First Days in Israel

I landed safely in Israel yesterday at 2:30pm (8:30am in Washington, D.C.). However, I had quite the adventure getting to my 9:15pm flight leaving Philadelphia. I arrived to National airport with an hour and a half before my flight. They switched my flight to one leaving immediately, saying my orginal flight would be delayed.

So I go directly to my new gate, to find out that this flight too is delayed (all due to weather). I find out it's delayed 2 hours and go to the desk to switch my flight again. This new flight, my third flight now, was set to leave at 6:15pm. 6:15 rollls around and I start to panic that I missed boarding for my flight, since I'd been busy making phone calls. Then an announcement sounds about this flight also being delayed. Meanwhile, my original flight actually left on-time at 6pm.

So all in all, the flight finally left around 7:40pm. The stewardess was odd and the plane small. We were asked to spread out on the plane because we were nose heavy and couldn't take off until more people moved to the back. I landed at the Philly airport when my plane was boarding. I got there in enough time to continue making a few 'last calls' which annoyed a stewardess and, I believe, scared away the man who was supposed to sit next to me.

So I had the two seats, window/aisle, to myself. It was great. The back of the seat in front of you had a screen to choose movies, tv shows, etc.

I've stayed with my friends Einat & Shimon in Herzeliya, about 15 minutes outside Tel Aviv. I'll write more about that later. I'm off to change money, go to the Port, get on a train up to my Kibbutz.