Far from the charming thatched cottages and verdant valleys of her native country, Malka Liss sits in a noisy coffee shop in sun-baked Jerusalem. During the brief hours between her college studies and her job cleaning houses, she traces the steps in her decision to leave one small land for another.

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Growing up in a traditional Jewish home, Liss attended Sunday school until bat mitzva age. Though Cardiff, the capital, is the largest city in Wales, its 320,000 inhabitants include only about 200 Jewish households.

"There were eight people my age in my heder class," says Liss with a smile, "and one of them was my twin brother Joshua."

Her father had lived in Israel for a few years, and he wanted his three children - including Sarah, now 22 - to have exposure to Zionist ideals. So the Liss kids all went to England to attend Bnei Akiva camps when they were teenagers.

"In Bnei Akiva, aliya is one of the main values they push," says Liss. When she came to study at Midreshet Harova in Jerusalem after high school, she was already thinking about aliya. "Both of my siblings did the same. I think it's very hard for parents when their children leave, but they're very proud of us all."

ARRIVAL

Liss stayed at Harova for three semesters, going back to Wales in March 2007 to prepare for the move.

"There is no shaliah [aliya representative] in Wales, so I had to drive three or four hours to London to file my paperwork, but only once," she says. "I was able to do most things over the phone and while I was here studying."

Liss booked a seat on a Nefesh B'Nefesh group flight in July from London, along with a friend from Scotland and about 50 other new olim.

Because her brother Joshua was then serving in the IDF as part of the Mahal program for non-citizens, and Sarah had already made aliya, the Liss siblings caught the attention of the Welsh BBC. In the months leading up to Malka Liss's departure for Tel Aviv, a crew started filming a documentary, "O Flaen Dy Lygaid: I Wlad Yr Addewid" ("In Front of Your Eyes: To the Promised Land").

"They shadowed me beforehand and a reporter came on the flight with me. After we landed, they hired an Israeli cameraman and filmed us all a few more times." The documentary aired last December.

After arriving, Liss was headed to the Beit Canada absorption center in Jerusalem, but took a detour to accompany her Scottish traveling companion to an acquaintance's home. "Her friend had already gone to sleep and she couldn't get into the house and we didn't know what to do," recalls Liss. "We were calling everyone in the middle of the night and nobody was answering."

After that rocky start, she made her way to the absorption center in the wee hours, but stayed there just one month because she found it lonely. "I moved to Midreshet Harova and lived in an apartment as a graduate with some other girls. It was a nice apartment and a good environment. I worked in the kitchen there."

DAILY LIFE

Liss studied in Ulpan Beit Ha'am for five months, babysitting in the afternoons to augment her income. Then, following in the footsteps of her sister, who is studying optometry at Hadassah College, Liss enrolled in Taka, a special course for new immigrants at the same Jerusalem college. She moved from Harova to a dorm room in the Baka neighborhood on July 1.

"I'm studying Hebrew, statistics and computers," Liss says. "In the fall, I will be starting a three-and-a-half-year occupational therapy program in Bnei Brak. But I hope to come back to Jerusalem afterward."

She is financially independent, priding herself on the fact that she has never yet felt the need to ask her parents for assistance. "I was brought up to be very self-sufficient and that helped me," she says. She also is grateful for the first-year benefits for new immigrant that are offered from the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption.

THOUGHTS ON ALIYA

Liss readily admits that she's grown nostalgic for aspects of life in Cardiff, although that has not lessened her love of Israel.

"I'm very happy that I moved here. I know that in the long term this is where I want to live. But now that I've been here a year, and realize I will be here forever, I miss some things about Wales. It's a very green and beautiful country with lovely hills and valleys. My father likes houses, and we used to take walks and look at the houses. Living in Baka is a bit fun because of the old houses, although they are very different."

Mostly, however, she revels in the things she was never able to enjoy in Wales. "There was not one kosher restaurant," she says. "There was one shop that opens once a week for kosher food. Now I don't have to walk an hour to get to shul. And all my friends are here."

In addition, she feels that her practice of Judaism has taken on new dimensions since coming here to study.

"Before I came to Harova, I didn't have the foundation in emuna [faith] and mahshava [philosophical thought], the things that make you a Jew apart from Halacha," says Liss. "I think there's a big difference in how you practice Judaism outside of Israel. We never learned the reasons we do things. Something was missing."

THE ADJUSTMENT

"The most difficult part is my struggle with the language," says Liss. "I know I will have to study in Hebrew, and it will be so hard.

"Before I made aliya, everyone encouraged me but didn't explain that when you make aliya without your family, you're here alone and you don't have your parents' home to go to. You don't have them here to help you. For instance, I just moved and I didn't have their car available to me."

She advises others in her position not to hesitate to move to Israel, but to realize the implications of coming solo. "Make sure you get numbers of people to go to for Shabbos, and get yourself a group of friends. If you have friends in Israel already, keep in touch with them before you come because your friends become your family. But you have to have the confidence to call random people and ask for help."