I am thinking it will be most interesting for me to go back to my arrival and backlog what I've done since then, rather than just jumping into the present. I'd love feedback on this though, since the first few posts won't be current as a result.
Anyway, for now I think I'll start with Logan Airport since that's where I pretty much stopped with any extensive contact.
So I left Mom and Dad at the security gate after the waitress nicely gave me a pass to use the first class line or whatever that was, and the terminal was just on the other side of the gate. After changing some money to get some New Israeli Shekels (aka shekels aka sheks... only heard that one a couple times though) I was waiting for my plane, decidedly unexcited to be getting back on a plane after my trip home from Auckland. I was also a little tense from not being used to flying alone, nevermind alone internationally. You'd think the trip to New Zealand would have helped, but I had met Steven and Nicole on my way to NZ through LAX, and the way back was just a domestic connection. I couldn't help but worry I was about to get on the wrong plane or something. It probably didn't help that in trying to make the aforementioned domestic connection, I actually forgot I was flying JetBlue and tried to check in at the Virgin America counter again, only to end up pretty confused for a couple minutes about why there was no longer a plane flying at 1:00. The JetBlue desk was 4 terminals away too. That stunk. Back in Logan, it wasn't helping that seemingly 2/3 of the updates were in French, and the rest were in very Frenchy sounding English. Yes I took something like 7 years of French, but unfortunately I still only speak un peu francais (eh? eh? not bad huh?).
At any rate I got on the correct plane and everything was on schedule. Before the plane even left the older woman next to me asked in very broken English if I could switch with her daughter who was 15 rows up the plane, because she was not very well and her daughter helps take care of her, yada yada yada I think she just wanted my aisle seat (her daughter had a middle seat). As if a middle seat wasn't bad enough by itself, I couldn't help but think of the hours Mom and I spent laboring over the computer trying to get these tickets, as all the strategic seat picking was about to get flushed away before the plane even started rolling.
So yes, I switched. I figured, "I'm heading to Israel, why not get the trip started off on the right foot by getting a little mitzvah in on the way over." I left my hiking pack jammed into the overhead bin (good thing nobody ever checked that I had avoided weighing that thing) and moved up. Otherwise the flight was pretty uneventful. I slept. I ate. I watched The Kids Are Alright, which I thought was going to be more of a comedy but it was actually pretty heavy. Still good though. The food was good, although I have to say I prefer Air New Zealand to Air France based on my limited experience on both. I had more room on the former (even before I moved into an open 2 seats on the way home), there were more movies to choose from, and I thought the people were nicer. New Zealand in general is definitely known for nice people, whereas France...
I didn't get to see any of Paris or anything fun like that; I made a beeline for my terminal and made it with a comfortable 3 hours to spare. I think I arrived at 6am local time, and my internal clock had essentially been rendered useless by this point after my stop in Boston coming home from my visit to Anna. If you've ever wondered what an airport terminal in Charles De Gaulle looks like at 6am, you're in luck!!
If you've ever wondered what I look like at 6am in Charles De Gaulle, you're in luck again! Sorry this one is out of focus, but I think I might start saying I did that on purpose and claim artistic license as I feel it reflects my state of mind at the time.
You can see I'm not too happy. And lastly, if you have ever wondered what Israeli shekels look like... you guessed it!
I was definitely bored (see above) and to make matters worse there was something up with the internet and I couldn't buy the time pass, only the flat-rate all-access membership for all the WiFi hotspots in France or something crazy like that, which would cost a few hundred bucks. I pre-wrote a bunch of emails and banged out most of my internet browsing in the ten minute free period that was offered. (I did the offer again on my iPod... hehe.) A bottle of water, a chocolate croissant, a little playing on the PlayStation 3 demo booth, and I was back on yet another plane, this one to Tel Aviv.
This was when I started to get the "I can't believe I'm actually flying to Israel right now" feeling. Seeing people arrive for the flight and hearing Hebrew everywhere, I had a much greater, more intense sense that I was flying somewhere foreign than I did in my previous trips to Europe. Or New Zealand. Although the Kiwis I saw and was listening to on the plane definitely provided an interesting experience too.
Anyway, another smooth, uneventful flight, this one relatively short by my standards at this point. And finalllyyyyyyy I land in Israel!!!! Yayy
As may be expected, landing in Israel is a bit of an experience, but I actually didn't find it to be too much trouble. Maybe it was the time or something. It was Shabbat now that I recall, so I'm sure that helped. The passport checking was crowded, but nothing outrageous. I definitely think the student visa helped me get through fairly easily. (Cameraphone pictures sorry... not too bad though.)
Shabbat actually is a very interesting and unique aspect of Israel. From Friday evening to Saturday evening many things shut down, some places more than others, but pretty much across the board busses stop, or mostly stop during Shabbat. This meant I had to take a taxi in from Ben Gurion Airport to Tel Aviv. (Cameraphone again...)
I guess the plus side of this is getting taken straight to the house and no chance of missing a stop or anything. The downside is instead of a handful of shekels for a bus, I had to pay 180 :(, or roughly estimating in my head, something around $50, which is definitely a lot for a cab here, but what can you do. I wouldn't be surprised if I got the tourist special deal on that one either... Mike's aunt thought it would have been more like 150 but I wasn't going to raise any trouble at this point.
So to wrap things up, I met up with Mike (my friend from college who is doing the same study abroad program, and had been in Israel for about a month prior to this point, working on a farm for a few weeks, then doing a week or so of traveling by the time I arrived) who was at his aunt's house, and it was nice to see a familiar face after all my traveling and a summer that was getting pretty long for me by the end (I feel that I should mention that yes I did just visit Anna, I don't want an angry email saying that I had just seen a familiar face...). His aunt was very nice and she let us stay the night there and even leave some bags as while we traveled for the next few days. This was amazing because I would have had to do something with almost 100 pounds of luggage otherwise. Mike was surprised I wasn't more tired, but I was able to hold my own with the sleep I got on the plane, and we walked around Tel Aviv for a couple hours in the afternoon before dinner, which was nice because I got to acclimate a little and get my legs moving again. Plus I got my first falafel here yayyyy!
Sometimes things here randomly remind you that you are in a Jewish country. For instance, I was very surprised when the sun set around 5:30. Turns out it is because they did their daylight savings earlier than Europe so that the sun would set earlier on Yom Kippur, which then makes the day of fasting easier for anyone observing the holiday. Crazy! They need to suck it up like us American Jews. Apparently the reception for this has been pretty negative, surprise surprise, and it might get changed to later for next year. I guess one plus side was we got to see the Tel Aviv beach at night, although in these pictures it is pretty dark and its hard to see the beach itself... look for the waves on the left side of the first one.
Wanting to beat my jet lag before it became a problem, I decided to stay awake, and Mike and I ended up meeting up with one of his sister's friends who she had met when she did her trip to Israel. We met him at 10:30 or so, and he took us around and showed us some of the different neighborhoods of the city, and some of the trendy nightlife / bar type areas. We stopped in one such establishment named... Lenny's, haha.
We didn't stay out too late, by Israeli standards at least (the area was really starting to fill up around the time we were leaving, I don't know how they do it). We went back and I got some much needed sleep, especially considering that we had decided to get up on the earlyish side the next day to begin our traveling, thus concluding my arrival into Israel. I will pick up the next post with my travels with Mike, but if it takes a few days to go up, remember that I have homework now. Consider it a nice time to reflect on post #1 and build suspense for #2.
Ok well please let me know what you think, I'll try to get the blog up to the present relatively quickly, but it will take a little time. I'm gonna keep playing with the look of the page and everything too so give me a day or so to work out some of the kinks with that. I'm glad I can finally talk to everyone and tell you what's going on, hope you like it! If you are so inclined, I think you can comment on posts and such within the blog itself, which might be a little easier than getting a whole bunch of emails (I think I'm flattering myself here...), but whatever works for you is totally fine. Enjoy!
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