August 24/25

Since I am only now getting the chance to go on the internet, I will be playing a bit of a catch up game for the next day or so as I put up the entries from the last week. I have now been in Israel for 6 full days, and as our madricha puts it -we are no longer tourists. That being said, last week was all about doing the tourist activities and getting in touch with the land of Israel.

Day 1 (24-25/8): This day started out like any other trip - last minute packing and getting out the door later than anticipated, but that only hightened the sense of excitement! At 11am I met up with the group and got onto the dauntingly long line for check-in at the El Al desk. If you have not gone through this before, it is quite the experience. The line winds around and around, and you can actually enter from both ends. About halfway through the line an El Al agent will come up to you with a music stand and paperwork and start asking questions that you would not expect. My favorite was "what is your Hebrew name?" followed up by "why?" After the questioning ends they place tags on all the bags you are checking- although I am not sure what purpose they serve since they do not have the flight number or my name on them- and waive you on to the rest of the line.
After getting out of the line the 16 of us that had assembled so far went through security, also tricky with such a big group, and into the boarding area. Once in the boarding area we picked up the remaining 3 people that would join us (out of the 22 that were supposed to be on the flight) and headed onto the plane. I won't bore you all with the details of a 10 hour flight that included delayed take off and an overtired 9 year old in the seat next to me, but I will put a few pictures of our flight path.
 

We finally arrived at Ben Gurion airport at 7:30a with 19 of the 36 Otzmanikim - having made up our delayed time in the air. We then waited around in baggage claim for a few hours while Elissa and Rachel searched for and finally filled out forms for their lost baggage. (As of today 30/8 one of the girls still has no luggage, but we are hopeful it will show up eventually.) From there it was off to the Jewish Agency campus and our first orientation meeting!

Fast forward through a few hours of paperwork and important information and the whole group loaded up our 1st week bags onto the bus and were off. Our first stop was Tayelet, a plaza with a beautiful view of Jerusalem.

We had an opening ceremony where we said the שהחינו‎ (Shehecheyanu) for the start of our new adventure in Israel, all the while looking at this view and then got back on the bus. From there we had a long ride that took us through Arad (my future home) and down to a Bedouin settlement where we rode camels,

had a traditional Bedouin meal, and were taught about historical and modern Bedouin culture.

 This was followed by a star gazing walk in the desert with a large bright moon and stars for miles. Finally, after being awake almost 35 hours, we all got into our sleeping bags in the large Bedouin tent and drifted off.