Coreyoria World Tour

Well I just received a phone call from my tour group leader, David, which makes this whole thing feel a heck of a lot more official. That and it's nearing the time for my departure. Very early Thursday morning I am leaving for NY. Friday I have to have a personal interview with a woman from the Kibbutz Program Center before everything gets finalized and then I'll be assigned to a kibbutz. I'm kind of happy to not know where I'm going to end up. I think this adds an excellent element of excitement and intrigue. Next Tuesday, June 6, I'm outta here!

Also I'm proud of myself for remembering to call El Al Airlines to make a special meal request. Eating vegetarian in Israel sounds like it's going to be a breeze, especially due to Kosher dietary law. While I was wondering around the site, I checked the flight schedule information and the maps, etc. I thought that there would be a layover somewhere, but the flight goes directly from JFK to Tel Aviv. And whoa - the flight can last anywhere from 10 hours and 10 minutes to 10 hours and 25 minutes. That is one hell of a long time to be sitting in a plane. Here's hoping for some captivating in-flight movies. I'm bringing books and my ipod, too. Last summer I think my flight to Amsterdam from Detroit was around 7 hours and that wasn't so bad. Hopefully my tourmates will be full of good, stimulating conversation (or at least not be annoying).

I had a wonderful parting weekend here in St. Louis, thanks to the presence of some very good friends who were in town for the weekend, made surprise visits or are back in town period. Thank you guys! It made me feel like I am leaving on a very happy, positive note. It was great to see all of you - you made St. Louis one million times better for several days. :)

Now to go visit some fam and chill with my best bud before I take off. "Am I feeling nervous or apprehensive?" the masses want to know. Nope, there are some anxious butterflies, but I'm 100% psyched.

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Always,
Corey

Israel Outdoors offers this feature where friends and family of trip participants can sign up via email to recieve updates during the trip. I don't know exactly what these updates will consist of; they will probably be just locations and activities. Feel free to sign up if you want. My trip is: June 6-18/NYC/Quest/22-26[TL-38]. If you're going to sign up, make sure you've got that right or else you will be following someone else's trip through Israel. :)

The other thing (and the reason Blogger is so darn great) is that I can e-mail my blog entries in wherever, whenever to a specific e-mail address I have set up and they are then published as a post directly onto my blog. So I signed my blog up to recieve these updates and that way everyone won't need to personally sign up if they don't want to. I don't know what it will look or be like, I hope it works. We shall see.

Playing Catch-Up

Okay, so I obviously went to DC & NYC quite some time ago, but good things take time? Heh, anyway ... I finally uploaded the pictures a few weeks after my return, got them up online sometime soon thereafter, and am FINALLY posting about it. But I decided it would be easier if you just looked at my photos through Flickr. It's kind of like a photo story, more or less, when you watch the slideshow. Good times were had. When I visited Amy in DC, the weather was gorgeous and I was able to walk everywhere. The cherry blossoms were a bloomin' and we went ice skating and life was grand. I got to see a lot and walk a lot. DC gets two very enthusiastic thumbs up in my book.

I then visited Brendan in CT and we went to NYC for a few days. The focus was very much on vegan delights (i.e. food). You'll be able to figure that out from the pictures. We tried everything from vegan calamari and crabcakes, to raw sesame meatballs. Unfortunately the weather was crap, but we still tried to make the best of it. There are some great night shots of the skyline from the top of the Empire State Building.

And lastly, but not leastly I visited my aunt, uncle and cousins at their home and got to have fun spending time with them. Alas, I traveled back here to St. Louis and have been staying all too busy. I recently had my wisdom teeth removed and the recovery has proved quite rough. I'm glad I won't have to do it again. And that pretty much brings us to now.

And Now, For the Good Stuff

I am leaving in less than a month for Israel. You heard me right, kids - Israel. So amidst tooth pain and general overall insanity, I have been trying to read some books about touring the region. The fact is that I might never get through them, but I tried. On June 1, I'm going to fly back up to the Northeast to visit some family before I actually leave the country on the 6th.

The plan so far is as follows: to travel from June 6-18 with my Israel Outdoors group from Birthright Israel. Then when my tourmates return to Tel Aviv to fly home, I make my way to the Kibbutz Program Center where I discuss with them possible options for where I can volunteer. Then for the remainder of the summer I plan on staying and volunteering at a Kibbutz. Of course if things don't go as planned for whatever reason, I always have the option of changing my flight and returning home early.

I plan on trying to write a few entries in this here blog from Israel, but it honestly just depends on which Kibbutz I get placed on and if they have internet access. And that's pretty much it. I'm totally stoked!