting anymore.  I’ve never been outside of the US for that long, or that far away from my family (where I can’t just call pretty much whenever I want) and without any friends I know there.  Yeah, I know lots of people with family there, and there will be plenty of people I can turn to if I need help with something, but it’s no one I’ve met before.  My best shot is that a few friends will be there on birthright part of the time, and another will be finishing his study abroad semester when I get there.  I’m really setting out on my own for the first time in my life, and part of me isn’t sure how well I’ll handle it.  What if I get there and I hate it?  What if no one on the program likes me?  What if I can’t actually speak any Hebrew, and I’m totally useless and stand out as a horribly rude tourist? I’ve traveled plenty, and know somewhat how not to seem like a rude American, but still.  The idea of going to another country and expecting everyone to speak my language seems so rude.  At least I’m not the sort of American who goes to Italy and eats at McDonald’s.  Although, I am totally going to get McDonald’s fries as a kosher McDonald’s.  I miss them so very much.   Wow, I’m rambling now, so I’ll stop. 

Feel free to leave suggestions of things I need to see while there!  You know, in Israel…  *EEEEE!!!!!!*

**barring last minute parents deciding I can’t go.