Got it Nilly!

I will send you an email the second I fax it! Look! More exclamation points!

I will send you the names and phone numbers of all of your hosts, here, so you can give them to your parents in case of emergency they can get in touch with you.

P-C, I've been having too much fun with the price already.

Allyson, thank you so much! I have most of the names and details (yours was even on my visa application form), but not all of them. I should collect them all to one file and see whom exactly I'm missing.

My father started freaking out today about me meeting strangers from the internet, and I gave him a whole speech of "I wouldn't have even dreamed about doing anything like that had I not been completely sure that there's nothing to be afraid of". I guess it all becomes a bit more real to him, as well.

P-C, I've been having too much fun with the price already.

13 + 23 = 1 + 32 + 3!

1+3+2+3=9! 9=3x3! 1x2x3=6! 1!1!!!!

...I can't do numbers above 10, but wanted to contribute.

Nilly! Serious question for you - Hil was telling me about the proper way to kasher my oven. If it's all right with you, I'm going via the traditional route (cleaning and then sterilising with kitchen blowtorch, one of which I do possess), rather than self-cleaning oven route.

Also, big question, are you OK with virgin olive oil?

sterilising with kitchen blowtorch

I'm not sure what that means. The way I know to make an oven OK for preparing kosher foods is to turn it on, in its highest temperature, when it's empty, for about an hour or so (after cleaning it, of course). That's what we did when we first moved in to my apartment, for example, to the oven that was already there. (Are you sure it's not way too much bother for you? Am I completely annoying in asking and re-asking this over and over again?)

are you OK with virgin olive oil?

Every product should have one of the kosher signs from the file that I've sent you (that Shari was kind enough to scan for me). It's the only way to make sure (to a reasonable extent) that the product is indeed kosher and that nothing un-kosher, in the lack of a better word, was done to it in the process of preparing it (sometimes, something that I can't even imagine, being completely ignorant in the subject of preparing all sorts of produts and the ingredients and the processes that go along with that).

According to this converting chart, I'm guessing that I'm size 3.5/4.

wow, um, tiny tiny feet. What's your Israeli size? I might be able to convert it to American for you. Of course,I didn't scroll back farther than 120 posts, so I don't even know why this was being discussed. (and it is shoe size, right?)

As for the kitchen blowtorch, should be fine, Deb (not to speak for Nilly). That's how we did the kitchen for Passover at Hillel. When I kashered my last kitchen, we did what Nilly described, turned the oven to 500 or something, empty, and let it run for an hour.

Another Kosher Kwestion for Nilly -- If a restaurant is vegan (using no ingredients that come from animals) could they still be non-Kosher?

Nilly, the highest temperature on my oven is the "self-clean" setting, which frankly terrifies me - you can feel the wall behind it heat up. Hil sent me a site link, which shows the procedure as basically cleaning it out, high temperature, then going over the interior of the oven itself with a kitchen torch, to make sure nothing remains that might not be kosher. So if we're OK with that, I'll get it done the day before you arrive, and then not use the oven for anything that isn't kosher for the rest of your visit.

Pretty sure I can easily find olive oil with the kosher symbol, but to be sure, I'm going to order some from a kosher supplier.

Onward and upward!

If a restaurant is vegan (using no ingredients that come from animals) could they still be non-Kosher?

I know this one!

Some Kosher-keepers will be fine with it. Some will not because there are a few things that could come into play (prepared on sabbath, stuff with greens, etc.). Nilly is one of the latter.