Here's to the start of the best 10 days!
The past 24 hours have been hectic for us. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting next to my new friend Amit, as well as some fellow ZBT brothers from the University of Kansas (and Myles!) Fortunately, I was able to get into NYC the day before we left for Israel, and a family friend gave me an extensive tour of downtown Manhattan (thanks Nina!)
I finally met up with our group at JFK, and we braced for the next 4 hours of waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. You'd be hard pressed to find a cooler group than us! We have three sets of twins in our group, but most importantly, I found another Chinese-Jewish brother! (We're unicorns, Jordan) Also, I have to give a shoutout to Shirly for destroying us at the card game B.S.
Once everyone arrived, we made our way up to the check-in for El-Al airlines. I swear, I felt like I was going to fail a test with the questions they asked me. I was asked to write my name in Hebrew, to which I'm 100% positive I spelled completely wrong. Nonetheless, she was impressed by my efforts and let me pass!
We probably waited in line for a total of 2 hours, which meant that we were cutting it close on time to the flight. But then, the doors to heaven opened up, and we saw the glory that is Shake Shack. I had the 'shroom burger, and it made the waiting all worth it :) Don't worry mom, I promise to eat healthy the next 10 days!
I guess I don't look like my passport photo, because the woman checking passports to get on the plane had to get her supervisor to verify that I am indeed Aaron Gesmer. Our flight was about 10 hours, but thanks to sleep and the new film "A Walk in the Woods" being played a total of 3 times, the flight wasn't all that bad. There was also a woman on the flight who brought her cat on board, and it took me forever to figure out where the meowing was coming from.
Once we landed, I had a mini heart attack when I couldn't find my passport (I swear mom, I'm not trying to worry you) Rest assured, it was floating around in my backpack, and I didn't have to go to the American Embassy to handle business.
We were greeted with open arms and big smiles by our new Israeli friends, and we even learned a new song in the middle of the airport! We're only in the middle of our first day, but I know that the following 10 days hold some of the best experiences that I'll have.
I want to say that I miss my family lots! Love and miss you mom, dad, Adam and Joe, and my boys from back home Danny and Nathan! Can't wait to see you all soon.
