Friday, July 31, 2009

emotions

recently i have been worried about this whole aliyah thing. moving halfway around the world, as far away from my parents and family as one can get... well the guilt is pretty strong. i dont like the fact that I am taking a granddaughter away from my parents (although we will skype as often as possible), and i dont like not being able to share to day to day celebrations and milestones with them. i was worried that when the plane lands in israel i would feel none of the joy that comes with being there. maybe i would be the only person on the plane crying because i wasnt sure i was doing the right thing.

but i think i am doing the right thing. i was watching NBN videos yesterday, and that spark of joy came back watching people enjoy their aliyah. i know what this means. when i was studying in israel, even though it was hard, i loved that being jewish could just be a part of who i was. i didnt have to fight over holiday vacations, kosher food, meetings that run into shabbat... it just was, whether i needed it or not. i am now looking forward to the move again. i know that the pain of leaving my family is there, and its important. but we can do this... and we should be doing this. for now it is what is right for my new little family. and the joy of transportation today means we can visit my family more often...

now if only we didnt have to fly to get there. i hate flying!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

three weeks and counting

back in January I had contacted some english speaking schools in Israel, just to see what the job situation was like. last week i got an email from one of them asking for a LATIN teacher come january! Not what I wanted to be teaching (I would love to get back to history), but it would be a foot in the door. its only part time, which could be good also. the downside is that it is a pretty far commute from KG, but it is on the train line. anyways, they want me to call them when i land, and set up a meeting. not too bad! even if it doesnt work out, its nice to know that there are opportunities out there.

in other news... three weeks until the move. we have one suitcase packed, only a couple more to go. its hard to believe ints actually getting closer. my parents left to meet my brother in europe today, and it was hard to see them go. we will get to see them before we go, but it was hard knowing that we only have a couple days left. of everything, leaving my family is by FAR the hardest part of moving internationally. if only our families werent on exact opposite parts of the world... at least in this day and age it is easier to stay in contact. still, its not the same as seeing the baby grow up in front of your eyes.

so, three weeks left, just wrapping everything up as best as possible... and hoping that everyting goes as smoothly as possible between now and then.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

apartments and other thoughts

well, first off, Maya has her American passport! That means we are totally ready to travel. All the forms are turned in to NBN, and we seem to be mostly set. Now its just a matter of cleaning and packing and getting the last minute stuff organized... but with a month to go I dont feel so bad.

It also appears that we have a place to rent when we land. This was one thing I was really worried about. it was important to me to be able to have our own place to crash, and to begin to set up, when we arrived. i know that mentally, being able to organize and set up a house will help me get through those first couple days. its a matter of being able to call a place your own. with the baby also, it will be good to start getting her used to new place from day 1.

im not assuming this will be easy in any way. the hardest thing by far is leaving my family. when Yehi and I got married we knew that we would have to choose countries to be near family... and that either way one side would be hurt. We thought we would be staying in the US longer, but the general circumstances led us to decide that now was a better time to move. Part of me is so excited about this move... I have always wanted to live abroad and experience other cultures, and I am so thankful to be able to do that.

On the other hand... we have a new daughter. I want her to get the kind of education and childhood that BOTH israel and america have to offer. i want my parents, my sibling, my grandparents to be able to see her grow and change. it is obviously much easier now, with programs like skype, than it was 100, 50 or even 10 years ago... but its still not the same. I dont have a solution to the problem, but I know there will be a lot of traveling back and forth. I dont know if its really any different from living on opposite coasts of the US (just a longer plane flight), but since both yehi and I grew up right near our whole family, it will be hard. any thoughts would be appriciated.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

passports!

Well, as of Yesterday, the baby is official a dual citizen! we received her israeli passport in the mail, along with my aliyah visa. we seem to have conquered the first step of bureaucracy! (with many more to come...) Im still getting used to have a new baby, and it amazes me that she has a passport already... its like it makes it more real in some round about way. we are still waiting for her american passports, and i hope they arrive soon.

what this all means is that we have all the forms for our aliyah (cept babys american passport, but that we dont need until the actual flight) and will have them all turned in and signed off on by the end of the week! im nervous and scared and excited about the move... but its hard to believe its real. I have always wanted to live in another country... but I'm still not sure how I feel about the long term. Either way, it is too early to discuss that now... so here is to the next year... and all the good it will bring (bh)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

5 weeks

well, five weeks until the aliyah date. a lot to get done before then, but I am feeling ok with where we are right now. My inlaws have been looking for an apartment for us in the city they live in. Its been quite an experience. for some reason israelis count "room" numbers as all rooms, and not just bedrooms... so what would be a studio apartment here in the US is a 1 room apartment in israel. its totally thrown me off more than once. weve had a couple places look good, only to find out they were talking to multiple renters at once, all of whom were willing to rent longer than we are.

since this whole living in Israel thing will be new to me, we dont want to make a contract for longer than a year. who knows where we will want to be after this year? where will we be working? what about how we fit in (religiously, age wise, friend wise)? So we keep getting beat out of renting by native Israelis who commit to three+ years. the good news is that I think we finally found a place... a three bedroom (counting american style, 4 room israeli style) house, about 10-15 mins walking from both his parents and his aunt who will be our daycare. its also about that same amount from the tachana merkazit (central bus station) and the center of town. now i just hope it works out!

we are still waiting on my visa and the babys passports... hopefully by the end of this week. we have done a stock up run for deoderant, listerine, english books, etc... all the important things. i will try to post later about some of the emotions i am feeling... but for now baby is calling!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

nbn flights

the first aliyah flight of the summer landed in israel yesterday, and they showed a live feed on the NBN website. I watched the replay of it, and it was great to see. the oldest oleh was 83, and the youngest was 7 weeks. i cant imagine moving with a baby Mayas age. the paperwork they must have had to push to get everything organized in time! we had been debating if we should go on an all olim flight, or a normal flight... and i think we want to take the olim flight. its a once in a lifetime experience... and we can get all of our paperwork done in the airport.

If you want to attend a welcome ceremony go to this link http://www.nbn.org.il/ceremony/index.htm and if you want to watch, go here http://www.nbn.org.il/live/ There are also pictures up on the NBN website if you want to check them out.

we are still waiting for the passports and visas to come in, and beginning the countdown. we got an email saying our lift will be in israel by the first week of august. it still seems crazy that we are moving halfway around the world in a month and a half... but also exciting.