Dear all,

Today, I write my first blog post ever! The point of this whole blog venture is to share with you my notes from afar. This blog is here to keep you all in the loop and inform you of my daily thoughts and happenings. So welcome, all! I hope you take the time to read what I’ve written.  I would love to hear about your happenings back in the states, so please feel free to leave comments or to email me with your latest adventures at marissatjoseph@gmail.com

Here’s the plan: I leave on the first of February and travel with a fellow program participant from JFK airport to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. From there, we will travel to our quaint hotel, get to know each other and explore a bit of Tel Aviv. Hopefully we’ll pass out at night and awake bright and early the next morning to head up to the Kibbutz. We’ll have a full day of getting settled in before the program starts. The program begins on Friday the 4^th. I have absolutely no idea what it’ll be like out there, and I intend to keep it that way. In my opinion, it is better to have few expectations so that I am [hopefully] pleasantly surprised!

Here are a few of my generic, yet sincere goals:

-       Be [relatively] fearless

-       Be open-minded

-       Work my butt off!!

-       Have a great time!!

Seeing as dancing in Israel in some capacity has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember, I am completely stoked! I cannot believe it’s here! So, here I go to the land of milk and honey to get a taste of some of the hottest dance in the world! Get ready, Israel, here I come!

Xox, Marissa/ Mernie

PS: The photo on the background of the blog is one I took while last in Israel. It is from the Bedouin tents.