So far so great!

Hello! I'm just about finished with my first week of work here in Israel, so I thought it was an appropriate time to check in. There has been so much that I wanted to share, particularly about my pilgrimage. But I also feel like I'm still processing things. I think my goal is to maybe share some photos and quick summaries of the places I visited while on pilgrimage, particularly for those not familiar with the area. So hopefully I get around to that soon.

Anyway, life is good :) I've settled into my apartment (I'm living with my friend Shaghayegh, for those who know her), and like I said, I'm almost finished with my first week of work. I really just dived in! But I was really excited about it too. It's strange being back in a work environment that is so familiar to me, yet so many of the people around me are different. But there are some familiar faces in the crowd, and I'm meeting also sorts of wonderful people.

So that's it! I hope all are well. And I promise to do better at keeping in touch :)

In Israel

My brother and I have made it safe to Israel! Our luggage... well, that's another story :) But it will be delivered to our hotel by tomorrow morning, so all is well - it's a good thing our mom taught us to have extra clothes in our carry-ons :)

So our travel was pleasantly not challenging :) We had a long layover in Chicago, so we took advantage of the time and went to see the Baha'i Temple for the the North American continent, which is located there. It was a really nice way to pass the time, and it was great to get out of an airport for a while.

Currently I'm sitting in the airport in Tel Aviv. We'll be heading into Haifa tonight, so we're just killing a little time before catching a shuttle. It feels great to be here, and I'm glad that we didn't get stuck somewhere along the way :)

Colin and I will be on Pilgrimage for 9 days. I don't know if I'll be updating my blog during that time or not - I'll be sure to share some pictures at some point though.

I'm already missing you guys from home - I have a feeling that will be the case for the whole 5 months that I'm here. But I'm also really looking forward to all the adventures to come and to seeing friends here in Israel.

Shabat Shalom!