For a change, Julia and I are on the move. We’re back up in the north of the country, though this time we’re with HUC on one of the three “tiyulim” (trips) that they organize for the students. Today we stopped in Caesarea, then Tziporiya, and now we’re at the hotel in Tiberias. Unfortunately, these are all places that I have been, and the information we received at each of the places did little to supplement what I already knew.

Much more exciting than the learning we did today was the fact that I was able to use the time on the bus to get some work done. This laptop has become an invaluable tool that I can’t imagine how I did without. At this point, I think I’ve done work on just about every major mode of transportation except for a train. Perhaps I’ll take a trip by train to Tel Aviv in the near future?

The last few days have been filled with the joys of graduate school. I have been hard at work trying to clean up my essays, prepare for the GMATs, and update my resume so that I can complete my applications before the January deadlines. In an ideal world, all my applications will be in before I leave Israel on January 2nd. Before then, I need to tackle the GMATs, which I will be taking on Monday afternoon. I took a practice test yesterday and scored fairly well, so I’m hoping that serves as a good sign for what will come next week. Nonetheless, if you have some extra luck you can send my way on Monday, please do. I can use it.

Beyond that, we’re also starting to prepare for my mom and Peter to come in next week (if you’re reading Julia’s posts, you know that next week is her sermon as well…just a few things going on). She’s stocking us up with Swiffers for the next few weeks until we can get home and buy out whatever Costco has in stock. We’re also trying to plan a few adventures for while she’s here. Unlike Julia’s mom, she is not staying with us as she is participating in a program called Sar-El. This program offers lucky folks from North America the opportunity to bring themselves over to Israel to volunteer on Israeli army bases. Now, for those of you who know my mother, you know that this isn’t typically her cup of tea. Nonetheless, she is bravely going along with this in the hope that she won’t have to call me in the middle of the night to come pick her up (which I can’t really do anyway because I have no car). So we will be spending time with her and Peter during their weekends off, and for a few days both before and after their program.

We’re about to head to dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Kinneret (or Sea of Galilee), so I’m going to go get ready. Have a good one!