Travel

I hate airplanes.

That being said, the travel in order to arrive in Jerusalem really wasn't that bad. I had several people ask me piror to my departure if I was scared or nervous in anyway, and the answer really was no -- except for flying.

However, there were some perks. Getting to the Salt Lake airport with enough time to sit with my group of 39 other BYU students prior to take off was one, as I met several people I'll be living with for the next three and a half months. I also had plenty of time to begin a book about Anwar Sadat's wife, which is amazing. I highly recommend it, A Woman of Egypt by Jehan Sadat. We also had a five hour lay over in New York; although I do like the city, JFK airport is not my first choice of a five hour lay over. But we had a chance to do more meeting and friend-making before our 11 hour flight to Tel Aviv.

11 hours is more than enough time on a plane, but combine that with the previous four hour flight, a five hour lay over, arriving three hours prior to departure, and an hour bus ride when we finally did arrive and it makes me grateful that the rest of our trips are so close. Yes we are leaving the country, but travelling to Egypt or Jordan from Israel is very different than traveling to Mexico or Canada from certain parts of the US. Israel is just so much smaller.

Either way, we made it safely and no luggage was lost from our flight. (Some was from the other flight, but they had to go Salt Lake to Denver to Chicago to Vienna to Tel Aviv, so it isn't surprising that the airline messed up somewhere. That was a terrible schedule.) Which means I get to tell you all about our first day and a half in Jerusalem, but that seems like it ought to be a different post. Ready?