To the Holy Land...and beyond!

Yes, dear friends, it's true: I'm leaving the land of fromage. Late next week, depending on the weather and my laziness, I'll bike or take the train to my "aunt" and "uncle's" house outside of Paris for Christmas. My sister and her husband are coming from Chicago for the fête! Then, on December 30th, I'll hop on a plane and travel approximately 53 times as fast as I have been by bicycle toward Tel Aviv.

As if the shock of speedy travel won't be enough, I'm going to spend two months in Jerusalem, whose biggest fans even call it a madhouse. My girlfriend, Kyle, is living there this year, playing the student card. Since I had already renounced my salaried position for the life of a vagabond, it seemed like I might as well visit. And if things don't work out so well, I'm sure there's a kibbutz out there that will let me participate in its utopian experiment. I even have farming experience.

My official plan, besides violating the strict "no guest" policy in Kyle's dorm for seven weeks straight, is to volunteer to write grants for an organization in Bethlehem that helps Palestinian kids. We'll see how the commute works out; it looks like it's about five miles, but there will be lots of machine guns and a passport stamp on the way. I'm convinced there must be a way to walk or bike it. Then again, I don't want to come home in a box.

Post-Israel, I will return to my beloved land of aceitunas, vino tinto, really sparkly shoes, and Almodovar. Tentative itinerary includes Madrid, Sevilla, biking up the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona, maybe Bilbao....and then probably back to Paris for a week in April. And then maybe I'll be broke.

Your input, please: If anyone has suggestions for where to go in Israel or Spain, or wants to meet me there, or knows of pottery I could check out in either place, or has ideas for how not to go broke, or wants to say anything else, relevant or not, let me know!