Gearing up for the cold

A week from tomorrow I will be on my way to the States, Connecticut to be exact, for the first time in a year and a half since I made aliyah. While I would agree that anyone in their sane mind would not visit New England in December, how can I pass up a week when almost everyone is on vacation, or can easily take vacation?

For the past few weeks I have been mentally preparing for the bitter cold that I had so quickly forgotten, digging out my hat, scarf and fleece gloves that have been buried for quite some time. Ariel is also very excited for the trip since he will see some of his family and meets lots of mine, but I don’t think he realizes how cold it really is this time of year. Well, he will learn quickly.

During the 10 days that I will be in the Northeast I will do a whirlwind tour of CT and Milford, MA with a one-day stop in Boston. Ariel’s sister lives in Milford; otherwise I wouldn’t put that town on the top of my list. Needless to say I am very excited for this trip. As luck would have it, good friends are coming in from all over and I hope to catch up with many people who I haven’t seen in a long time.

This will be the first time that I will be a visitor in the States and then come “home” to Israel. To American-Israelis who travel often, this detail is trivial and insignificant, but to me this is a bigger deal. I remember coming to Israel 3 years ago on a pilot trip- a trip that people take before they make aliyah to get things in order and make sure this is the right decision for them. On my flight back to the States I remember someone saying to me that this will be the last time that I will be leaving Israel as a tourist. Now as a citizen, I will happily leave Israel to visit my friends and family in the States, knowing that after my vacation, I will come back to my apartment in Tel Aviv and my daily routine in Israel.