I'm drinking green tea to calm me before the storm and settle my stomach after eating kosher chinese for dinner. I leave tomorrow morning for Israel. There's been so much to do and so many people to say goodbye to; I think that it won't hit me, what I am doing for the next six odd months, until I am on the plane (though the last month at home can be accurately summarized as leisurely wake-ups, reading books on the couch, and sweatpants).
For the record, the idea is this: to go to Israel. To go to Jordan and Egypt. To go to Morocco. To go to Spain, France, Portugal, and England. Or something to that effect. Nothing is planned really except for a one-way ticket to Tel Aviv, and an all-expenses-paid 3-week stay at a yeshiva.
Paul Bowles wrote in the preface to one of his short stories collections, "Each time I go to a place I have not seen before, I hope it will be as different as possible from the places I already know."
Amen.
