Lily: My future book club buddy

OK, truth be told, I am more of a cat person. However, Lily and I have something in common: when we find a good book, we really get into it. Lily and I will be spending some quality time together after I make my Aliyah to Haifa. I just hope we do not both want the same book.

Shavua Tov & Shavuot

It is Shavuot, so we are celebrating the gift of the Torah! But even without the holiday, this has definitely been a good week! NBN says they are going to contact JAFI and request my application be expedited. Also, I have found a friend who will let me stay with her when I first arrive in Haifa. This way I do not have to enter into a long-term contract for a rental, sight unseen. Julia is a life-saver! My temporary residence (at Julia's and Lily's place) will be on Hess in Haifa. Lily is a dog, by the way. I will be helping to take care of her whenever Julia is away from home. Go to Google Earth to see where I will be staying. It is 500 ft above sea level -- that is high ground for a Florida girl! Yet, it is still very close to the water.

Next week will also be a good week. How do I know? I know, because next week is the last week of work for this school year. This is very likely the end of my teaching career, other than possibly doing some private tutoring. I would have a party to celebrate, but I have no time.

As the song goes: I'm Leaving On a Jetplane...

NBN just sent me confirmation that they have me on the 6 July flight. Of course it won't happen if JAFI doesn't get my application processed so that I can get the Aliyah visa prior to 21 June. I am actually beginning to think that the 6 July flight may really happen for me!

I packed several boxes today. Also, I threw some things away and added to the pile of things to go to charity. My last work day for the school year is 5 June, so from that point on I will be able to work on the Aliyah preparation full time. That means that while packing, I can be repeatedly calling JAFI to keep bugging them about my paperwork. Maybe they will get so tired of me that they will do whatever it takes to get rid of me.

Handy tool for people in a timewarp.

I just found a blog with a great tool for chronologically challenged Aliyah hopefuls. It is an Aliyah countdown tool. Check it out at http://blog.mattgottlieb.com/

Florida Time Warp

Despite the fact that there has been nothing about it in the news, I am convinced the Tampa Bay area is experiencing some odd sort of time anomaly. The closer it gets to 6 July the slower time goes. Oh you may be thinking it is just that I am impatient for the Nefesh B'Nefesh flight home, but it seems like everyone around me is complaining that time is moving ever so slowly! Of course there is the fact that everyone around me is either a 12 year old who has no concept of time, or a middle school teacher, who is sick of having to explain the same classroom procedures midway through fourth quarter, that we did not mind explaining in the middle of August 2008 during the first week of school.

Pushing those explanations aside, because I choose to ignore them, I am left with no alternative but to conclude that I am "not in Kansas anymore." (And I am really sure about that, since I have never been in Kansas, and could never be in Kansas because it is landlocked, and being in a landlocked area gives me claustrophobia.) So....we are in a timewarp. And what is really weird is that Jerusalem is in the same timewarp. If they were not, the Jewish Agency would have been able to get my Aliyah approval done long before now.

Hopefully sometime soon, God will decide to jiggle the universe and put everything in alignment so that time is once again passing at a normal rate, and I will get my Aliyah approval so that I can then start complaining that time is going too fast and I don't know how I will ever get all the arrangements made before my flight...yada yada yada.

I have been online lots lately and have 'met' others who are planning Aliyah for this year. Meeting people online is a new thing for me because I am old - 53 to be exact. Anyway, now that I have gotten used to this 'meeting online' thing I have found I am eager to 'meet' more future olim. I am especially interested in meeting people who plan to settle in the Haifa area. I am planning to locate in one of the Krayot - probably Motzkin or Haim.

Shalom/שלום,
Tonielle/תמר

now twittering as 28n82w