Go back to Israel

but realistically, it’ll happen when I have some combination of extra vacation time and extra money. Or a combination of health insurance and grant money and a freelance lifestyle.

I think I need to go to Italy first, but there’s also book research I can do in Israel, for sure.

If by chance I have any vacation left over this year, next year I’ll have 3 weeks, and it would be great to find I have time for some international travel. My boss is basically Israeli, too, so she might be able to help me figure this out.

Argentina!

:-D

First, I saw an announcement for two talks on health care in Israel, put together by a group I had never heard of. I think I need to call them and say, “Hey! I want to go to Israel and do health policy research! Will you send me?”

Second, and I can’t even remember how I got there, I found a website that reunites old buddies from kibbutz. And what do you know… I found a photo of me, from 1986, from my ulpan (Hebrew class)! I’m in front, toward the left, wearing an army jacket, white shirt, and black belt. I wrote to two people who had posted on the site, to see if they had more information.

I don’t remember all the names in the photo, but I could at least tell you stories about everyone. The first guy I kissed in Israel, Andrés, from Uruguay, is toward the right – dark hair, jogging sweatshirt. It didn’t last; I got irritated with him because he refused to speak Hebrew with non-Israelis(!). My teacher is all the way on the right: Arno. How I miss Arno.

How I miss Israel. Sigh.

of volunteer opportunities doing reconstruction in Northern Israel? e.g., on a kibbutz? (Even though I have always said that next time I would go to a city, a kibbutz might be just the thing right now.)

either through listening to Mati Caspi, reading something in Ha’aretz, or just feeling that my current situation is less than inspiring, I think I could be happy making aliyah, or at least visiting for long enough (a year?) that my Hebrew gets really good, I make friends, etc.

Today, for instance.

I just exchanged emails with a colleague in Israel who is putting together a conference to be held there either this summer or possibly some months later. Since I am now a free woman he asked if I might be interested in helping him promote it in the U.S., for money, and – possibly – I could get them to travel me to the conference!

i know i will get the urge, big-time. in the meantime (since i anticipate having no income) i will keep reading ha’aretz online, singing, hanging out with jews, etc.