flying in....
[Sandy, Gary and Ben's story about the day befor the flight]
The long anticipated day finally arrived. Ben came to Cadillac the previous night (Friday), to leave his car and ride with us to the airport in Grand Rapids. We left Grady at the Youngmans' crittersitters to be with his friend Frank, and headed toward GR to catch a 1:45 pm flight. After a 5-hour layover in Atlanta, we were finally on our way to Israel!
We really appreciated having Ben in the seat next to us, so we could each feed on the others' excitement for this adventure. It was a long flight. The windows were finally opened as we were over the Mediterranean, but it seemed like it was still 3 hours before we began our decent and actually saw land.
It took a while to get our luggage (but it all arrived), and then we went through security and customs. Lots of soldiers. Lots of different kinds of people. Many different languages. We're not in Cadillac any more.......it was both strange and exciting. Thousands of people crowded the arrival area, but we had no trouble picking out the smiling faces of Keren, Oddi, and Dalia. I remember wondering what it was like for them the night we picked them up in Grand Rapids.......we had never seen each other before. But they were here. Part of our family. Now I felt like we were where we belonged. Hugs and kisses all around, but most memorable were the radiant faces of Ben and Keren. We all of a sudden forgot how tired we were and switched into tourist mode.
Sandy & I rode with Dalia & Oddi, with Keren & Ben following. On the way to Ganey-Yehuda we stopped to get gas, and I remember walking into the gans station to see what it was like........and I was lost. I could read nothing. Say nothing. Understand nothing I heard. I sooooo wished we had spent more time with the Rosetta Stone. Dalia and Oddi graciously introduced us to the Tel Aviv suburbs and made us feel very welcome.
[Erin, Matt, Megan and Kevin's story about the day before, and the flight]
[2] and in the same time, at the sharonim, all of us waited with excitement for the Koesters' arrival.
The week before was dedicated to transforming the sharonim's place to a luxurious bed-and-breakfast (and lunch, and dinner) for the American invasion: Dori's play room (Omer's old bedroom) was cleared from toys, which had to be moved to the shelter/storage room. that, in turn, had to be cleared, to make room for all the toys -- so we ended up throwing away and giving to charity a big pile of stuff, including several old computers, tv sets, kitchen stuff, clothes, and other random junk that outlived its aging period.
Ron's billiard/bar was upgraded with new lamps, wiring, and general cleanliness, and his room... well, let's say that Ron's room was transformed from a cacophony of furniture, broken speakers, hiking equipment and old school books, to a place he can actually bring a girlfriend to ;)
as a final touch, we stocked each bathroom with fresh towels (oh, that's a long story), soaps, shampoos, etc.
[3] when the day finally arrived, i went out to the airport, getting there just in time to greet E&M, M&K at the arrivals gate. We loaded all the suitcases (most of them travel light), and drove home.
*[what were your impressions from the first views you saw in israel??]
[Megan, Kevin -- we need your pictures here, you were the only ones with camera!]
[4] we packed some water, blankets, towels and sun screen, and headed out to spend a hot afternoon in Ttel Aviv, with the idea that we shouldn't let anyone sleep until the night, supposedly it will help with jet-lag later on. we started at the university, where we climbed up on the roof of the physics department for a view of tel aviv and the surrounding cities.
the university is situated on the top of a hill at the north part of town, and overlooks the entire shoreline. on good days you can see all the way to Haifa in the north, the mountains in the east and probably Ashdod in the south. and of course, there's the Med see in the west. That day wasn't a "good" day in that respect, since the hot conditions that ruled the weather for a long time made the air hazy and visibility was poor.
nevertheless, we could see Tel Aviv pretty well, and I could sort of explain where the neighboring cities are. The TA area is very urban in nature, making it hard to figure out exactly where the border between the town is.
we stopped briefly at the office to cool down (it was HOT!!), and continued to the beach.
the beach we went to is called "Metzitzim", after the famous Israeli cult movie that was filmed on that beach. it's just north the "Kosher" beach (that one has separate days for men and women, that's what makes it kosher). we found a sweet spot in one of the few shaded areas on the beach, and jumped in the water.
*[hey, you guys, say something about it!!]
miraculously nobody got burned that day, or dehydrated :)
unfortunately my "no sleeping" rule didn't really take, and everybody fell asleep. i don't remember any incidents there ...
[5] from the beach, we continued to Hummus Ashkara, one of the famous hummus places in north TA, on Yirmiyahu street. It's a little hole in the wall, with a small counter and a couple of tables outside on the sidewalk. they serve Hummus (hummus straight, hummus-thina, hummus-gargirim, masabacha, ful, beitza, etc etc etc...) some simple finely chopped salad, and pickles. my friends have this endless debate, which one is the best "hummusiya" (=hummus joint) in this part of town -- Hummus Ashkara, or Hummus Assaf across the street. as for me, i prefer Ashkara, just because they don't drown their Hummus in garlic ;)
we split a few bowels of hummus with everything. i think i had to teach some people how to "lenagev" (=wipe), which is the proper way to eat hummus: tear a part of a thick, warm, just out of the oven pita, and in one circular motion of the wrist wipe some hummus and put it in your mouth. i also had to introduce the proper pita - not the flat dry bread that one would meet in many places now in the US, but a fluffy, spongy, soft, warm pocket, that can easily hold your hummus, salad, falafel, or anything you fancy in it.
[6] after stuffing ourselves with hummus (we couldn't finish -- had to pack some and take it home for ben), we all felt groggy... to walk it off we crossed the street and took a walk in the Yarkon park, by the Yarkon river. Calling it a river is sort of an overstatement. it's more like a poor stream. actually, it's not even that... since it's origin is being pumped for water supply, the Yarkon doesn't really flow that much.. it used to be very dirty and practically a health hazard. the city eventually put in a lot of money and effort to dig it deeper and build a nice park around it, so now it gets plenty of water -- from the sea! yes, it flows backwords now, but at least it's sort of clean (i wouldn't swim there, but people go kayaking out there). we just sat there on the grass and enjoyed the shade and the view.
[7] in the meanwhile, Somewhere above the Med sea, Sandy, Gary and Ben are already tired of flying, and ready to land. The veteran tourists stayed at the sharonim's, and Dalia, Oddi and I went to the airport to get the 2nd shipment of Koesters. The luggage was ridiculously delayed, and the three of us waited impatiently, and after what seemed to be forever, they finally came out from the gate.
there was a joyful moment of everybody hugging everybody, parents meeting parents after a long time of not seeing each other.
[8] at home, Dalia prepared a "light" dinner at the patio. (as she will explain in one of the following days, she doesn't consider it cooking unless she actually uses the stove. well, just tossing croûtons on a pan also doesn't count. and grilling doesn't count, because dad does the cooking, and she "only" prepares rice, or potatoes, and salad, and appetizers... well, it's a fine line.)
the koesters were surprised (not for the last time) to realize that you CAN eat again after hummus.
during dinner, we taped a big map on the window and laid out the tentative plan for the week.[9] the kids were tired, they had gotten there early in the morning, nobody slept really great on the plane, so we didn't stay up very long. we might have taken the grand tour of the house, were introduced to Goldstar, and talked for a while :)
