This Year In [Ben Gurion Airport]

And now it's onto Israel.
I'll be flying into Tel Aviv tomorrow and hopefully placed on a kibbutz sometime within the next week where I'll spend the next two and a half to three months.
Where I'll be, I don't know.
What I'll be doing, I don't know.
But I'll definitely be somewhere in the [broken] promised land.
(Credit goes to Max Bemis, Google him)

This last leg of the trip is one I'm really looking forward to, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also looking forward to it because it is the last leg.
In some ways, I already feel very done.
I guess I could use the word accomplished, but it's more done than anything.
Done in the way a turkey is done: it's cooked through. It's not burned and it's not raw.
It's done.
I won't say I'm finished, because what the hell is finished?
Who's ever finished?
But I think I am done, or nearly done, and I'm eager to have some time in one place to collect myself.

Relatedly, I've been reflecting on the last 4 months of my trip lately and it just dawned on me just how much I've done;
I've done so much.
I've seen so much.
I've learned so much.

I think a big reason for that has been that I've listened, watched and generally experienced a lot more than I've spoken, which is a new thing for me.
It's amazing how much you can do/see/learn, and how many different types of people you can meet, when you're not running your mouth.
Not that I'm done running my mouth. Gimme a break.
But the fact is, sometimes, being a participant observer puts you in the best spot to experience what's there to experience.
Way to go, Bronislaw Malinowski!

Things I've learned:
-how to speak international English/how to curse in German and Swedish/how to incorporate the non-English speakers in a conversation so that no one feels left out
-how to gracefully bow out of the awkward conversation that results from incorporating non-English speakers after you've exhausted all of the German and Swedish curse words you know
-how to subsist on pasta, rice, white bread, carrots and peanut butter for 28 days straight
-how to pack a wet towel so that it does not mildew
-how to shower (including washing your dreadlocked Jewfro and shaving your legs) in cold water that drips from a hole in the wall that comes to your elbow at its highest point, for a week
-how to not get offended when people repeatedly tell you, "but you're so...you don't even look Jewish! I mean it!"
-how to [appropriately] offend overzealous English blokes when they fancy you a bit too much
-how not to absolutely lose it when you overhear your roommates discussing which of their stripper names (because they're all apparently strippers) are "too trashy" and which names are "too classy"

Things I've lost:
-super nice leather bound journal
-sleeping bag
-raincoat
-favorite Israeli flag Havaianas and 6 year-old naots
-shitty iPod headphones
-any sense of modesty when changing in 24-bed co-ed dorms
-countless loofas and toothbrushes
-maybe 5 pounds
-ability to metabolize tequila

Things I've gained:
-cheap cardboard-backed journal
-new sleeping bag
-new raincoat
-$3 flip flops with neon palm trees all over them
-new really nice headphones due to Tom's sweet Sennheiser warehouse job
-sensibility as to when it's appropriate to change in a 24-bed co-ed dorm
-countless loofas and toothbrushes
-at least 5 pounds
-ability to get free shots of gin*

*whether this only applies in the southern hemisphere remains to be seen

So, I'm back in Sydney for all of 48 hours.
Then I board my flight to Tel Aviv by way of Hong Kong then Istanbul.
Guess who's excited about spending the next two days in international airports!