Shabbat Shalom

So this post is a little belated, but as you may have imagined, I've made it to Israel. Travel went something like this:

Sept. 1
3:30 AM: Wake up and jump in the shower.

4:00 AM: Make sure my mother's awake. (Apparently three alarms are not sufficient to ensure that she'll be up at the right time.)

4:30 AM: Say goodbye to my dad and sister, load the car, and leave for the airport with my mom.

5:00 AM: Arrive at the airport and attempt to navigate the multitudes of young adults and flustered parents heading off to college.

5:30 AM: We finally manage to check in and my mom even manages to pressure the flustered agent into letting her go to the gate with me. We head to security, the lines for which are ridiculous, and my mom, using her infamous line-cooling powers, manages to pick the longest and slowest-moving line.

5:35 AM: Spotted, William Aultman (Sabrina's boyfriend) going through the lines for security, undoubtedly on his way to Penn. I call out to him but he doesn't hear, though I predictably manage to draw the attention of everyone else. Defeated, I text Sabrina telling her that I'm watching her boyfriend from afar.... William, if you're reading this, I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way.

5:40 AM: We make it through security. I check the crackberry, and I have a Facebook friend request from William Aultman. Coincidence? I think not.

5:45 AM: My mom and I buy breakfast (bagels at Rose's) and coffee (Starbucks). She also insists on buying me a banana, gum, crackers, a juice, and some sucking candies for the plane, even though she's already packed me with Goldfish, Milano's, a small bag of pecans, mentos, and a Cliff bar. She also makes me go to the bathroom no less than three times. But I know it's not her fault - she's Jewish.

6:05 AM: The plane starts boarding. Though I'm seated in Zone 3, my mother doesn't let me board until they call Zone 4. We have a teary goodbye, and then I'm off down the gangplank.

6:52 AM: Plane takes off from PDX. Direct flight to JFK seated next to a nice couple was really pretty enjoyable.

10:00 AM: I really have to pee (even though my mom made me go eight times before I left), but I'm seated next to the window, and they're both dozing. And no one wants to be that person.

10:25 AM (PST): Now I REALLY have to pee. I gently wake the couple and ask if I can trouble them to get out and go to the bathroom. Nice couple is super friendly and we all take a bathroom break together.

2:47 PM (EST): Plane touches down at JFK Airport in New York. Good flight.

3:10 PM: I get my two identical suitcases and manage to find the Habonim Dror representative who's meeting me. We meet up with Nellie who has just flown in from Seattle and head to the international terminal. We're the first two to arrive.

3:45 PM: I arrive in the internatinal terminal and am met by the sight of Hasidic Jews in long black coats, giddy Jewish teens heading off to similar (though really not so similar) trips in Israel, and myriad other kinds of diversity. I'm also met by the three other members that comprise the central office of Habonim Dror North America. I also find out that the next flight isn't coming into JFK until 6:30.

6:25 PM: After twenty-five rounds of Fooch (a card game) and eating my weight in pretzels, the Detroit kids (all three of them) finally arrive. This makes five. Only fifty-three more to go. I never want to see playing cards or pretzels ever again.

7:15 PM: The East Coast bus with the Maryland and Philadelphia kids arrive in suprisingly good condition, given that they were chaperoned by Sager, former workshop madrich and self-proclaimed "King of Kef." Lots of excited reunions as well as awkward hellos. The Galil boys have chosen to distinguish themselves by all wearing sweater vests.

7:30-9:30 PM: People continue to file in from all corners of North America, including British Columbia, Ontario, Arizona, California, Washington, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and of course Portland.

9:45 PM: We begin the long and trying screening process of getting on the plane. Before I even check my bags, I have a five-minute interview with an El Al security agent about my prior visits to Israel, my Hebrew-speaking ability, where I received my Jewish education, and whether or not I've seen the movie Ratatouille. I'm not kidding, they actually ask these kinds of questions.

10:15 PM: After everyone is checked in, we take our first group picture as Workshop 59 (fiiiifty niiiine).

10:25 PM: Heading through security, Noah is stopped by an agent to investigate a suspicious, solid, fist-sized object found in his bag. It turns out to be a rock. Noah packed a rock. After several more securiy agents are called over to make fun of Noah ("Yo Steve, check this out! This kid packed a rock!"), we continue on without incidence.

11:00 PM: We head to the gate, making stops in the Travel Mart on our way. Emily and I consider buying a three-pound bar of chocolate (it's a long flight), but we decide against it, and instead I purchase a king-sized Twix and some Tylenol.

11:15 PM: Arriving at the gate, we see that we're not the only youth group heading to Israel. It appears that Nativ is also on our plane. Those are not going to be very happy flight attendents. We spot a cute boy in a Foundation for Jewish Camping tee.

Sept. 2
12:00 AM: Boarded and seated, I manage to barter for an isle seat next to Maya and Leya. El Al provides us with pillows and really nice, fluffy fleece blankets. We decide that at the end of the flight that we will be keeping the blankets.

12:05 AM (EST): Smooth takeoff. The next nine and a half hours are somewhat of a blur, but they consisted roughly of talking, eating a pretty decent vegetarian airplane dinner (apparently when I signed up for Workshop I was a vegetarian), marveling at the real metal cutlery they give us, sleeping, beginning to brush up on my Hebrew with the very annoyed Israeli flight attendents, walking laps around the plane, trying not to disturb the rather large Hasidic Jewish population on the plane when they begin praying at 5 AM EST, blocking the isles, more talking, listening to Noah rant something concerning airspeed and temperature, apologizing to the very annoyed Israeli flight attendents, drinking tea, eating breakfast at 6 AM EST (apparently vegetarian also means lactose intolerant, because I got cereal with soy milk), drinking more tea, more sleeping, and finally waking up as we touch down at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

4:50 PM (Israel timezone): We arrive in Tel Aviv. We get our bags, navigate customs with relative ease, meet our madrichim, get our cell phones, eat a dinner of tunafish sandwiches, meet some of the Brits in the airport, and load onto the buses.

9:00 PM: Arrive at Beit Shean Youth Hostel in northeast Israel. Having gotten something like five hours of sleep in the past 30 hours, I'm pretty certain that I'm going to die. We move into our rooms (I room with Leya, Molly, and Tali in room 104).

9:30 PM: After a quick intro from our madrichim, we have free time to hang out, unpack, and go to sleep. I say I'm going to bed.

10:00 PM: I get a second wind and insist on staying up and hanging out.

Sept. 3
I finally go to bed at 1:00 AM, thus concluding travel days.

Jet-lag wakes me up at 6:00 AM. I shower at 7:00. Now I have to explain that showers in Israel, specifically Israeli youth hostels, are more small rooms with doors than an actual shower that we're used to. Being a little rusty on Israeli showers, I manage to flood half the room. Luckily everyone decides to think that it's hilarious, and after some furious squeegeeing, we head to breakfast at 8:00.

At breakfast I rediscover how good Israeli breakfast are (tomatoes, cucumbers, cottage cheese, eggs, Israeli salad, hummus, bread rolls, chocolate spread, turkish coffee, Wasotsky tea) and how sketchy the rest of the food is. Unfortunately, no schnitzel yet.

The day is filled with excessive name-games and group-building activites. Molly decides that every time we're split up into groups, it would be funny to ask if this is going to be our kvutsah. It's funny but also has the effect of getting us all to start worrying about kvutsot.

Tonight I decide that room 104 is going to bed early. As I'm heading back to the room I see Alex's birthday party delegation run in to hang out. Looks like it's gonna be another late night.

Sept. 4
This morning I wake up and shower like a pro. The shower is barely wet. Today, after a short peula on the types of people that live in Israeli society, we head to Tiberias for a scavenger hunt.

It's at least 90 degrees in Tiberias, and being sleep-deprived, semi-dehydrated, and trying to adjust to the water, I'm, again, pretty sure that I'm going to die. I also end up in Noah and Molly's group, who were determined to win. We win, predictably. When Molly and Noah decide to do something, they get it done. The prize is that we get to plan Kabbalat Shabbat this evening. Wonderful.

For lunch, we each get money to get food in tiberias, and we head to a shwarma stand. Molly barters with the schwarma man and we all sit to down to schwarma, falafel, and, finally, schnitzel.

As soon as we get back to the hostel we jump in the pool, and for the first time since getting to Israel, I'm cold. We get out and plan Kabbalat Shabbat on the fly, deciding that the program will consist of everyone saying their middle names and then singing some songs.

Dinner. Rikud. Hanging out. Blogging. Now it's 3:3O AM and it's really time to go to sleep. Goodnight guys! I'll be back soon when there's something interesting to tell.