Israel!

I drove to the airport with Dad in a taxi, and awkwardly met the people I had been chatting with on facebook for months. We all checked our bags nervously into security where I met a girl named Suri, who I talked to at 100 miles an hour with, jabbering about nonsense because I was nervous. We made it onto the plane where I sat next to a guy named David who played games on his scientific calculator, and a girl named Natalie who is completely nuts and now my roommate.

The flight was 14 hours, so I watched the movie Iron Man, slept, and ate the crappy airplane food. When we arrived in Israel, we were all tired, and grateful to get on the tour bus to the kibbutz where we were going to stay. The truth was, I had very low expectations for the kibbutz. I expected a place where we would just sleep, and not spend any more time there, but I really liked the room!

My roommates are Morgan (who I had epic talks with on Facebook, more than anyone really), Natalie (totaly nutzo), and Emma (who has awesome taste in music and is from Hollywood!

It turns out I am the only Canadian. (I am so the NORTH in NORTH AMERICA!) So I have already been asked if I have seen glaciers. In fact Natalie assumed I had seen one! I have also been asked if I learn American History at school... really? Anyway, all the people who hear me say “eh?” immediately start laughing and I can never figure out why! 

Back on topic!

We got to the Kibbutz and were shown our rooms, ate dinner (which was great!), drank chocolate milk, and went to sleep.

I woke up at 3 in the morning and had so much trouble getting back to sleep! I got around 6 hours of sleep, but all of today, I still felt exhausted!

The best thing about the morning was prayers. I am so used to a mumbling congregation and a labored service that being with people who were passionate, in jerusalem, the city that every jew wants to be near and with guitar playing and clapping and just generally joyous singing was such an experience!

One thing that gave me reason to pray, was that I had left my bag on the bus with my computer, cell phone, camera, ipod, headphones, and wallet, and everything else in the world that I needed! That morning I had managed to get the bag back safe and sound! I thought I was going to have a heart attack!

Today we had “orientation” which included talks about getting enough sleep (are you kidding?!) taking care of ourselves, managing course loads, and all about our different courses. We also talked about our tzedaka (charity) projects we would be doing during the trip.

A great thing we got to do today was go shopping at the little supermarket that is in the Kibbutz. Its tiny, sells a couple different types of fruit, and most important, chocolate and chocolate milk! Its awesome.

So I’m sorry for the delay, my internet is terrible here!

Loving Hummus,

Talia