The Flight to Israel

Sunday, June 21st

We leave SLC at 8:30a.m. We get to Kennedy Airport at 3:00pm EST. Then we get to wait for our flight at 7:50pm. What to do? Kennedy is the most boring airport, and we don't have enough time to even go ten miles to Coney Island. We eat lunch, and then sit at our gate. Here is where it gets interesting.

Israel has only one international airport. Israelis, Palestinians, and various others need to get along for 11 hours aboard our Delta flight! The gate fills up with Orthodox Jews and fundamentalist Muslims, who all avoid each other. The range of languages is amazing, Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish, English, etc, etc.

The flight crew, based in NYC is brisk and bossy. We go through metal detectors again! I realize the security team has been there for hours and wants to go home, but they yell at us if we put our shoes in the containers for the e-ray machine. We have been told previously to put our shoes in the containers. Nobody is going to argue with them. I think we are scared of them!

The flight, though long, went smoothly enough. Delta has a variety of movies and video games to play. The teenager next to me helped me play games. I also watched He's just not that into you which was lame.

We arrive in Tel Aviv. We get through customs okay except for the part where I thanked the Israeli customs agent in Arabic! He glared! We get to our hotel where we will spend the night before heading north on Tuesday. I went in search of a post office and the clerk was amazed that I needed 56 stamps. I tried to explain, but I knew I was not making sense. I could not find post cards! Go figure! I am in town for less than one hour, and I already know how to buy stamps in Hebrew, change money, find a few shops, including the lottery stand. But no postcards. I will get them for my students. They just may not be of Tel Aviv!

I took some pictures of Tel Aviv from my hotel room. Tomorrow we have and early start.