Day One

After a stressful day packing and completing final chores, we left St. Louis armed with less than three hours' sleep. Those of you who know that airplanes and Bill do not get along well will be happy to hear that he did much better than normal, thanks to God, a Hyland Air Sickness Homeopathic, wristbands, and a quiet and uneventful flight. As our plane neared Israel and the sun began to rise in the east, several Jewish men on the plane donned their prayer shawls and phylacteries, got out their prayer books, faced Jerusalem, and quietly prayed.

We arrived in Tel Aviv about 9:30 a.m. Our sherut took us down Highway 443 toward Jerusalem. Bill enjoyed a nice conversation with a young Jewish American who had also just arrived in Israel for vacation. I asked him how to say "delicious." (That is a very important word!) He said "tie-eem " means "tasty." At one point, when the sherut had to stop for traffic, a man approached the driver for a light. Though by now the driver could continue driving, he took time to exchange some formalities and light the man's cigarette while traffic started to back up behind us. One indication that we were now in a different world, one where human interaction assumes a different dimension than America's norm. We were the last passengers to be dropped off, landing at the intersection of King George and Hillel. We spent nearly the entire day with a friend, who showed us around and took us through the paces with procedures of the college we will be helping with while we are here.

While walking down Ben Yehuda Street, a little group of cheery young people asked us if we would like to buy homemade cookies to support a school trip they wanted to take. We chatted with them for a few minutes, then bought two of what they called "American" cookies. I must say that my cookie was one of the best chocolate chip cookies I had ever eaten. "Tie-eem!"

We met our building manager Boris, who is a Russian Jew. His small dental office is next to our apartment. His English is not great and he heard our names as "Sophia" rather than "Sylvia" and "Ferrin" rather than "Bill." Later, I saw him in the hall and he said, "Tell Ferrin I said hello." When in a foreign country, communication takes on a whole new meaning! So for now on, with Boris, we will be "Sophia" and "Ferrin."

We were fighting fatigue but, other than a brief nap, we forced ourselves to stay awake throughout the day. Then, we got so busy that we did not get to sleep until 1:00 a.m. We were able to sleep five hours, still feeling fatigued but ready for Day Two. (If you have ever had jet lag, you can identify with such a bizarre sleeping pattern!)