I have been waiting for this for so long -- for years -- and now there is not much time left to wait. The luggage is packed (for the most part), and I have plenty of things in my carry-on case to amuse me for the duration of the flight.

My turtles are at my friend's house, invading her living room, and my father and I just dropped Coco off where he will be staying these couple of weeks. For some reason, I keep thinking, "Hold on, where did the rest of my pets go?" And then I remember I don't yet have rats.

For some reason, I am anxious right now. I did not want to go to sleep yesterday, and was preparing things for the flight until around 4 AM. It's not that I think I won't be ready. I don't have much left to pack, and I still have the rest of today in which to do it. So I will be ready. But I still feel a bit like a shy person who's about to go onstage: nervous and sick.

I tried to relax myself yesterday by listening to music and watching a DVD. It did calm me down for a bit, and I was able to fall asleep after that, but now I am back to stressing. At the same time though, I am too excited for words. I feel as though I drank three cups of coffee and cannot settle down, except that I did not drink anything today besides for some green tea and Vitamin Water.

I was just looking through some lists of Hebrew words that I studied for Hebrew class in 10th grade. I think that most of the Hebrew I know is from that 10th grade class (for which I will have to thank my teacher when I see her in September). So I was reading these lists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and phrases, brushing up on my Hebrew skills so I can put them to full use in Israel, when I came across this little gem:
ישר ישר ושם תשאלי
The definition? "Israeli directions."

I seriously can't wait to speak Hebrew to everyone there. Sure, I'll anyway sound like an American with my accent and my limited vocabulary, but it would still be fun to put ten years of my education to good use and see how it works.

My mother said to me on Shabbat, "Can you imagine, this time next week we will be in Jerusalem?"

Well, I am imagining...

In less than 24 hours, I will be at Newark with my parents and all our luggage.

In less than 30 hours, I will be on an airplane, flying across the ocean.

In less than 36 hours, I will be in Ben Gurion, probably tired, but very excited.

In less than 40 hours, I will be walking on Israeli ground, breathing in the air of Israel.

In less than 48 hours, I will be standing in front of the Kotel, and when I thought about it last night, I could hardly believe it.

This combination of anticipation and nerves is not doing me much good now though.

I will have internet access in our apartment, hopefully, so I will be blogging. There are a few ways it can go, though: either, I will be so excited to share what I've seen and experienced that I will post almost every single day (with photos), or I will be so busy actually living that I won't even bother blogging, or I will do something in between those two options. Let's see what happens.

I will also be writing a lot on the plane and working on some blog posts I've been wanting to make for quite a while, so once I get to our apartment, I might post that.

I might post again tomorrow, before we leave. I don't know. Maybe. (Another thought: do they have wireless internet in airports?)

But wish me a safe flight now anyways. :]