DAY ONE-THREE

(I didn't have internet access until yesterday so forgive me for the delay!)

Day One:

The blog begins. As I sit here in JFK International Airport desperately trying to leach off any free internet I can (where are jetblue hotspots when you need them?) I am slowly beginning to realize just how long I will be away. SIX MONTHS…that’s half of one year, 182 days (roughly), 262,800 minutes and a helluvah lotta seconds.

I am so lucky.

A mere two weeks ago I was slaving away at Bellmore Bagel Café asking if , “you’d like anything else with that?”



Day Two:

After a turbulent (and sleepless) flight, Rachel, Mary and I arrived at Heathrow an hour late and in one piece. The airline is extremely hip or “fab” as they say in England. We were served dinner at 10 pm American time and breakfast at 3 am American time. Needless to say, I wasn’t very hungry. The crew was very welcoming when we all arrived, they even seated us together! Once seated we had the option of playing videogames (multiplayer or single), watching movies, listening to “audio.” The main menu also had the option of reading news, weather watching an updated map or “retail therapy”. I was impressed with the service and professionalism. After take-off the entire plane received gift bags with socks, sleep masks, pens a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Right now I’m sitting in a café eating an English breakfast bowl, once again attempting to hack into someone’s wi-fi. Heathrow offers it but one must pay '4 a minute just to use it…I’ll just wait for my hostel tonight when I’ll upload all this writing and pictures.

El Al’s gate does not open until 11 AM (right now it’s 10:12 AM) but I’m okay with that because the flight is on time. I can’t believe tomorrow I’ll be a full fledged Kibbutznik. I remember going to Kutz camp in Hebrew school and hearing about life on the Israeli community farms, even from that young age I envisioned myself there, planting trees, picking oranges and pomegranates off the trees, and riding camels to school…

The top news story in England right now aside from a workers strike at the Lindsay oil refinery in England is a 16-year old girl died whole sleding…they call it sledging here.



Day 3: I think.

I am currently writing this from a hostel in Tel Aviv, it is morning and I will soon trek over to the Kibbutz Program Center to FINALLY find out where I will placed for the next two months. But before I do all that I must use my complimentary breakfast voucher from the hostel and find some freaking wifi. For some reason I thought there would be a hotspot here. Anyway, the flight from London to Tel Aviv was only four hours but felt longer with the time change. I was able to get my luggage in under a minute- it was a Hebrew miracle! As I walked over to baggage claim my beautiful bright red bags shouted to me “over here!” Once I changed my American dollars to NIS or shekles, I attempted to get myself a cell phone…AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER… I finally got myself a cellular communications device, no thanks to the woman behind the desk. I’m sure it wasn’t her fault but I was literally standing in line for over an hour. Finding a taxi was easy because the airport has certified taxis, drivers and fixed fares so I didn’t have to worry about being ripped off. The driver who took me into Tel Aviv was so wonderful, he was bad at English and I’m not the best Hebrew conversationalist, so we spoke in Spanish! It was strangely successful. Checking into the sky hostel was no problem and it was so nice to shower. Although my jetlag made it hard to sleep I know I’ll sleep well at the kibbutz tonight (fingers crossed). I spoke to Robyn briefly yesterday but couldn’t get in touch with SharBear or Mitch because their phones didn’t accept collect calls! Oh well. Here’s my Israeli Cell Phone by the way, it’s probably cheaper if I just call you, so give me a good time to call (I’m seven hours ahead) 050-730-2256..but to call Israel you need to dial a bunch of other numbers so just let me know beforehand and I’ll explain it to you.