Two weeks and counting...

I have a crush...

YES! Yes for cripes' sake, yes I'm still going to Israel for grad school in two weeks. I sincerely and totally appreciate everyone's concern. But I'm still going. The campus, I've been assured, is safe. The fighting, for now, is in the north. And classes are going on as scheduled. The food in the dining facilities, meanwhile, is another matter. I'm actually more worried about how I'm getting utterly and totally screwed on financial aid by the school. "Plunder the North Americans for all they're worth," the school is probably saying. Nice.

The falafel better be worth it. And yea, the education too.

So August 6...I'm out. Off to Jerusalem. Am I scared? No. Am I nervous? Yes, but in the "first date with the girl who you've been crushing on for a long time" kind of way. The kind of nervous where the potential for the pot of gold at the end of the tunnel is tangible and true. And if it doesn't work out, at least you can say you tried.

I have a crush on Israel. A really bad crush. A crush on the way she acts, on the way she moves, on her toughness, on her vulnerability, on the kind of place she wants to be one day when she is finally allowed to grow up. And, my god, is she beautiful. She's beautiful when the beads of sweat tickle the top of her forehead in muggy Tel Aviv. She's beautiful when a gentle wind sweeps through her hair in the valleys in the north. She's beautiful when the moon draws a mischievous smile from her on a cool dessert night.

Maybe she'll like me back. I'll find out soon enough.