Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Aliyah Update!



So what's doing? What's up? What exactly is happening with this crazy aliyah business? Have I seen the error of my ways and realized that moving to Israel won't solve all of life's problems?

Well, the current state of things is that all of my paperwork is at the Jewish Agency -- save a letter from my current rabbi, which is written but just waiting on a signature. D'oh. After this is submitted, I'm told, I'll be approved. What that means, exactly, I'm not sure, but I think it's a good thing.

So far I've sold off my TV, a bunch of books were sent into Amazon (which hopefully will result in the procurement of a Kindle with the funds earned), my POANG IKEA chair that was barely used, my yoga equipment and ... so very much more. Slowly but surely. I figure it's easier that way, right?

The upside is that local Goodwills, Arcs, and Disabled Veterans associations are getting all of my awesome crap. The downside is that, well, the truth is that used clothing and junk tends to create more of a travesty than a positive. Thanks to Stuff Mom Never Told You for enlightening me on this one. (And giving me oodles of guilt.)

I have yet to talk to Toyota about buying my car off me (and thus taking the loan away in a seamless process), or seeing if Sprint is going to make the cancellation of my phone a seamless process for me. I also need to talk to my landlord to see if they'll let me extend my lease through the end of October (if I get the October flight), so I don't have to clear out on October 1. Let's see, I think those are the big things, right?

Oh! If any of you have experience with having an entirely U.S.-based salary while living in Israel, please shoot me an email. I'm intrigued as to how that works -- both from the perspective of taxes as well as getting money from your U.S. account into your Israeli account if needbe. (Happy to have gotten more hours, which means more money, this week. Yay!)

It's the small things that will make my head explode in this process, so I'm trying not to dwell too much on them. Oh right, I should figure out what to do with my hamster, shouldn't I?

What left your head spinning as you made aliyah