I applied for this trip on a lark, because a friend sent me to the website and said “I’m applying, you should too.” I never thought I’d get on, because the competition at the time was intense. Remember, when I applied in 2000, the second intifada had only barely begun, and nobody had any idea of what would ensue – the years of fighting, the declining tourism situation to the point where the Birthright trips were practically begging people to sign up. No, at the time, everyone wanted to go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel, and when I applied, I figured I would never get it because I’d already been to Israel – twice in fact.
At first I was waitlisted. Then the “matzav” started to deteriorate in the fall of 2000, and I guess a lot of people dropped out because a spot opened up. It never occurred to me not to go, though my parents were a little worried. After all, it was Eretz Israel, and I knew how misleading the media could be.
No, the biggest hurdle for me was arranging to make up for the midterms I would miss. While the trip was planned to fall over Reading Week, I would still miss about a week of the semester, and at the time, that was a big deal.
Having been to Israel before, I’d already seen many of the major sights. But most of those, I saw when I was 13 years old. I was also in Israel at age 17, but that was more of a visiting-family-and-friends style trip. I was eager to go back and see everything with fresh eyes. Not to mention, having a great time while I was at it. But I was a bit apprehensive about the group travel thing. Never having gone on any kind of tour before, I didn’t know what to expect. How short a leash would they keep us on? Would we have to do cheesy group activities all the time? Would I be travelling with a bunch of obnoxious people that I couldn’t wait to get away from?
At any rate, the arrangements were made. I packed in a – I shudder now to think of it – massive duffel bag on wheels, that probably could’ve fit my entire wardrobe with room to spare. What was I thinking? But everyone else on the trip was packing in similarly oversized luggage. What did we know, we were a bunch of inexperienced travellers, most of whom could never imagine not having a “selection” of shoes to choose from. We booked our plane tickets from Montreal to Toronto, as the trip was Canada-wide and didn’t include transportation from the various cities to the t.dot. We promised our parents we’d call.
And we were off.