arrival

We arrived in Tel Aviv this morning, having not slept in nearly 24 hours. As we landed, I was a little disappointed to be in teh center section of seats on the plane; I had hoped for a morning glimpse of the Mediterranean. The airport, like many in the US, conjures images of shopping malls, complete with a water fountain, except all of the signs appear in Hebrew in English. We made it through customs and security quite easily, but this experience varies largely depending on one's country of origin. One of our classmates joining us who flew in from Prague had been questioned and searched several times earlier that morning. Dr. Simpson, our leader from the US, said this was the least amount of obvious security he had seen at the airport as well as the checkpoint to enter Bethlehem (Palestinian area) from Jerusalem (Israeli area). As a bonus, since we arrived so early in the day, our tour guide took us to Jaffa (Joppa), which is basically the same city as Tel Aviv, so I got to see the Mediterranean, which I have been dreaming about since I was a child. I decided I could spend the whole trip there, falling asleep to the crashing waves and watching surfers, but that will need to wait. Jaffa reminded both Ben and me of Southern California. The smell of fried food and salt water and people running/biking felt so familiar. After we arrived at the Lutheran Guesthouse, we napped for a few hours and went for a walk in teh nearby market, where people were selling produce (gorgeous dates and fragrant thyme, scarves, coats and shoes were popular). The streets are shared by vehicles and people in very close proximity... the cars 'talk' by honking their horns. Some mean 'hello', some mean 'move' and some mean 'I am driving really fast and you need to get out of the way or I will hit you'. I am so blessed to be here.