Israel Journal<\/p>\n
Intro:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I have returned from the land of milk and honey and as I knew before I even left, I had an adventure.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to sound clich\u00e9, but it was one of, if not the most incredible places I\u2019ve have ever been in my life.\u00a0 Throughout my time I kept a detailed journal, because I wanted to share with all of you my journey through a country that many of you haven\u2019t been to.\u00a0 I also wanted to share my personal experience with those who have been to see help remind you how great Israel is.<\/p>\n Before I begin, I want to thank those who helped me along the journey through Israel.\u00a0 Sas (Rachel Saslove) and Sean (our American group leaders), Nadav (our incredible Israeli tour guide), David (our medic\/security guy), the Israeli soldiers that joined up with the group, and last, but certainly not least, all of the participants on my trip.\u00a0 Throughout my story I will occasionally name these people where appropriate and other times I won\u2019t.\u00a0 I hope to paint a picture for you of Israel that will make you want to jump onto a plane now and hit the road.\u00a0 Each entry in my blog will represent approximately one day.\u00a0 Traveling days on planes are kind of hard to quantify, so I just count them as one day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Day 1: Airport to Airport to Airport <\/strong><\/p>\n January 8th<\/sup>, 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m at the gate at Hartsfield, my first airport of the day.\u00a0 I\u2019m fairly used to traveling alone, so sitting at the gate is a fairly normal experience.\u00a0 Today I\u2019ve decided to really pay attention to what is around me so I can see and hear everything around me.<\/p>\n Airports in some ways are the most diverse places we ever see if you think about it.\u00a0 They are filled with business people, families, retirees, those who travel often, and those wish they did more, those traveling for pleasure and those returning home for a funeral.\u00a0 I considered myself at this point to be a 22-year old headed on a 10 day trip where\u2019d I\u2019ve have myself a little fun, ride a camel, and float in the Dead Sea, but then again, my expectations before this trip of things weren\u2019t particularly lofty.<\/p>\n I look up from my seat at the fate and CNN is giving analysis of the GOP Primary (like we haven\u2019t seen enough of this?).\u00a0 They showed all the candidates attacking each other at the debate from the previous day.\u00a0 I\u2019d be lying if I said I wasn\u2019t slightly amused.\u00a0 For me, the GOP primaries are a lot like watching a political comedy version of Survivor.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping that a weak one wins, because I\u2019d love another term from Obama\u2026.wait, isn\u2019t this journal about Israel?\u00a0\u00a0 Sorry about that\u2026end political rant.<\/p>\n So my journey of that day will take me from that gate at Hartsfield to New York and then, from New York to Zurich, and finally from Zurich to Tel Aviv-Yaffo.\u00a0 To make sure that the flight goes by somewhat quickly, I\u2019ve downloaded as many podcasts as I can from This American Life, to Wait Wait Don\u2019t Tell Me to Planet Money, Car Talk, and etc.\u00a0 I also brought two books with me, both by Anthony Bourdain since I finally finished A Cook\u2019s Tour.\u00a0 For my snacking pleasures, I brought Mike and Ikes and Starburst Flavored Jelly beans (the first time I haven\u2019t bought them on clearance).<\/p>\n I finally get on the plane and it takes off at around 10 AM.\u00a0 Before getting on the plane, I notice a girl who I thought was Mallie.\u00a0 When I finally stood up, it became apparent that she wasn\u2019t, since the girl was taller than me.\u00a0 I think it was just the hair and boots that were even kind of like Mallie, but I still found it entertaining.\u00a0 On the plane she sat down right in front of me and I wanted to tell her that she had the same hairstyle as my friend, but that would have just been bizarre.<\/p>\n On the plane from Atlanta to New York I listened to Wait Wait Don\u2019t Tell me and learned that a mouse can be dissolved in Mountain Dew.\u00a0 Apparently Mountain Dew is more hardcore in that way than Coca Cola.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n We finally land at JFK (not really finally, it was a fairly short flight).\u00a0 I get off the plane with my backpack, run to baggage claim and try to figure out my way around JFK.\u00a0 I\u2019ve figured out at this point that I need to be at Terminal 4 and I am at Terminal 3.\u00a0 I run into a girl from some other trip that is looking for El Al, which is at the same Terminal, so we walk together to the AirTrain that connects Terminals, somehow navigate it after I ask a random guy how to get to 4.<\/p>\n After arriving at Terminal 4, we spend about fifteen minutes looking for our respective ticketing booths (Swiss Air for me and El Al for her) before we both realize that we are so early that neither of the ticketing booth is open yet.\u00a0 I post us up in front of the Swiss Air Ticket desk.\u00a0 It\u2019s only about noon and neither of us were supposed to be there until 2 PM, but coming from Atlanta, this was the easiest flight to take without cutting it close.<\/p>\n After standing for a bit, we both notice a girl walking around in a shirt with Hebrew on it.\u00a0 I almost walk over to ask her if she is part of the trip, but don\u2019t want to be that awkward guy (see acting like my dad).<\/p>\n After 15 or so minutes of wondering, she comes over and introduces herself.\u00a0 Jackie (not sure how she actually spells her first name, but I\u2019m spelling it this way until I figure out otherwise) is only 19 and from Boise, Idaho.\u00a0 She\u2019s spent the last month or two in tents as part of the Occupy Boise movement.\u00a0 This is finally an opportunity for me to complain about my general opinion that the Occupy Movement needs to hire a political communications firm (or several) and develop a unified voice.<\/p>\n She talks about being a vegetarian and her love for pizza when people donate it to the tent cities she\u2019s been living in along with other occupiers.\u00a0 I honestly had no idea that Boise would have an Occupy movement.<\/p>\n After Jackie, I don\u2019t remember the other people showed up, but slowly the group started to take up a good bit of space.\u00a0 Other travelers arrived together with siblings, with parents and not, but all waiting excitedly with tickets.\u00a0 Neither of our group leaders (Sas and Sean) were there quite yet when a guy from the New York Office instructed us to walk over to him so he could check us off and then go to the ticket booth with out passports so we could be ticketed and check our bags.\u00a0 There were forty of us, so I was a bit intimidated given that some people seemed to already know each other and I was that random guy that went to school in South Carolina while most people didn\u2019t know my school even existed.<\/p>\n After everyone\u2019s bags were checked, we all got nametags and headed over to a big open area where the representative from the Taglit Office could talk to us.\u00a0 Sas and Sean were there as the representative went over all of the rules.\u00a0 We all sat there wanting him to be done so that we could start our trip, despite the fact that it wasn\u2019t quite 3 PM yet, and our flight wasn\u2019t going to leave until 6 PM.\u00a0 After he was done talking, we all went down a floor to grab a bite to eat before getting on the plane, our first opportunity to bond together.<\/p>\n After wandering for a little, buying a deck of cards so a bunch of us would have something to do on the plane, I finally decided I had to just pick something for this kind of lunch meal.\u00a0 I settled on cafeteria Chinese Food.\u00a0 Probably not the nicest thing I could have done to my stomach, but I didn\u2019t really care.\u00a0 Along with Mike and Will, two of the guys I was hanging out with, I ate my cafeteria General Tso\u2019s chicken by the line for security.<\/p>\n Since we were at the international terminal, security was filled with people leaving groups and families to head off to wherever they were going.\u00a0 I could understand much of what people were saying, as they were speaking so many different languages, but they all seemed to be saying the same thing: Goodbye for now and I love you.\u00a0 I think Ira Glass should do a This American Life episode from just in front of security at major airports.\u00a0 I think it would show that not matter what culture we are, we seem to send each other off at the airport the same way.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know anything of the stories of the people who were going through security while I ate my pseudo Chinese chicken, but they comforted me by reminding me how similar we all are.<\/p>\n After eating and some more wandering, it was finally time to go through security.\u00a0 There was a special line for families and handicap people.\u00a0 Right next to me when I was next was a family of around 8 that was also headed to Israel.\u00a0 They had about three children in strollers.\u00a0 All the kids were excited to go and the TSA Agent couldn\u2019t help but smile at them.\u00a0 Right behind me was a woman who spoke broken English to me.\u00a0 She told me she was Palestinian, which I found fascinating. Had I not known, I would have thought she was any other Israeli person.\u00a0 Sadly, our conversation was fairly short since I had to get through security and join up with my newly made friends.<\/p>\n A bunch of us sat down by the gate with the deck of cards I had bought and played a couple games of BS.\u00a0 I won a couple games mostly thanks to Mike (thanks buddy!).\u00a0 We boarded the plane to Zurich and I was seated on an aisle (I would have been pissed had I had a middle seat).\u00a0 The plane was one of those really big Airbus Planes, I think it was an Airbus 320, but I don\u2019t know much about planes.\u00a0 The coach section was made up of three columns, the first one with two seats, then an aisle, then the second column with 4 seats in the middle, then the other aisle and two seats again in the third column.\u00a0 The seats all had the little television screens.\u00a0 I think we all got about 15 minutes of amusement from just the remote alone, which had a keyboard on one side.\u00a0 I ended up watching about half of the movie Invictus until I just had to do something else.\u00a0 I need to finish that movie some day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now I remember in the past making obnoxious jokes about how bad the food was on planes, but the dinner they served us was just plain AWFUL.\u00a0 That is probably the only thing I didn\u2019t like about the Swiss Air flights.\u00a0 This first dinner was chicken with couscous that had zero flavor.\u00a0 They thought it\u2019d be funny to add some corn in to give it some crunch, but it even lacked that.\u00a0 There was a cold roll along with it, which I was more than happy to eat.\u00a0 The meal came with a kosher coffee creamer, which was parve.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure I want to know that is in Kosher coffee creamer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With a long flight like this (it was 8 hours long), I had a lot of time to think.\u00a0 I really considered my internal dialogue and asked myself what road I was taking.\u00a0 That\u2019s the question I\u2019ve been asking myself constantly as graduation approaches us.\u00a0 To quote President Bartlett,\u201dWhat\u2019s next?\u201d, is the major question in my head both on the flight and just constantly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I started to think about the screenplay I am sort of writing for fun.\u00a0 On the plane, I was kicking myself for not having my computer, because I really wanted to work on it and I found some inspiration for the main female role in the play.\u00a0 I had already decided to name her Abilene, but various things at the airport helped me recognize ways to develop her better.<\/p>\n On the plane to Zurich, I didn\u2019t sleep a wink.\u00a0 Everyone else was taking sleeping aids for the trip there and honestly, I now wish that I had thought to find one while in the states, because it would have made the flight go by far faster for me, but I had good company.\u00a0 Next to me on the flight to Zurich was a shy (at the time) girl named Sonya.\u00a0 Sonya got to be far less shy once we got to Israel.\u00a0 Next to Sonya was Iris, and next to Iris was Jackie.<\/p>\n We finally landed in Zurich and I had a headache.\u00a0 After getting off the plane and going through security again, I found a little bakery and bought a bottle of water.\u00a0 It ended up being $5!\u00a0 I would have gone to a water fountain, but I couldn\u2019t find one.\u00a0 I took some Advil with a swig of water and so did Sonya.<\/p>\n After wandering around the airport for a little bit with Mike, we both decided to go find the bathroom. \u00a0\u00a0The bathroom in the Zurich airport smelled pretty awful and was a good joke of ours for a good little bit.\u00a0 From there, we both headed towards the gate, stopped in a Duty Free store, and then finally to the actual gate.\u00a0 There I finally opened my Mike and Ike\u2019s, which led to the inevitable Mad TV jokes.\u00a0 We all laughed and ate some and talked and watched the sun rise.<\/p>\n We finally got onto the plane and the seat next to me was empty, then Sonya was next to that seat, and then some stranger was next to Sonya.\u00a0 We were both happy to put some of our stuff on the empty seat.\u00a0 I got an hour or two of sleep on the flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv thankfully, because some sleep was certainly better than none.\u00a0 We went to baggage claim with passports in hand, grabbed our bags, went through and said we were on birthright and waited for everyone else.\u00a0 Before we got on the bus, we put our bigger bags under the bus and grabbed cell phones for those of us who rented them.\u00a0 Mine was a mid-2000s slider phone made by Samsung, which made me realize there would be almost no Twitter for me on the trip, which turned out to be the best.\u00a0 Probably not kosher to Tweet from the Kotel, or at least so I thought, but I\u2019ll get to that later.<\/p>\n On the bus, we met Nadav, our tour guide, David, our medic\/security guard (we all seemed to forget that security would be open carrying a gun and some of us freaked out about this at first), and Yoav, our bus driver.\u00a0 From the airport, we headed straight towards the hotel so that we could have dinner and then after a few hours go to sleep.\u00a0 I was thankful on the bus when they announced roommates, because mine was one of the few people I got to talk to in the airport, Mark.<\/p>\n Dinner was kind of strange because we were all tired and all still kind of strangers.\u00a0 I had some strange kind of chicken breast thing, which at this point I assume must have been schnitzel.\u00a0 After dinner, Mark and me unpacked and I played around with my phone.\u00a0 We were both ready for bed pretty early since we both had really long days of traveling.<\/p>\n Israel Journal Intro: I have returned from the land of milk and honey and as I knew before I even left, I had an adventure.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to sound clich\u00e9, but it was one of, if not the most incredible places I\u2019ve have ever been in my life.\u00a0 Throughout my time I kept 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