I got into a cab at 1 pm Tuesday afternoon and arrived at my hotel in Israel at 8 pm Wednesday night.
I met three coworkers at the terminal. I am so lucky I got to travel with these three. Betsy has a great sense of humor and will laugh at anything, which just makes joy easy to find. Sue and Dereck are married and both have entertaining accents-- Sue has a thick southern accent, and feels no shame or embarassment at being pushy and bossy and Derreck has a country English accent and must go to bed every night with a sore face from constantly smiling. He has a story for everything, usually with many words i can't understand but i'm amused by the pleasure he takes in telling them. All of these traits came in handy when we were informed our flight to NY was late and maybe even cancelled. Sue was proud to be the one to give the airline attendant behind the counter hell, and to have us (literally) cheering her on. And Derreck was telling us a story in a thick British accent relating to his days flying military planes.
Two hours later our plane was fixed, so we flew to NYC, knowing we might not make our flight to Israel. We landed at JFK airport and had an hour and a half to pick up our luggage, find the international terminal and re-check our bags and go through Israeli security which we had been warned is one of the strictest on the planet. Betsy showed us the way to the gate, laughing all the way, while Derreck told reminescing British stories about plane layovers he's had in the past from England.
But i cannot begin to describe the culture shock of the El Al terminal at JFK. It was like we'd already traveled out of the States. The majority of people were orthodox Jews, men with long beards and payis (long sideburn curls), women with their hair covered, elderly rabbis pushing carts bigger than their bodies, and all wearing black. When i got to the front of the line i was questioned by security. and despite my attempt to only reveal necessary information it was like my excitement to go to Israel gave me diarrhea of the month. Every answer i gave led to more questions and soon the woman, although smiling, took away my passport and showed it to a group of people. i was then led to a secluded room while they started taking out all my belongings. i peered over, trying to keep a neutral expression on my face. if i looked nervous, angry, in a hurry-- would that make me even more of a suspect?? they saw me watching and rolled a wheeled divider up so i couldnt see them go through the suitcases. Two other girls were brought over and sat by me. One was taken into a room and the door was closed. the other girl and i looked at each other nervously. a few minutes went by and then the security guard opened the door and closed it. She was carrying a few belongings, including the captive girl's sweater. Would we be strip searched? the girl next to me was visibly stressed. 'Oh god, they makin me nervous,' she told me. But we got to leave, without being searched. Because we were held over, the security guards personally escorted us through the rest of security and right to the plane, bypassing the long line of people.
But getting on the plane was like another culture shock. the seats were smaller and closer together than any plane i'd ever been on, and my stomach turned at the thought of being on this for 10 hours. Not only that but the El Al flight attendants were no where to be found. Senior citizens stood in the aisles with glazed eyes, not reacting when you say 'excuse me' to pass. No flight attendants were available to help put suitcases up or tell us where to sit. And i found that i was in the middle seat. But good news-- i got to sit next to Betsy!! i was so relieved. Amazingly, the plane started backing up and moving without any warning message or greeting from a flight attendant or pilot. People were still standing up, praying, chatting, putting bags up and the plane was slowly making its way down the runway.
then i realized i hadnt eaten since 9 am that morning. and it was midnight. Betsy is my mom sometimes and had bought me a turkey sandwich but it had mayo on it. i knew i had to eat because my hands were shaking and the stress and craziness of the day was probably draining me. also i wanted to take a sleeping pill. so i slowly forced myself to eat half of a sandwich with mayo. who would have thought i'd eat a non kosher turkey mayo sandwich on a trip to Israel?
as i started to drift to sleep sitting up, watching Good Guys, with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlburg, which by the way is a terrible bad bad movie, anxiety washed over me. what was i doing? i was crammed in a seat on a plane containing 470 passengers, flying over night, taking me farther and farther away from my husband. even with the ambien it was hard to sleep.
in the morning things seemed more hopeful, we were closer to our destination. all the orthodox jewish men were stnading up and praying and rocking back and forth over their scriptures.
when we landed we had to collect thirty people, some of whom are mentally insane. that took over an hour. Luckily, again, Betsy was still laughing, and Sue was bossing everyone around as needed. then we got on a bus and drove an hour and a half. it was dark so i couldnt see anything interesting. from what i saw it looked like Arizona, only all the signs were in Hebrew or Arabic.
our hotel in Caesarea is gorgeous. Christina has already made friends with half of the tour participants and introduces me to them. she was so excited to see me, she jumped up and down and hugged me.
we had a delicious dinner, with a variety of different fresh salads- pasta salads, eggplant salads, roasted pepper salads, quinoa salads, delicious hummus, several types of yummy kosher meats that reminded me of eating dinner at my grandmas...
after dinner we all met and prayed. it was encouraging. Jerry said that we were all there because each one of us had a reason to be there, a purpose. one woman got so excited she stood up and started saying 'Hallelujah'. i thought it was a bit of an overreaction, but it got worse when, as she exited the meeting she began speaking in tongues. another man joined her. disturbed, i turned around and walked in the other direction to speak to Betsy.
tomorrow we are up at 5:45, luggage on the bus by 6:15, breakfast by 6:45, on the road to Caesaria and Tiberius by 7:30.
No comments:
Post a Comment