Flight Booked - Itinerary

My favorite travel agent, David at the Flight Centre, has booked me into a round trip ticket starting from New York. Visiting my home-gurls Nomi and Maria...such wonderful open-hearted native New-Yorker's that always look on the bright side of life. After 5 days of living it up in NYC and checking out Nomi's new digs, I'll head off to Tel-Aviv via a connector flight from Philadelphia and Frankfurt (1 day stopover). Upon 'safe' arrival in Tel-Aviv, Israel and subsequent kissing the ground at 3:20am (May 12th), I'll stick around until sunlight and make my way to Jerusalem (45 min) from there go through the military checkpoint on the way to Nablus in the West Bank. I will be in Nablus for seven weeks with Project Hope until June 29th, and hope to spend valuable time with my dear friend Najat, who will be celebrating graduation and the turning point into her Masters of Journalism. If I am lucky, I will do a weekend trip to Jericho, Jordan. Upon departing from Nablus at the end of June, with my precious memories of the talented art students I am sure to encounter, I will make my way to Jerusalem for a one month summer course at Hebrew University. During this time, I hope to visit my dear friend Meron in Haifa and her parents for Shabat dinner (Friday) in Tel-Aviv....beautiful, open minded people. I hope to visit the Dead Sea and the historical place of Masada during my stay in Jerusalem. Once the course is completed, I will make my way across the Egyptian/Israeli border into Sinai, then Cairo and Alexandria. From Alexandria, I will find a boat service to Greece and make my way to Rome for home. The month of August is not work or school related and hopefully will be a joyous adventure...

(Flights: Toronto-Phili-NYC-Phili-Tel Aviv...bus... Rome-Toronto)

Hey everybody, so it's the beginning of April and my departure is 5 weeks away. Excited to meet the children of Nablus and get to know all about thier lives, I have built a fundraising site to for the program "Graphic Novels of Nablus" where you can read all about the details and donate. Go to http://nablusnovels.givemeaning.com . The program is held through the grass-roots organization Project Hope (www.projecthope.ps) which employs mostly Palestinian staff and hosts a variety of projects. Living under occupation can be duanting and having little access to the outside world can make anybody feel isolated and forgotten. My project will only try to build bridges and help develop needed skills but I expect a long-lasting effect.