More thoughts of where to live first

Having to figure out where I am to live should be high on my list. It has been. As I am still working with government officials on the approvals I need for my business, I figure I needed to think about where I should be. As I stated earlier, I will be in Jerusalem for the holidays. I will probably need to visit government offices and who knows where else. I would like the opportunity to explore Jerusalem. I have read on the web that Modi'in is not the hotbed of activity for singles. As the distance is not too great, I figure I can manage whatever I need for the business from anywhere in reasonable distance. I will need to be looking for where I want to be long term, but again figure I could do that from Jerusalem. I have posed some questions to the Shaliach about the Mercaz Klita (Absorption Center) in Jerusalem and knowing the accommodations are sparse at best I think it might just be workable. The center offers the intense language training program (Ulpan) on-site which simplifies a lot of running around each day for five months. Having others around that are sharing the acclimation process I see as more good than bad. Living in close quarters (dorm like) could be a challenge but I see it more as a learning experience worth sharing. The pictures included here are views from the windows of the center (credit to Jason who took these and posted them to the web). We'll see what answers the Shaliach comes up with and then I'll know what I'm going to do.

The Blog is the story today

I woke up early this morning and I read the news and figured I'd check the blog. I have noticed an increase in visitors from Israel, but didn't know what to make of it. This morning I now know what it meant. I don't know who, but someone at Nefesh B'Nefesh has been reading my blog and has added it to their News page with several links to this blog. Kinda cool, huh?

Didn't post something from last week

It was about a year ago that I went to Atlanta to the Nefesh B'Nefesh seminar. They have announced the schedule for the rest of this year and they are returning to Atlanta in December. So, I signed up last week and forgot to share with the blog. The girls and I already had a trip planned and guess when the NBN meeting is? The same weekend. So, we will go to Atlanta a day earlier as the meeting is on Thursday evening. The girls would have had to miss school anyway on Friday, so we will leave Thursday after school and still get there in plenty of time. I suspect there will be prettier presentations, but I don't really expect to learn a lot more since I read everything they put out, but you never know. What I do hope to do, is meet people making Aliyah next year, maybe even the same flight that I will take. It would be nice to know someone or people beforehand. It would also be nice to meet people that maybe getting a lift as I plan to only have a few boxes and it would be nice to find someone relatively close to share with. If nothing else, I'll see and meet others that share my aliyah dream and share our stories...

Not that I needed to be inspired, but a little inspiration felt good

This past summer, Nefesh B'Nefesh started webcasting the arrival ceremonies from Israel so that friends and families (and anyone else that was interested) could watch the live feed from the airport in Israel of the arrival of the plane, the excitement, the music, the dignitaries (Prime ministers (current, former and future), Ministers, MKs, etc) making speeches and such. I fell into the category of anyone else that was interested. These webcasts started at midnight and would last for about two hours. I watched with awe and even a little jealousy as these arrivals were not mine, but a glimpse into the future and what I could expect. The Nefesh B'Nefesh charter flights have been primarily in the summer, one is going in December, but last night I was looking for something (nothing specific) on the web and was checking the NBN website to see if there was anything new. Looking at the links I saw the link for NBN Videos and remembered the great scenes, sounds and feelings I had when watching live. I decided to watch a little... A little turned in to over an hour last night and again another hour or so this morning. Even recorded and even having seen them before I was inspired and it felt GREAT!

I've been approved!

I got a call today from the shaliach. He called to let me know that he has gotten the approval from Israel approving my Aliyah. This means that all the paperwork I sent in was complete and now am ready to wait for the next step, my immigration visa. You can not apply for the visa until you are within 6 months of actually getting on the plane, so I can't even think about it until January. So, another bout of waiting, but one more thing off the list!

I also asked what if any issues I can expect because of the changes in processing after January 1st when Nefesh b'Nefesh takes on its new role in North American Aliyah. He basically said not to worry they will have a process for individuals that have already been approved. I'm glad I'm not going shortly after the changes, there will have to be a few new kinks that I'm sure will be worked out well before I'm ready to leave.

No news is good news?

Well I wrote the shaliach this week to get a status on my paperwork and he basically said it is still in process and they'll let me know when it has been approved.

I also wrote the Minister of Health in Israel to try and get things moving again on our business plan. The Keneset webpage for him states his languages are Hebrew, French and Arabic. So, I wrote him in English. I did put a a greeting and and offer to translate it to Hebrew in the beginning in Hebrew. It's been a couple of days and no response...

So, I guess no news is better than bad news?