17 days

Yesterday I decided that maybe, now that I'm basically two weeks away from moving, I should look up all the bureaucracy I'll have to go through once in Schmisrael. And, guess what? Once I move, I have to do a lot of stuff. Stupid stuff! Stupid errandy stuff!

The one thing I hate most about growing up is all this paperwork and all these errands that come with getting a house, insurance, job, blah blah blah blah blah. It just clutters up my life with BORINGNESS. I don't want.

To deal with these shenanigans / shenaneries, I will make myself a good playlist on my pod, and listen to it while I wait to do different errands in Israel. I might even download more This American Life episodes to help me through these errands. Who knows? I'm crazy!

The This American Life tactic did work when I had to go on 20-hour bus rides in Mexico (though it worked less well on those buses when I was going on one hour of sleep, dealing with a hangover, and having to listen to The Golden Compass blaring out of the TVs in Spanish).

ANYWAYS, the point is that I am not excited for Israeli Errand Bonanza '09.

But, there are more important things to talk about today, namely that I found an amazing photo gallery of Nefesh B'Nefesh flights. Let me explain. I got a grant to move to Israel with Nefesh B'Nefesh, this private organization that gives $$ and help to joos to move to Israel. I have some qualms about this, but I needed the help and they had the resources, so I am going on one of their flights.

The thing about this organization is that many religious / ideologically motivated people go on these flights. They even kiss the ground when they get to Israel. And they wrap themselves in Israeli flags! It is out of control.

The closest thing I've ever done to kissing the ground is licking this pavement in a parking lot in Dallas. Abby, Matt Walker, and I were going to an Of Montreal show (when they were good!) but the highway was closed (WTF) so we just went to this tacky restaurant in the middle of nowhere and licked a parking lot. Well, I licked a parking lot. The worst part is that when we were stuck on the highway I really needed to pee (and we were stuck for 1.5 hours), so I was thisclose to peeing on the side of the highway. Sad times.

To see people of other people licking the ground--well, I guess kissing the ground, go here: http://www.nbn.org.il/gal2/. Okay, most of the photos are of people getting off planes, but believe me, there is ground-kissing involved!