The Trip over

Trying to get to Israel was a little bit of an adventure. There were two flight that went to Israel. I was on the Delta flight. The United flight left earlier and landed later. They had like three or four layovers. We just had to fly from SLC to JFK and then on to Ben Gurion. The flight to JKF wasn't bad. I kept myself occupied for quite some time competing with other passengers in an on board trivia game. When I got to JFK I soon found my self looking for a bathroom. And yes, they are pretty dirty. After that I got a slice of pizza. I hadn't been eating very long until someone came over and told us we were going to board soon. I thought it was strange that we were boarding an hour before takeoff. They also said we were going to have to go through security again. I didn't know what they meant by that but lo and behold as we passed the gate to get on the pane there was another security area.

We all had to take off our shoes again and open our bags to get any liquids out as well as our computers. If we had bought something at the airport and didn't have a reciept for it than it had to go. I know that was true of liquids but I think it was also true of the things at duty free store. They threw away my water that I filled up at the airport in Salt lake. Some other people had some of the stuff they bought, like drinks, confisacated because they didn't have a reciept.

The plane ride was pretty long. I think it was about ten hours. It wasn't to bad but I did have a hard time sleeping. I think I only slept a few hours but I really don't know when I went to bed ( or the time zone). Not to long after I got, up a group of Orthodox Jews all congregated to the back of the plane for their morning prayers/scripture reading. It was interesting.

A few hours later we landed. I thought the airport was very clean and modern. I was glad that I didn't have any problems getting my visa. After our group landed we took a bus to Jerusalem and we got a tour of the Center. It really isn't that big but it is such a beautiful setting. We had some orientation meeting later in the day and we ate dinner. The next day was some more orientation and a walk to the Old City and around some of Jerusalem. It was great. Later that day we had a get to know you game. It was fun.