Coreyoria World Tour

Call me a hippie ... but I found this incredibly amazing sounding, environmentally progressive kibbutz called Lotan. And if I can arrange to delay my return flight back and extend my stay in Israel, Kibbutz Lotan is where I want to be. Eco-building, organic gardening, sustainable living, massive recycling iniatives, birdwatching programs, veggie cuisine. Wowee! It's supposed to be in a gorgeous location in the Arava Valley, situated between desert and mountains. The website is incredible; I suggest you peruse. Hopefully I will be able to figure this out. It sounds too wonderful to pass up.

If you're reading this and you've ever volunteered on kibbutzim, I'd love to hear about your experience(s); please contact me!

I am one step closer to stepping foot in Israel this summer. After faxing the same document to Israel Outdoors three times and harassing them via phone on a daily basis, the ball is finally rolling. I am keeping my fingers crossed because I just don't feel like these people have their shit together. I never received e-mail confirmation like I was supposed to, but when I called again today, they must have had enough because they finally followed through with a phone interview. I think that's one of the final steps to being selected for the trip. They asked me questions about my heritage and about what Judaism means to me and the role it plays in my life. The woman also mentioned that I had top priority due to the fiasco last time around. I think everyone at the office is starting to know me personally. "Oy, that Corey ... she's calling again." I'm okay with that so long as I get to take the trip! Jeeebuz. Well who knew it would be such a trying process! I no longer feel like it's a "free" trip to Israel. I've had to work pretty hard to even get this far! ;-)

Peace.
Cor

Okay, kids! Here is the first Coreyoria travel update in many moons. The time lapse between now and then has one simple explanation: I haven't been doing any traveling or planned any trips. But! On February 8, days before my 22nd B-dizzle, I re-registered for the Birthright Israel trip through Israel Outdoors. I signed up to partake in the Israel Quest ... an adventure tour of sorts ... in the beginning of June. I'm trying to work it out to see if I can't find a kibbutz or something along those lines to volunteer at for a few months afterward. Anything to postpone reality and coming back to the Midwest, really. I applied for a job as a travel writer through this MTV/Frommers thing, but it's a real long-shot. What a dream job though, if it did pull through! So if everything works according to plan, which it should this time because I know that I applied properly and to all of the right places, then I shall embark on a trip of at least 10 days to Israel. I have never been anywhere in the Middle East. The thought alone can be terrifying if you let it, but I'm not one to let those fears get in the way of my life. I'm not going to purposely get in harm's way, but I also don't want to miss out on an experience of a lifetime. As a friend so morbidly put it, "If you die, what better place to be than the holy land?" And as my grandmother so aptly put things, "Just don't get involved with any Orthodox Jews!" Haha! I'm waaaaay too liberal for that!