One week to go

So on Monday, June 11, I'm going to Israel. And I'm starting to freak out, for several reasons.

I'm subletting my room for the summer, so I have to both pack and move out of my room. That's a lot of stuff to accomplish. And much packing to do (and I'm a really bad packer). I'm working on laundry, and I'm going to get some packing done today, as well as move the filing cabinet and little plastic drawers out of my room.

I'm going to be in Israel for 2.5 months, which on the one hand is super-cool and on the other hand is rather terrifying, since the entext of my solo-journeys abroad was that one day I walked around Kyoto, Japan by myself. Except the other 20 people in my group were walking around in little groups, and I kept seeing them.

And I'm actually doing stuff 100% alone in Israel. After the birthright trip (amusing for some, since the extent of my Jewish life will be all of 11 days when I leave), I'm going to volunteer in Jerusalem for 10 days ish...except I have these 3 homeless days. Another GSU person will be in a dorm in Tel Aviv. I'll probably just wind up staying there. Although he really needs to know that there will be NO cuddling under any circumstances.

So I go volunteer for 10 days with no idea what I'll be doing (although I should have thought about this...clothes for painting/planting flowers is different than clothes for riding around in an ambulance). I'm staying in some house in some area of Jerusalem, which I have no idea about. But it was recommended by my friend Alana, so at least I can be sure that it's not just a brothel or something.

After that I'm going to get to Nazareth somehow (no idea how). One of my friends from Agnes Scott is visiting her family there. She's got 3 kids in the late-teens area, so we can hang too. AND she told me that she has 3 nieces at the University of Haifa, and her sister lives in Haifa. They're going to help me set up my dorm, show me around the city, and basically adopt me if I need anything. It's the happiest news so far, since I'll be there for 8 weeks, and I won't be 100% alone. One of the nieces is an English major, so I'm going to try to score Arabic/English lessons from her.

Starting July 8th I'll be at the University of Haifa until August 31. Learning Hebrew 4-5 hours a day, then doing 2-3 hours of homework each evening. Seriously, that's a lot of Hebrew. They also have these cool day/weekend trips. The only problem is where the $ is all going to come from, especially since they want all the money before the end of June (paycheck will appear after they want the $). Plus, GSU cut my July/August funding, so I might have to resort to organized kidney thievery in Israel to support my falafel habit.

Actually, I'm going to go to the bank tomorrow and see if they'll give me a loan. Probably not. In which case, I'll just keep putting everything on credit cards until September.

Oh, and I went to the mikvah the other day. I'm officially Jewish now. I've got a certificate and everything.