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