It’s been a while since you’ve last heard from me, so I’d like to bring you up to speed. When I last posted I had recently broken up with (ex-)boyfriend. End of August, it was the perfect time for a change. And that’s when I learned that sometimes life just happens. The Universe does what you don’t even need to ask it to.

A friend who made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) and works for a Birthright Israel trip provider, asked me out of the blue if I wanted to staff a trip that was leaving in a week and a half. For those of you who don’t know, Taglit-Birthright Israel is an organization that sends Jewish 18-26 year olds to Israel on a free 10-day trip. It’s an experience of a lifetime, and while I went on the trip 8 years ago, I had never gone back as staff.

I partly blame that on selfishness. I mean, if I’m going to be in Israel I want to hang out with my friends, right? But this time it was different. I finally felt ready to contribute positively to someone else’s experience of Israel. And I needed to get out of New York. And then a free trip surfaced. Thank you Universe for making things happen!

I left for Israel for an undetermined length of time. I knew I was going to stay beyond the 10-day trip, but I had no idea going into when my return date would be.  In the end, the month of Jewish holidays was the deciding factor.  For those of you who don’t know, holidays that have the same restrictions as shabbat last for one day in Israel (except for Rosh Hashanah).  Outside of Israel these holidays last for two days.  And if the end of the second day of the holiday falls into the beginning of Shabbat…well, that’s a lot of time to spend unplugged.  So I asked my friends for their input, as I would be staying with them and didn’t want to overstay my welcome, and a month later it was already time to say goodbye.

But my trip was so much more than that.  And I want to share what I was up to as long as you want to read it.  So let this be the first of many posts – it’ll let me relive my trip :)