Days 1 and 2....or something like that!

One funny thing about traveling from the United States to Israel is that due to the time zone differences, we become the subjects of time-games! So, Day 1 is not really Day 1 alone…it is Days 1 and 2 together. And Days 1 and 2 is exactly what we are going to report about in this blog.

As you know, Rabbi Joe Eiduson and I are in Israel with our Grade 10 Midrasha students as part of our Boston-Haifa exchange with the Alliance High School in Haifa.  We hosted 20 Haifa students and their teachers in December in the Boston area, and now we are here in Israel with 8 TBA sophomores!  For all but a couple of them, this is their very first visit to Israel; and, even for those who have been there before, there is nothing in their family experiences that can compare to being here and living with Israelis and understanding the State of Israel through their eyes and experiences.  

We have decided on the following protocol for our daily blogs. Each student will be a featured writer for at least one day of the trip….and we may double up later on in the trip once we leave Haifa, as there is a lot on the itinerary for the second part of the trip, and we move around quite a bit!

For now, we are "home" in Haifa -- all is quiet here.  The students were all met at the Alliance School by their host families, and after a really warm welcome and a couple of mixers "Israeli style"  our tired students went to their homes for dinner, a shower and a good night's sleep!

Our first student blog entry is from Sydney Kaster:

Our adventure began in Boston on Sunday morning, February 12.  We all got to the airport, had no problems with checking in, and boarded our flight to JFK in NYC. The plane was small so we all got to sit together and begin to get excited about Israel -- it was finally here!  Kennedy Airport was crowded and loud; there was a little worry in the air as many flights were already being canceled because of the upcoming storm.  We were reassured that our flight to Tel Aviv was on time and that the weather should hold off -- which it did.  We had quite a bit of time in the New York airport, so we walked around (and around and around!!) a lot, ate (a tremendous amount!), looked at one another's travel gear and electronic devices for the plane and relaxed a bit. The flight from New York to Tel Aviv was long and a little bumpy, but okay.  We actually landed in Israel early due to the really strong winds…we were happy to get off the plane and be in Israel...wow! With a seven hour time difference, we arrived and it was already Thursday mid-afternoon!!  The plane was huge with not a single empty seat. I thought about all of the people coming to and going from Israel for all different reasons: Jews and non-Jews, older, younger, Orthodox, Reform, secular.  

Because I have been to Israel several times already, I knew exactly what I had been looking forward to all of those months leading up to today:  the fresh smell of the Tel Aviv air when you step outside the airport for the first time, the people in Israel who all seem to look familiar, the sense of safety that I feel in the State of Israel, the happy and stress-free atmosphere of just being here, the excitement of showing Israel to Temple friends who have never been here for before. I felt happy and welcomed by the Israelis tonight at Alliance and by our friends, Guy and Nir from Puzzle Israel.

A special message to my family:

"Hi, everyone! I'm here!!  I'm safe and happy. It is warm and sunny. I wish you were all here with me to enjoy this experience together.  But this will be a good bonding time for all of us TBA kids, and you will be hearing from me all along the way.  Love you, Syd."