Backing up for a moment

This past December I was, as Anne of Green Gables would say, in the very depths of despair. I was burned out on my program, trying to figure out what to do with my life, and completely deprived of Vitamin D. In order to distract myself from a serious case of self pity, I was sitting on the couch and staring at Nate, waiting for him to come up with something that would solve what was clearly shaping up to be an existential crisis. Nate was ignoring me and checking his email, when lo and behold, yet another email from MASA popped up. Usually these emails are ignored, but I was about to have that existential crisis and we needed to talk about moving to Israel. Clearly this was the most sensible and cautious way to proceed with life.

A conversation ensued about actually living up to our stated ideals of being more involved in the Jewish community and spending significant time in Israel. Approximately five minutes into this conversation, all school induced depression forgotten, we had decided that we were going to spend the next year in Israel. It was just a matter of figuring out the right program. MASA sponsors about 160 programs that range from living in a geodesic dome in the Negev to studying Talmud in Jerusalem. We wanted to understand that actual realities of Israel and we didn't feel like we would get that if we were isolated from minority communities or living in a swank set up in Tel Aviv, or focusing solely on language studies. Suddenly, we came upon Tikun Olam in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. We wanted Hebrew and Arabic study, a significant volunteer commitment, an urban location, religious diversity, and an opportunity to critically examine how we fit into the Jewish community at large.

In any case, we'll be figuring things out as we go along. It is already more than a little bittersweet to be thinking that we'll be leaving Chicago in two days, but the excitement is starting to kick in.