On a Jet Plane

Well my bags are packed and I’m ready to go….


I managed to fit all of my stuff into one backpacking pack, one MEC rolly bag, and one little backpack. This includes a fine selection from my personal library – trimmed down about 12 times. Those of you who know me well know that I can’t go to the corner store without bringing ample reading material (just in case!), so choosing what to pack with a weight limit required some discipline. I mean, how can I know that I won’t wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat reaching for...oh I don’t know…Camus’ The Fall or Biomimicry by Janine Benyus or Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolf?

But I digress

For the past month I’ve been just enjoying the lovely Indian Summer that’s blessed Toronto – for a city as big and built up as it is, you’d be surprised how easy it is to bike anywhere without even going on a road. Using the free bike map provided by the city, you can literally spend all day every day exploring new routes and areas, discovering treasures you’d never find in a car. But be that as it may, I’m just about finished floating down the lazy river. A person can only take so much vacation. Give me my paddle; I’m ready for the rapids!

It’s blowing my mind a little bit that in about 24 hours I will be touching down in Tel Aviv, hopping on a bus, and arriving at the Arava Institute about 1:00 a.m. on Friday morning. I’ll be met by the student life coordinator, shuttle my stuff up to my room, and hopefully catch some shut-eye before a big bike ride at 6:30 a.m. I hope I don’t get whole-self whiplash.

0 to 100 in 24 hours – I can’t wait!