traveling

Ahhh, the end of a very long day. Let me just say first off that I hsave been trying to blog ever since Trisha handed over the computer to me at the Louisville Airport. You had to pay for internet there, so that was out of the question, but I did manage to get online at the ATL airport during our 5 hour layover. Yes! Blogging! Or so I thought...I could get online, could check email and facebook (you know, the essentials) but I could not log into the blog nor my gmail. I'm assuming something was up with google. But now here we are at our hotel along the Mediteranean outside Tel Aviv and I can blog. Good.

So I am always a big fan of 1sts--the first time I do something new. I'm sure I'll have a few on this trip, but here are a couple so far. On the flight to ATL, I had my first ever alcoholic drink on the plane, courtesy of Jenny who sent me off with a tiny bottle of Maker's Mark. Nice. Getting onto the plane to Tel Aviv was the first time I had ever been strip searched...haha, no not really, we all got through easily. It was, however, the first time I used a bathroom on a plane. Go me!

A word about vegetarian dishes on Delta...apparently vegetarian means that you only eat healthy food. Now anyone who knows me knows that I obviously like non-healthy food. I mean, dessert has to have chocolate to satisfy me. So yeah, neither veggie meal came with any kind of dessert on the plane. Huh. Luckily I had some candy sushi to satisfy my sweet tooth! I'm not going to explain what that is b/c quite frankly, I think I've described it about two dozen times, including to the airport security when they searched my bag in Louisville.

The long plane ride to Tel Aviv wasn't all that bad actually. I dozed off a couple of times, not enough to constitute a full nights sleep, but not bad. I somehow managed to get seated b/t two people not on our trip with us, which was odd b/c most other people were by group members. The woman to my left was originally from Israel and is returning for a wedding this coming Friday at the Dead Sea. We had a few nice chats, so that wasn't bad. The girl on my right was literally on her cell phone until 2 minutes b/f the plane left the ground...apparently she doesn't pay attention when they say to turn off all electronic devices...

So the airport in Tel Aviv...nice place! Brandie was my buddy to get through the craziness. First stop: restroom. Though I had ventured to the restroom on the plane, that was only about 2 hours into the flight, so it was time to check out the restrooms in Israel! My mom will appreciate this...the handle to flush the toilets was near the ground. It was a foot flusher! What an excellent idea for public restrooms. I do that anyways, but it's easier here b/c you don't have to lift your foot to knee level. Ok, maybe I'm too excited about the little things. While Brandie and I were pulling off suitcases for the group (we're beastly women!) a woman came up to ask us for some help. She is from Israel but she was worried b/c she couldn't find her family. We grabbed her luggage for her and Brandie helped her out to find her family while I took care of exchanging money for Brandie and I and took our suitcases. Well somehow in all the mix the rest of the group went on and Elizabeth, Brandie, myself and another traveler who whishes to remain anonymous got seperated from everyone else. So there we are in the extremely crowded airport lobby with no clue where to go. Luckily we are four intelligent women, so we called Trisha up on her cell and found our way to the bus. So yes, within 10 minutes of being in Israel I got lost, but don't worry dad, at least I was lost with a group!

We drove by Tel Aviv and through Jaffa to get to our hotel along the Mediteranean Sea. I am already amazed at the bus driver b/c some of these street are narrow and he does an excellent job. We found our rooms; Katrina and I are way up on the 17 floor with some great views. Across the street from our hotel, right by the beach, was a rally in support of the Israeli troops in Gaza. A few of us walked over to check it out. The crowd was vastly yound men and women. Even out on the parking lot where they rallied, the women stood to one side and the men to the other. We mostly say them pray while we watched, but then a couple of men spoke to the crowd. We couldn't understand much...need to work on the Hebrew! Then we walked on the beach and I danced in the Mediteranean. Dinner was fine, hummus! Yum! Katrina and I have realized that we will be having lots of visitors in our room b/c I am keeper of the laptop. Ah well, I always like being social!

Ok, I think this is all for now. I know, I have so little to say. We're getting up at 6am tomorrow to go for a walk b/f breakfast. I'm sure that as we going along I'll have more theological and thought provoking things to say, but even if that never happens, at least I can be the comic relief of the bloggers! :-)