Neve Eliza / Goals / Changes

This past shabbos I was in Neve Eliza (sic?) at my cousins. It was a pleasure seeing them as they are the only part of my (extended) family that has made aliyah in the past 20 years. (Excluding my great grandparents that made aliyah to Bnei brak for 6 months and then came back.)

It's always great to see the brave idealistic people living in the areas that are always being spoken about being given away. I was told Gaza was just as beautiful before it was given away. I can't imagine how they could every give away these towns. It is mind boggling. They are really a tight nit community too.

The prices on the houses in these towns are amazingly low. Supposedly the most expensive houses are in the $250,000 range. I can't say they match American homes in terms of size, insulation, etc... But for Israel they are gorgeous. We saw some really nice ones that overlook the border of the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe. I am really considering looking into purchasing one in one of these areas. WHEN there is peace, these properties will be worth at least double. (I guess I should stop valuing houses until I have the money to one first... And I also figure it would be pretty strange living in a giant house alone - although I think it would feel a bit like Al Pacino at the end of Scarface when he's protecting the mansion all by himself. And I could get a huge security system that I could watch all night. And get a huge gun collection. Yeah...

On another note... I am also considering stopping to blog (or stop blogging). Although it doesn't take that much time it takes some time and I have so little of it!
My list of personal goals for the year, in no particular order, continues to grow:
1) Perform my job to excellence.
2) Become an expert on the Israeli economy (and begin understanding Israeli politics to a greater extent)
3) Find a wife.
4) Improve Hebrew skills.
5) Pass the CFA 2 (this is more like a dream now).
6) Finish Baba Kama
7) Improve my knowledge in economics and finance
8) Start/support a non-profit organization of sort
9) Stay in touch with you guys back home

So as you can see, there I have a lot of ambitious goals this year and I am still trying to work on my time management skills. I am not sure how much this blog is really helping me do number 9 as I still find myself calling most of you and your like "oh sorry I haven't read your blog, so whats up..." And what I find really surprising is that my hit counter surpassed 500 unique hits this week. So clearly I am writing to a different audience than I intended a tad. I may continue to blog, but most likely change the format a tad - any suggestions let me know. And if y'all have any help on the above list of goals for this year it would also be much appreciated. (If someone would like to learn baba kama for me that would be very helpful as it is very long. When I made that a goal I thought it was only 2 artscroll books, but its 3!!!)

So I may be making a 10) Helping educate people about life in Israel and the Israeli economy, which will tie in nicely with 2. I will have to see how much time it really takes to write each of these blog posts. I may limit each post to 15 minutes of writing. We shall see.