Flight to Israel

I'm in Israel! And I can only get Blogger and Google in Hebrew, which is proving to be a bit of a challenge. So much has happened since I was dropped off at the bus station in Boston.

I took a bus from Boston to New York City because my flight left from JFK. I met a friend of mine in NYC for lunch, which was a great because we were able to catch up, and it calmed some of my anxiety. I then took the NYC Metro to the LIRR to the AirTrain, and after about two hours (twice as long as Google told me it would take!) I arrived at the airport, where I met the people that I will be spending the next five months with. It was rather anti-climatic.

Then I went through El Al security. Not airport security, El Al security. There is a reason that they are the most secure airline in the world. My bags went through separate screenings before I could check in, and I also had to answer questions about them- "Who packed them? Where have they been since you packed them? What is this thing in your bag? Did you pack x, y, or z?" Then I had a "little chat" (their words, not mine) with an El Al agent. The little chat was hilarious. First the woman expressed lots of confusion over how to pronounce my name (which is very simple English words and Hebrew words, so it should not have been hard at all.) Then she tried to figure out if I was Jewish- "What are you doing in Israel? Who are you traveling with? Do you have family there? What are their names? Where do they live? Are you going to visit them on Shabbat?" This did not actually make me feel more secure, it just made me realize how overtly they were racially profiling the passengers.

Then we went through airport security, which seemed like a breeze in comparision to El Al's security. When I was boarding I had to answer more questions, but finally I got onto the plane. Whereupon I learned that I was in a middle seat with a TV that did not work and a broken tray table. And I also learned that the flight attendants were not interested in helping, and were rather rude. I was very awed by the prayer area in the back of the plane, and just by the amount of men wearing kippahs and tzitzit, but otherwise my experience on El Al was not that positive.

And then I arrived in Israel!

My first impression of Israel was that it was a cross between Florida and India- very hot, palm trees, different language, and lots of shouting. I was excited and ready to explore!