A Motzei Shabbat Miracle

Before leaving for bowling I emailed Bezalel. Less than 5 hours later I received a reply with 2/3 of my questions answered! Maybe there is hope for them yet!

As Promised

I have come to the conclusion I don't really need to rank university's based on their helpfulness. General rules work just as well.

Rules for determining the amount of help you will receive from an Israeli institution when attempting to apply:

1- The further away a university is from the center of the country the more helpful it is. EX: Ben Gurion which is in Beer Sheva is really helpful whereas Hebrew U is really unhelpful.

2- Programs created for Chutznikim have more helpful administrations. Probably because they have higher tuition. I would assume IDC Herzaliya is more helpful than the average mercaz university for that reason as well. It is a private university and therefore costs a lot more than most schools.

3- The harder it is to get into a program, the harder they make your life when trying to apply. EX: Bezalel is really hard to get accepted to and drive you mad just trying to apply, most schools are not that insane.

Basically, if you are applying to university start early. Yes, the application isn't due for a million years, but still they are all crazy there! Why do I want to make aliyah again?

The Wiz

How in the world have I never seen the movie The Wiz? It is a Motown version of the Wizard of Oz starring Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow and Diana Ross as Dorothy. Seriously, who wouldn't want to see that? I mean the flying monkeys are known as Funky Monkeys!

Ok so the connection to aliyah comes with the song "Ease on Down the Road" by Michael Jackson. I was listening to it today and for some reason- maybe the immense amount of traffic- I started to pay attention to the lyrics. They seemed very appropriate for my life as it stands. Here goes..

'Cause there maybe times
When you think you lost your mind
And the steps you're takin'
Leave you three, four steps behind
But the road you're walking
Might be long sometimes
You just keep on steppin'
And you'll be just fine, yeah


Watch Ease On Down The Road - The Wiz (1978) in Music Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

And no, I have not forgotten about my rankings, those are still coming.

In Motion

Things are really in motion. I have finished my Nefesh B'Nefesh paperwork. I do still have to mail in three passport photos but I am going to get those done this afternoon after I get a haircut. If you are going to get your picture taken do it right :)
In addition I have the applications to all the grad schools I am applying to, and I still have a few months until deadlines for those. I actually need to order a few more transcripts and I also have to go into the registrar at school tomorrow to get three copies of a letter that I have been approved to graduate. All that's left for me at this time is to get back to class. That will hopefully happen on Monday. Actually, Monday I am having gum surgery, but I never have Monday or Tuesday class so I will give them until Wednesday to figure themselves out. Am I generous or what?

The question that remains is why does Bezalel love to torture me? Or rather, why am I putting myself through this whole application process again? Bezalel has always made me miserable and things have apparently not changed. I wonder if I get accepted and decide to go there if I will be equally as miserable as a student as I am as an applicant. I mean the people at Ben Gurion are super nice and the people at Technion are quite nice, why is it so hard for them? I am not asking for a best friend. Just a prompt answer to my emails. And an answer that actually answers my questions! Those university ranking dudes should add a new category to their rankings- "helpfulness during the application process." Actually, at this point I have considered applying to every university in the country except Haifa so I am in a pretty good position to do some rankings myself. Stay tuned...

Happy Birthday to Me!

First I would like to thank Dalton McGuinty for the back to work legislation. A couple months late but welcome nonetheless. It was a good birthday present. I mean it wasn't ice cream, but I will take it.

Next, I would like to thank my friends for an awesome night. Especially Ezra and Chaim- you guys sing like angels :) I am gonna miss you all so much next year!!!!

With the end of the strike looming I really have to get my act together. My NBN stuff is almost done, but I haven't even started my grad school apps and my portfolio is far from ready. I also have to start talking to profs about reference letters. At least graduation looks like its happening!

I feel like the entertainment factor has gone down in this blog- I need some drama. Actually, I would rather not have drama. I think the strike was enough!

15 more minutes...

In 15 minutes I will be 23. My Israeli friends have already started celebrating (of course by that I mean posting "happy birthday" on my facebook wall). It seems almost surreal that I have made it to this point.

Turning 22 I was in a bit of a funk. 21 was pretty epic and I knew I would be graduating and making aliyah at 23. 22 seemed a bit anti-climactic. Yet I have made it through 22, it was quite good actually, and have finally reached the year I have been waiting for.

Once the clock strikes 12 no more messing around. I have to get the final bits and pieces together for Nefesh B'Nefesh and I have to get my grad school apps in.

And York, for my birthday all I ask is you end this strike and let me graduate!

Now for a weird story. I have been emailing back and forth with someone who works for the department of communications at Ben Gurion. In her first email to me she referred to me as Narmina. I get Marina a lot but never Narmina. Then in her next email to me she sends me the contact info of a student in the program names Narmina. No, there is no point to this story. It was just strange.

Happy birthday to me!!!!!!!!!

My curse....

I feel like my entire aliyah process has been cursed. From day one, which was a long, long time ago. I mean no one ever led me to believe it would be easy, but I was under the impression the difficulties would begin once I got there. I guess what I am trying to say is if York doesn't let me graduate and I am stuck in Chutz La'Aretz for another year... I really don't know what I will do.

Please vote yes...

A New Plan C

After starting a GMAT practice test last night and giving up after 6 math questions (I only got one right) I decided maybe it was not worth it to kill myself over plan C. True, I would have no problem with the test if I decided to put some effort into studying for it. I was always good at math I am just out of practice. Yet why kill myself over something that I don't really want to do? Also that time would be much better spent focusing on my plan A, Bezalel and getting together a portfolio.

My new plan C is an MA in communications at Ben Gurion. So, exiling myself to the desert for 2-3 years is a pretty intense idea, but it is better than Toronto. On top of that everyone I know who has gone (is attending) Ben Gurion loves it. And the woman I emailed there emailed me back right away and in Israel that is one in a million. The program there sounds really good. It is all innovative and interdisciplinary and I really think it will get me thinking.

The grad school roster as it stands:
First Round Draft Pick- Mdes in design management at Bezalel (Jerusalem)
Second Round Draft Pick- MSc in industrial design at Technion (Haifa)
Third Round Draft Pick- MA in communications at Ben Gurion (Beer Sheva)

Sigh...

I really must be crazy to want to make aliyah. I mean to live in a country that could not sustain an IDEO office kind of depresses me. IDEO is probably the most successful design firm in the world. Though categorically an industrial design firm they do everything. Their founder David Kelley likes to think they sell design thinking rather than design. They had an office in Israel from 1998 - 2001 it's founder says it was closed because Israel was not ready for that kind of thinking. In Israel they think short term rather than long term. It is all about survival there. After learning about the closure of IDEO in Israel it suddenly makes sense why all the Israeli brand agencies aren't really brand agencies but are corporate identity design studios.

This kind of worries me. If IDEO could not survive there that does not give me much hope for the kind of design work I want to do. After all I want to be a brand strategist and design management consultant. I want to teach people how to use design thinking to enhance their businesses. I want to turn Israeli companies into international brands.

I know there is huge potential in what I do. I know I have what it takes to transform Israeli industry. I just don't know if Israel is ready for that.

On a more optimistic note the Israel Community of Designers started "Designed in Israel" in 2007. If you read the catalog from "Designed in Israel" 2008 you can see how Israel is starting to open up to the idea of design. I just hope it is enough.

This just gives me another reason to want to go to grad school. It gives Israel two extra years to get ready for me and my design thinking.

The Price of Israel Advocacy

I really hope this strike ends soon and I get to graduate because at the rate things are going I won't have any friends left in school by June.

30.8%

I am officially 30.8% done my Nefesh B'Nefesh application. This means I have slightly less than 70% to go. Being that I started studying for the GMAT yesterday I should probably be able to give you the exact percentage without thinking about it. Right...
I still don't even know if I am going to take the thing. I have recently come to the conclusion the only MBA program in Israel that offers me what I want is at IDC. And it's all for the low low price of $27,000! I know that isn't a lot for two years of school, but it is a lot more than free... Let's keep our fingers crossed for Bezalel or Technion shall we?

Back to NBN though. I know they are trying to streamline things with the Jewish Agency, but it's all very confusing. According to my Shlicha I am approved for aliyah until September 2009. According to some lady I spoke to at NBN your approval is only good for a six months instead of the year I was promised. Make up your mind people! The Jewish Agency here wasn't very happy with what the NBN woman told me... I hope I don't get anyone in trouble... Even if the woman was overly giggly and very confusing. In short, I just want to be done with all the paper work. Of course when I am done with all that paper work I still have grad school apps and the student authority stuff to fill out. "Ah the sweet cycle of bureaucracy!" If only I could bring Hermes Conrad to life and have him do it all for me...

Get Me Out of Here!

Back in high school I was all radical and politically minded. I loved rallies and demonstrations. I wrote letters newspapers. I wanted to be a journalist. I even started a 1 person anti-Model UN club to protest religious Jewish schools legitimizing the organization that time and time again condemns Israel.

I have mellowed with age. These days I just want to live my life and not listen to all the shenanigans that go on around me. It isn't that I don't care about what happens in the world, I have just become jaded. I don't think I have the power to do much of anything.

Recently it has become really hard. With what is going on in Israel all of these anti-Israel posts have started to pop-up in my facebook feed. I mean I am all for diversity and difference of opinion but it is so hard to be friends with people who think of my people as a bunch of blood thirsty killers! I can't stay silent anymore, so I don't. I argue with people who will never see it my way and probably think I am a pro-war psychopath.

I just have trouble thinking of myself as friends with these people now. Which is sad because if it weren't for some of them my university experience would have been a complete misery. I mean some of these people are just casual friends but others are people I am legitimately friends with. The most upsetting part is that they really aren't even anti-Israel. They rightly so think the situation in Gaza is horrible- they are just placing the blame on the wrong party. No matter who has more casualties Israel is the victim. They just don't and never will see that.

I need to get out here. I need to surround myself with like minded people. I know hiding isn't the solution. I know it is the easy way out. But living in Chutz La'Artez surrounded by bleeding heart liberals isn't the solution either.

Honestly, I would just love to get to Israel and re-brand the government and Tzahal and pump up their PR and allow the world to see us for what we really are.

My Thoughts Exactly

Over the summer I was asked the question, "what is your favorite thing about Israel." My answer was Tel Aviv and how it is a real city with a lot of great design studios. A friend of mine was horrified that I answered that. To him it seemed almost heretical that my favorite part of the country could be something so secular.

I tried to explain to him that that's exactly why it was my favorite thing. That Israel with all it's history, and meaning and holiness was still a real place. It isn't some biblical fantasy land to which I can't relate. It isn't that I think design firms are more important than 2000 years of history and a promise from God, it is just that I think that the modernization of the land of Israel symbolizes continuity and God's delivery of those promises.

I write about this today because a friend gave me the exact words to express my feelings:
"I have fallen in love with corporate Israel, its exactly like corporate America but everyone also speaks Hebrew!"

Thanks Chaim!

So Many Options?

Call me a nerd if you want but I love school. I mean so what if there is homework? You get to hang out with friends, learn stuff, experiment and your worse case scenario is failing. On top off all that the economic climate these days isn't too hot and finding jobs isn't so easy. That all in mind, grad school seems like a much better post-aliyah plan than trying to find work. Problem is, I know exactly what I want to do with my life (start my own brand agency and design management consultancy) and exactly what I want to study to help me do it. It's a problem because in Israel you are fairly limited in your choices when it comes to graduate education.

There is exactly one program in the entire country that fits the description of what I am looking for as far as a masters program goes. That would be the Mdes at Bezalel. They have a design management stream where i could learn all sorts of wonderful things like branding, creative direction and sustainable design practices. The thing is I don't have very good luck with Bezalel. True I am no longer 19 and without any formal design training, but I was optimistic last time as well. Applying again is scary enough with a backup plan, forget about without one.

So what to do?

Originally I had thought to apply to do an MFA in film or photography or something. Photography went out the window when I visited Bezalel's MFA exhibit and realized everything there was mindless junk- I couldn't handle art. Film school was out when I realized I just wasn't that interested in film.

Another idea I had been toying with was an Entrepreneurial MBA. Not only does it sound impressive but I do plan on starting my own company and helping people run theirs. Problem with that is other than entrepreneurship I would probably be really bored in business school. Not to mention I haven't done math since grade 12 calculus and don't know how I would handle the GMATs (although I have been assured I would be fine). Two days ago this idea was out- now I am considering it again. I really should just go down the street and take my friend's GMAT books already and stop speculating.

Idea three is a masters in communications. Communications just seems like one of those silly degrees that gets you no where though...

My new discovery for the day was Technion's MSc in Industrial Design. Not really going to help me with branding, but it seems really interesting and the course work seems like it could turn me into the next Maya Lin. (Who, for those of you who don't know, was a 20 something Asian girl who designed the Vietnam Memorial. There was a huge amount of controversy over the choice of her as the designer but the memorial was wildly brilliant.) I have basically decided as long as they would be willing to accept me with a graphic design degree I will apply. Which is funny because I had been bugging my friend who is on the same aliyah time line as me to choose Jerusalem over Technion and just when he does I start thinking of Technion. Either way Bezalel is still my first choice.

Now that I have thought this all through I just need to get my act together and start applying!

Saturday Night

For some reason Saturday night is prime time for my Zionist ranting and raving. Maybe it's cause I don't handle monotony well and it's the same people and same activities every week. I feel like it has to be something more though because for the past two weeks while I was in Israel I was with many of the same people doing many of the same things but no ranting and raving. Maybe it is because during the week I sit at home in my room and have no one to rant to. Either way no matter how sane I am during the week it all comes out Motzash.

This week for example I was at Marky's restaurant with the whole chevra and as we were leaving I look outside at the insane amount of snow and make one of my usual comments about how I don't know why anyone lives in this country.
The owner of Marky's says to me something along the lines of the weather is bad but Toronto is a great place for Jews to live.
I reply I hate it here. "It's cold and snowy and Canadians are too passive."
He says "passive is good," to which I reply "not when we are getting walked all over by anti-Semitic bastards!"
This conversation goes on for a while and then he says, "Toronto is better than NY and LA and Cleveland and you know why?" I answered, "because we have Marky's!" We high-5 and thus ended one of my weirder I hate Canada conversations.

At least I didn't manage to alienate any friends this week.
Can't wait to see what is in store for me next Saturday night.

Back Story

I figure if I am going to take this aspect of my life public I should do it right. While there are many people out there who know my story there are many more who don't.

I have pretty much always wanted to make aliyah. While I would have loved to do it right after elementary school my parents were not about to send their 14 year old daughter off into the world on her own. Since that was out I figured that post high school I would spend a year in an Israeli midrasha and never return to Toronto. Not only did I know I wasn't coming back but everyone else knew it as well. In high school when our grade 12 Torah teacher told the class he always had the most Zionist person in the class read the first Rashi of the Torah my class voted it was me. Israel has always been such a huge part of my identity.

I am not this crazy spur of the moment person many people think I am. I had everything figured out. I applied to an Israeli midrasha to improve my Hebrew and ease into the whole Israeli social setting. I had figured out what schools to apply to in Israel and made sure I had the proper requirements. I even altered my career goals to match Israeli industry (I wanted to be an automotive designer but since there is no auto industry in Israel I figured I would major in industrial design, minor in mechanical engineering and do ergonomic design for Tzahal). I had backup plan on top of backup plan and knew I couldn't fail.

I applied to four different design programs in Israel and archaeology and Talmud at Hebrew U. Since I got into two extremely competitive design programs and two archaeology programs in Toronto I figured there was no way I wouldn't get into something in Israel. Yet, after a grueling application process, I mean I didn't sleep or eat or breathe for a few months, I got rejected from each and every one of the design programs I had applied to.

I was then left with what has remained as the most difficult decision in my life. I could stay in Israel and study archaeology and Talmud or I could return to Toronto. As much as I didn't want to go back to Canada I knew it was the smart decision. Archaeology is interesting but it means years and years of school and never having a steady income. Life is expensive, especially if you are a religious Jew and especially if you live in Israel so having a real career is important. On top of all that I love design and I know it is what I was meant to do. I don't believe in compromising on what you want in life and I knew there was more of a chance for me to have both Israel and design if I went back to Canada for my degree and then made aliyah than if I stayed in Israel and maybe one day reapplied to design school.

I decided to go back to Toronto.

I cried for about it for days, my mom cried about it for weeks (she wants me there as much as I want to be there), but what choice did I have?
I knew it was only four years and I knew I wouldn't lose sight of what I wanted. People kept saying to me "I know you will make aliyah when you are done... unless you get married to someone in Toronto." I told them that that wasn't going to happen. Of course then they give you one of their silly little condescending smiles, but I showed them- I haven't even gone on a single date outside of Israel. When I decide I want something I do everything in my power to get it.

It has now been three and a half years. I have had low points, but no matter how bad it has gotten I have never regretted my decision. It was the right one for me. I love what I am studying and can't imagine doing anything else.

Over the past 3.5 years I have lived almost a double life getting to Israel every chance I get. I have done internships there, looked into grad school there and pretty much started to build a life for myself there while phasing out the one I have here. I actually have exactly 176 friends on facebook in the York network and 176 in the Israel network so you can say I am 50/50 now. On my recent trip to Israel I even brought a duffel bag with me that I left there for when I make aliyah this summer.

That is pretty much my story as it stands now. Long as it is I have left many wonderful anecdotes out but I guess I have 6 months of blogging to slip them in somewhere.

Why I started the Aliyah Blog

I recently returned home from a trip to Israel. Upon my return I posted the following note on face book:

On my recent trip to Israel the following thought/question formed in my mind:

I have wanted to make aliyah for pretty much as long as I remember. I mean I have wanted out of Toronto since elementary school. My parents were never going to send me away for high school, but I knew that once I graduated I would go to Israel for the year and never come back. You know what they say though, "man plans and god laughs." I must be very funny because after being rejected from four different post-secondary design programs in Israel I had the choice of staying in Israel and attempting to follow in the footsteps of Indiana Jones or return to Toronto and pursue a design education there. After a complete emotional meltdown I decided to follow my head rather than my heart and I returned to Toronto. Coming back to Toronto was crazy difficult for me. Besides having to deal with the rejection and failure there was this nagging feeling that something would cause me to get stuck here. After those feelings passed I was left facing four years living a double life partially in Toronto and partially in Israel, constantly traveling back and forth between the two.

But most of you know all that already. So here comes the question.

I have spent so many years of my life diverting so much emotional and physical energy into trying to make aliyah, what is going to happen when I finally succeed?
IY'H I have only six months left in Canada. After that it will be like I have suddenly lost my entire raison d'etre. What then? I mean yes I have other goals besides living in Israel and I can channel that excess energy into those other avenues. Or maybe I can allow myself to live in the moment for a bit instead of always planning and looking towards the future. Either way I am interested to know what my mental state will be like when the time comes.

The note generated a fairly good response so I may as well share more of my pre-aliyah experiences and thoughts with anyone who is interested.