Israel #1

Hello everyone! I will be journaling about my travels in Israel for the next 10 days. I'm doing a HolyLand Tour with a group called "Pilgrim Tours." I left Sept 2 from Boston (BOS) at 6:55pm, transferred planes in Zurich (ZUR), and then arrived in Tel Aviv (TLV). I will be in Israel until Sept. 11 and whenever I get wireless, I will be posting notes and pics! Enjoy! If you want, I have an international cell phone... give me a call! ( i get free incoming texts and calls). Just remember I am 7 hours ahead of EST. Just dial: 972-52-658-7462.
9/2 7pm BOS
Sad goodbye this afternoon- fatal flaw in Jeep backseat, already miss him so much. Sad that I want to be near him every moment of my life! on plane now, 2 seats, 4 seats, 2 seats. I'm in 31K, next to a large, bald man. I'm looking forward, excited, no clue what to expect, looking for mystery and love and history- a glimpse into the past, into the life of Jesus, looking for answers, a path, a way of life, a clue, for God. Wow, I miss journaling a lot, even on the back of receipts[which is where I wrote these notes]- I need to start this again.- recording my life, my hopes, my dreams, my fears, my mistakes, my most blessed and cherished memories.
9/3 1am BOS
Watched Pirates of the Carribean 3, need to watch it again though cuz I kinda fell asleep. Large bald man's TV wasn't working so he left soon after the plane took off and never came back, so I had both seats to myself- lots of space! Slept a little. Forgot how much shorter flights to Europe from Boston are than from Chicago like all other int'l flights I've been on. Want to travel to EUR way more often now that it is so close! Good food and service on Swiss Air, definitely would travel with them again. LOTS of food though- so full!
9/3 3am BOS// 9am ZUR
Hello from Switzerland! I love journaling! haha. Airport is nice here, small and simple, pretty view of the mts. Fun gift shop with COWS on everything- saucers, ash trays, pot holders, etc. But the best- a mug that mooed! Guess Zurich is a lot like Wisconsin! Time changes suck- I only slept a few hours- hopefully can sleep on this next flight to Israel. Don't want to sleep in Israel til bed time- want to enjoy the Med. Sea and the hotel, etc. Hope the airplane views are awesome- this morning flying to Zurich I saw huge mountain peaks above the clouds with us- it was beautiful! Anyways, I'm going to read some til our flight boards. TTYL!
9/3 4am BOS //10am ZUR
On the plane to TLV. Was moved from seat 27A (which was originally on my ticket) to seat 24A. Is that a bad omen? It's still a window seat but on the wing! ugh! Sitting next to 65 year old man who lives in Montreal and Israel. how cool is that ... French and Hebrew just like me. He liked to talk a lot and he told me about his girlfriend, and traveling, and where he used to live, etc. Got a little annoying cuz I was trying to watch a movie. But he was very nice. Slept a little and ate more plane food.
9/3 9:21am BOS// 4:21pm TLV
Arrived in Tel Aviv. Got Israel New Shekels (NIS) for my dollars. Bought a SIM card for my phone with some minutes which was about $38 (155 NIS). Figured out basic exchange rate- a 100 NIS bill is $25, a 20 NIS bill is $5). Bottle of water was less than $2 (7NIS). Met tour guide, Michael (who lives in Jerusalem), told me we would leave airport around 5pm. Wireless is not free at any airport- grr! Hopefully free at hotel. Called Chris internationally, no answer, left message. Lots of water here at airport- water falls and water walls- which is ironic because they don't have much water or rainfall here in the summer. Beautiful airport, lots of signs in Hebrew! yay! Michael came and talked to me for awhile about my schooling and stuff. Talked about how religion was so integral to the politics here, and how unfortunately religion is fueling the conflict instead of calming it. He said he just went to this Unitarian conference where MLK Jr's son spoke about world peace. He talked mostly about nonviolent peacemaking, and Michael said he just doesn't get... "it doesn't make sense here in Israel.. it won't work here." He also said "why do we need to have justice here now? There hasn't been justice here in the last 5000 years, so why now?" He wants to wait till the Messiah comes to have peace. [i wish we had had time for me to mention the bringing about of the Kingdom of God here on earth even before the Messiah comes]
9/3 10:20am BOS// 5:20pm TLV
On the bus- very tight leg room. But I have two seats for myself. Our tour guide is awesome though. Lots of older people on the tour. We drive one hour to the hotel and will have dinner there at 7pm. Michael speaks to us for most of the drive. Says he will be our Jewish mother. The group is 120 people on three buses; I am on bus one. Our bus driver's name is Avnar. Michael tells us dinner will be awesome (and Kosher- no mix of dairy and meat, no pork, etc); he says "forget about losing weight, they will feed you here! Unlike American diet though, it is heatlhy, with many of the fruits of the land." Tomorrow the plan is wake up at 6pm, breakfast at 7pm, leave at 8pm.
We drive down Hwy 6, which is the only toll road in Israel. It follows the "green line" which used to be the border of Jordan and Israel until 1967 when there was a war and Israel took some of Jordan's land, aka the West Bank, Palestinian land, Samaria. Took lots of pics. Along the drive it was cool to see Hebrew graffiti and Hebrew Bumper Stickers, and Hebrew on trucks and road signs... cuz I'm a dork. We drove by lots of banana, orange, grapefruit and date orchards.

9/3 1:06pm BOS// 8:06pm TLV
Arrived at hotel at about 6:30pm. Blue Bay Hotel in Netanya, a small Jewish town on the Med. Sea. The hotel is beautiful, my room is 711, on the seventh floor (the highest). I have an amazing view of the town and of the sea. i wish we could stay here longer but we are only here for a night.
had dinner at the hotel at 7pm. buffet style so I tried a little of everything. mostly typical middle eastern food, very good: lamb, rice, potatoes, hummus, tabouleh, split pea soup, bread, chocolate cake, watermelon. weird appetizers: eggplant stuff, fried onions, very spicy cold carrots, other weird conglomerations.
one woman on our tour was sitting at a nearby table and she was extremely rude to the waiter. She complained about how no one knew how to talk around here (meaning some people know Hebrew here better than English). Apparently she expects to have everyone be fluent in English. It was annoying. Then the waiter told her a bottle of wine was 80 shekels. And she flipped out! "I';m not going to spend 80 bucks on a bottle of wine!!" Her friend and the waiter tried to calm her down and explain that 80 shekels is about 20 dollars. This woman definitely seemed very small minded and unprepared for being in a foreign country. Hopefully I won't want to kill her by the end of this trip!
afterwards took a walk on the beach of the mediterranean sea (it got dark here really quickly... sunset at around 7:30pm)... my second time on this sea (the first was in Barcelona, in March 2006, which was very cold.) The sea here now is so warm! It was amazing and I will be waking up early tomorrow to go swimming before we leave on our tour.
on the beach, met this guy on a horse who offered to take me for a ride. I politely refused, because I didnt want to spend the money (im assuming it cost money) and it seemed wicked sketch considering it was dark and I was alone. So instead we talked for a good ten minutes, about me being from the states and how I am studying to be a minister. We talked about the differences between Protestant and Catholic churches, and about how I can get married and have children even though I will be a minister. He said he was Jewish, but didn't wear a kippah or did many typically Jewish rituals, but he said he kept God in his heart, so religion was very personal to him. He also said he had good mitzpah with God, since he has saved 14 people from the Med. Sea. He told me that when get to Jerusalem, I am going to feel God... he says the feeling is so amazing because you go from being at sea level to 800 meters above the sea... so you literally go up to Jerusalem...and it just feels holy... he assured me that I would feel it. This I am excited for. He also encouraged me to get my doctorate degree now and not wait until after I'm married with children because by then it will be too late. Nice advise, but I'm really not interested in my doctorate.
Going to hang out in my room and watch Hebrew TV and then crash. TTYL!