FLYING!!!!

I LOVE FLYING!! I absolutley just LOVE it!!! So knowing that I'm flying to Israel in 22 days makes me soooooo excited. Last week we finally found out my flight info; I'm leaving August 31st at 7:25 pm out of New York. That obviuosly means I have to get to New York. So me, my mom, and another girl whos

Making Money

My Plans This Summer: MAKE MONEY! So far I'm off to a good start, I'm babysitting for this really sweet family with 4 boys for about 4 hours a day which is exhausting! I'm pretty sure I'm doing it all summer so I'll do pretty well by the end, and so far I have done really well and I'm so excited to be making all this money for Israel. At the beggining of the summer I was hoping to get like a real job but you can't really do that until you're 16 and I didn't want to go to camp. So I got really lucky because one of my friends hooked me up with this family. So now I'm not bored all day and I get paid!!!

A Couple of Things

1. I'm so excited becaue my BFF who my aliyah last summer is in town and I'm so excited to get to hang out with her. Plus she's telling me all these things I need to know about Israel like certain phrases, and how different it is there like how independent everyone is there and I'm so ready to see all that for myself in two months.
2. Two Sundays ago we went to visit my aunts house because our grandpa was in town and we basically had to say goodbye to him because thats probably the last time that we're going to see him before we make aliyah. But I really had to say goodbye to him because I'm leaving soon. It was really sort of scary because it made me leaving real and I was sort of freaking out. The week before that it was setting in that I'm not going to be here next year, and I'm not going to have my parents or my brothers or my dog or my own room or anything familiar and it's really scary. Saying goodbye to my Grandpa made it so real and scary. So as excited as I am it's really setting in now so I'm pretty freaked.
3. I've had two more driving appointments after that first one. The first one this lady driving teacher picked up me and my partner and she drove us down to this part of chicago I've never been to. She was kind of annoying and I kept forgetting to stop at stoplights and stop signs which was really bad. Then yesterday the main driving teacher took us out to Winetka and we had to drive up and down this place called the Ravines which is this super windy road which was super scary to drive down. So I think I'm definatly getting better but thhere's no reason to because I have to do it all over again in two years!!!
4. Today is a fast day and I am super starving so I'm gonna go 'cause I get to eat in 4 minutes!!!!!!!

Driving

So since I'm now fifteen (this happened a while ago) and I get to drive!!!! I took Drivers Ed in school and now I'm actually going on the road. So I got my permit a couple weeks ago and I went a few times with my abba in parking lots which was... um.. OK I guess, but today the actual driving teacher picked me up and picked up the girl who's my partner and I actually drove on the streets. I think I did pretty well and the teacher kept saying I was doing a good job but I've still definatley got some learning to do. THe teacher was like "look at that person over there and this car and that car and there's a family there and kids there and..." it was pretty scary! Then I had to drive down some main streets where there were OTHER CARS!!! But he was like "don't worry the other cars know how to drive they're more scared of you than you are of them" which is definatley true, but I was still scared. Then my partner went and it was her first time driving and she gave me a really big headache but I'm sure she'll get much better!!! So I'm really excited to be driving around this summer and then since I'm going to Israel I probably am not going to be able to get my license and then I get to wait another two years to get my permit all over again, YAAY!!!! Because the driving age in Israel is eighteen and you have to learn more than just driving, you have to know a bunch of the mechnanical stuff too. So yeah I'm going to enjoy my summer and not worry about Israeli drivers for another two years.

NAALE!!

I GOT ACCEPTED TO NAALE!!!!!!! I AM SOOO EXCITED!!!! I can't believe I got in. I found out last week and it still hasn't set in. I was waiting and waiting and waiting and my Abba e-mailed them and asked when we were going to find out. They responded and said we sent you the e-mail at to this e-mail address, and it was THE WRONG ADDRESS!!! I would've found out MAY 14TH!!! Only thing is that there are four conditions to stay accepted, three have to do with grades but the fourth is that it will only work if there are enough girls. They said it looks promising but there's still that .1% that it won't happen. So I'm praying it works out!! OH and today I went to the orthodontist and she said that I could get my braces out early since I'm going to Israel!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAYY!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

Two-day torture

Tuesday was Shavout, yesterday was Shavout and now Shabbat is starting!!!??? Two day yom tovim are driving me nuts! They are so long and boring. I am so ready for a one day chagim in Israel. Really what's better than having one day set aside to remember something in our history and to remember it in the land that it happened. Plus if I get into Naale (which I should be hearing from any day) then this Shavout was my last two-day chag!!! except for Rosh Hashana which is THREE days this year. But now I have to go 'cause Shabbat is about to start.

Chag Sameach!! Today is Yom Yerushaliyim!!! Not much happened in school for it, we just re-learned what we celebrate for and what happened. But last year was quite the experience, we were in Yerushaliyim last year for Yom Yerushaliyim!! So first there were two concerts in the middle of the street, one for the boys and one for the girls (of course). Everyone was singing and dancing and it was absolutley sooooo incredible. Then after awhile we all started walking down one of the streets to get to the old city. EVERYONE was screaming and singing and dancing and everyone was having soooo much fun. We got to the Old City through the Damascus gate, I really like that gate, and we all walked straight through the arab shuk. I felt like we were saying 'Oh yeah, this IS OUR land!!!' Then we got to the kotel and it was just undescribable. I went up to the kotel and davened and went back to the plaza-where they put up a mechitza between the boys and girls!!! Of course there was more dancing and singing and another concert. I looked back at the kotel and the entire area was completley filled!! It was just SOOO incredible and I really hope that *next year* and all of the years to follow I can be in Yerushaliyim for this really miraculous day!!!!!

Walk with Israel

The Walk with Israel was a few days ago and it was just beautiful! I went with my family and we walked the 3 miles, which is really no big deal for us. Before the walk started everyone was gathered together in this park and there were a ton of people. That’s the part that I love, tons of Jews all together in one place, and we’re all supporting Israel. I think it’s so incredible and I totally love it!!!! I only wish that instead of all of us being in America we could be in Israel together. I know I’ll be there soon.

I'm Back!!

Last night I got back from the screening for Naale in New York. Sunday morning I went to New York with my abba and we went touring all Sunday, it was so much fun and we saw Brooke Shields!!!!! Then Monday we went to the Jewish Agency building where our day began. So first they introduced the program then the adults and kids split up. We started doing these pshycollogy activities in smaller groups and then they were asking us "How did this activity make you feel??" Then we took a billion tests for more pshycollogy stuff and it took like three hours. And we had a math test and an ivrit test and then finally I had my interview. There were a lot of questions and it took like forty minutes but it finally ended. So now we wait, two to three weeks, I absolutley can not wait!!!!!!!!!

New York!!!

I'm going to New York!!!!!!!!!!! So we got this e-mail last Thursday that said we need to go to New York really soon to get interviewed for the Naale program so now we're going and I'm sooooooooo excited!!!!!! Next Monday is the whole interviewing and testing process to get accepted to Naale and I have to go to it if I want to get accepted, which I do! My Abba is taking me because last time I went to New York (like two months ago) my mommy took me so now it's my Abbas turn. We're leaving Sunday morning and we're gonna tour around Manhattan on Sunday and it's going to be sooooo much fun!!!!!! Then Monday is the actual interviewing thing and we have in this one building from 8:30am to 7:00pm. What they're gonna do is interview us and give us some tests, I think, and there are going to be all the other people who applied to the program and we have to interact with each other so that they can make sure we're not antisocial people. I'm pretty sure that's what's going to happen. So I have to be a really bubbly person in the interviews which will be a little hard cause I'm pretty nervous. But what's really exciting is that this girl who I'm close friends with at my school also applied to the program so she also has to go to New York and she might have to come with me!!!!!!!! And I'm also really excited because I LOVE airports and airplanes and I LOVE flying and I AM JUST SOOO EXCITED!!!!!!! I'll tell you what happens when I'm there!!!!!!!!!!!

Early Start

Even though my family is making aliyah in 2011 I might be in Israel a year early. The original plan was for the whole family to make aliyah in 2011 when I will be entering 11th grade, but we heard about this Naale/Bnei Akiva program in Israel. The program lets boys and girls spend some high school years in Israel learning at seperate Israeli schools. I don't remember where I heard about this but I got so excited. This program would be absolutely incredible for me; sophomore girls have 13 hours of ulpan a week, I would learn Hebrew in no time! Also since we're moving the next year I could ease into the changes with his program instead of being thrown into it in the middle of high school. I would learn all the information for the bagrut exams, which are basically these MAJOR tests that you have to take and they follow you around for like the rest of your life, so missing the info would be really bad. We sent out an application before Pesach and last night I had a phone interview with one of the people in charge a few days ago. He was asking general questions and I was answering really well even though I was shaking cause I was so nervous. He told me that there's a test that the girls who apply have to take, it's just a psycollogy test to make sure that people who apply are...well sane and that they won't be too homesick. I responded and said 'I cant be homesick in Israel, that's where I belong, Chicago is not my home.' He said 'WOW', and I was sooo happy because I know I won some points there! But that's how I really feel about Israel. So now we're waiting to see if I get accepted. I really hope that I will and I think about it and daven for it every single day.

The Beginning

My aliyah journey starts from the first time I was in Israel in May 2009, actually it was the only time I've been in Israel. My family and I went for my brothers Bar Mitzvah which we had been planning for years. We were finally on our plane and near landing, the best part of the flight. I remember being near the ground flying over the Mediterranean and looking at the shore of Tel Aviv, it was absolutely beautiful, that's when I started crying. We were in Israel for two weeks mostly touring. We visited Chevron, Tel Aviv, Masada, Ein Gedi, the Dead Sea, Kever Rachel, but we mostly stayed in Jerusalem walking around to Ben Yehuda, Machane Yehuda, and The Old City. My brother had his Bar Mitzvah at the Kotel, it was my first time there and it looked nothing like I had imagined but it was totally incredible. By the time we had to leave I remember people in Chicago telling me 'the second you get off the plane you'll feel the holiness, you'll feel the connection.' Well that's not when I felt that connection, I felt it siting in our rented car driving through the beautiful mountains and valleys at 4 in the morning on our way back to Ben Gurion. The next few months back in Chicago were hard, My Abba was talking about aliyah which was scary, because I was desperate to be back in Israel but I wanted to get through high school first. My mind changed after one of my best friends made aliyah in the middle of the summer, I decided that Israel was certainly the place that I had to be and soon. My Abba and I both felt the same about Israel, and we wanted the rest of the family to agree, which they did but they were not emotionally ready to make the move. It took a little while but in February my Mom finally agreed to make aliyah in the summer of 2011. So this is were my journey begins