So it begins- preliminary stuff

Welcome. If you got the email about the blog, this post is basically the same, though the last paragraph is different and therefore worth reading. So just skip there, the one that starts "This blog is in the beginning stages..."

As most of you already know, I'm studying abroad in Israel next semester. I'll be there from the middle of January until the beginning of May. I will, of course, take lots of pictures of the many interesting things we will do and write at least a little about the many interesting places we will go. I plan on keeping this blog while I'm there ( and when I say "plan on", I actually will), and use it as a way of keeping some sort of constant communication with all you friends from the motherland.

I hope to write on this blog regularly--every day, if possible--but I have no idea how intensive the workload is going to be so I can't make any promises. The pictures are another issue entirely. There's really no way that I'm going to put all these pictures on the blog on even a semi-regular basis. It takes too long and there will probably be too many photos. I'll try to upload them as often as possible, but don't expect to see every picture I take.

Also- some (none of you, but others) have complained that you want to keep up with the trip and pictures, but think that getting on a blog everyday is too much work. If that's you, that's okay, there are ways around this. There is this cool thing called "Follow This Blog" on the right column on the blog web page, which you can do if you have a Google account, such as a gmail address or something. I think this will send all blog posts straight to your email, but I'm not sure. You can also click the "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" which does something, but I'm not exactly sure what. I think it at least makes it a bookmark. Finally, for you Facebook users, I've set up the blog so every post will automatically transfer to my notes Facebook. I can't tag all of you, unfortunately, so most of those will be untagged.

The blog is in the beginning stages, so it may change quite a bit over the next week. Just FYI. If you have any complaints about the format or other comments or critcisms (i.e. the title: it's lame), please leave a comment. You can just leave it under an anonymous name, but please put you name at the bottom so I know who you are. And I can't wait to start writing and adding pictures to this blog. Keep reading!