Pack Mules

I decided to start my blog of my trip to Israel early to include preparing to leave for the big trip.

Maor is obviously very excited to go because he hasnt seen his family in 2 and a half years. We will be there for Purim (a big party holiday, like Halloween in the US), Passover, and his birthday so not only does he get to show me his country and family for the first time but he gets 2 holidays where he can stop saying "you should see how we do it in Isreal" and of course his birthday with all his family and friends for the first time in years.

Im excited and nervous. This will be my first trip out of the country without someone in my family and I wont be following a tour. I get to experience not only the touristy "must see" places but the real Israel as a local because we will be living there for a month and a half.

In preparation for our departure Maor has been shopping for his mom and sisters. There are certain brands in the US that Israel doesnt carry (Victoria Secret, Adidas, Hollister, ect.) so Maor was asked to bring back shoes, perfumes, cloths, and bathing suits.
I havent been much help with this because I hate shopping for myself so I cant see myself shopping for someone else and coming up with items they would like. Im a minimalist. I dont do fashion forward.

Today Maors cousin reached out to me on facebook and asked me to find something I can actually shop for, a very specific brand of organic air fresheners. She asked her brother to get them for her (hes in the US, and lives about a block away from us right now) but he doesnt want to bother with it. Im more than happy to get these things for her mostly because it will prove that Im not totally useless on the shopping front and hopefully score me some brownie points in my new family.

After agreeing to bring her 3 of each of this specific brand I started going over what I want to bring, what Maor will probably want to bring, and extra bag fees.
....we are definitely going to have to do some rethinking of what to take with us on this trip or we will end up looking like we are moving instead of visiting.

My goal this week is to separate our things into piles of "taking to Israel" and "leaving behind" because on the way back up to catch our flight we will be doing so much driving and visiting so many people that I think our stress would be down sized if we could just drop the extra baggage and go instead of sorting through it last minute.

Just 12 more days till our flight takes off!

Side note: I named this blog Yafeh Israel because yafeh is Hebrew for beautiful. Every time I ever mention to someone that has been to Israel that we are going the first thing they say is, "Its so beautiful! You will fall in love with it!"