The Beginning of our Journey

Shalom everyone!

 Ella here. Early Wednesday morning half of our big family struck out on our big adventure. Abba, Saba, Henny, Sarah, and myself spent four hours on a plane to Chicago. Watching out the window as we flew into the O'Hare airport was strange, I had never seen land so flat. I don't think I could stand living somewhere with barely any hills, let alone mountains.


Flying into the Windy City, note lake Michigan with the ice!

Ella at O'Hare

Henny at O'Hare

Sarah at O'Hare

 

 As soon as we stepped out of that delightfully warm airport, we were bombarded by freezing cold. Washingtonians have no idea what cold is really like. Though it was sunny, it was around 7 degrees outside. Dry, freezing, cold. I felt like I was in a populated Antarctica. Thankfully we only were outside for a minute until Aunt Isabella picked us up and we could view the landscape from inside the comfort of a heated car. As we drove to Wheaton, I was constantly amazed by the flat land covered with ice and snow. The bare trees were also a new experience, I barely saw any evergreens.

Wheaton college buildings.

 Our short time in Chicago was great. Uncle Roberto and Aunt Isabella were very hospitable and our dear little cousins were very excited to have us there. Thank goodness they kept their house a fair amount warmer than the temperature outside! The highlights of the stay had to be spending time with our cousins and playing yaztee and wizards that evening.

The abominable snowwomen.

Freezing on a walk

Matching Cousins

 

 

By one pm the next day we were back at the O'Hare airport, where we had a major scare. When we went to check in, the Delta counter told Saba and Abba that they weren't able to go to Israel because their passports expired in less than six months. Our heart sunk, but God had other plans. Baruch Hashem that they were able to work it out and let us get through to security! Also, I left my IPod in the terminal at the airport and didn't realize until after they were closing the door of the plane. The flight attendants were able to get someone to find it for me, another reason to praise God.

 

 We stopped at the JFK airport in New York for a hour or so before getting on the large airbus that took us all the way to Tel Aviv. That nine and a half overnight flight is brutal, but at least we each had our own personal TV things on the back of the seat. I slept for only fifteen minutes, I hadn't realized how hard it is to sleep sitting up! It was torture being so tired, yet not being able to fall asleep. When we landed in Tel Aviv it was noon their time and the sun was shining brightly on the land of Israel.  

 

One of the great lakes

Sunset over the New York coast

 

 

We didn't have a GPS (the phone was at the hotel), and so we had to use maps to find our way to our place in Tel Aviv. Considering we had a hard time figuring out where we were on the map at first, it certainly was an adventure getting there. The streets in Tel Aviv are very narrow, once my dad had to make a several point turn in the minivan just to turn onto another street! It is so very different than America. That evening we enjoyed a wonderful meal at a nearby restaurant, where the food was delicious.

 

 This Shabbat morning, after breakfast, we walked through the streets of Tel Aviv to a messianic service. It was mostly in Hebrew, but the guest speaker was American and I could easily understand her. We all agreed that the service was good, and I personally really enjoyed the worship. They had someone with an electric violin, which sounded really cool, and the songs were all in Hebrew. :)

 Our old friend Mr. Joe, who we hadn't seen in five years, surprised us by showing up. It took me a second or two to figure out who he was. After the service he walked down with us to the beach and walked around Jaffa for a bit. There was a large Shabbat crowd all around, more people then I had even seen in Waikiki, or so it seemed, and almost none of them were speaking English. The Mediterranean is beautiful, and I can't wait to get into that water tomorrow.

Us in Tel Aviv

Coffee, or "Ka-fay"

Waking around Tel Aviv

Beach

Street art made from rebar

 

We just got back from having another delicious dinner. I must say, I love the food here. All the vegetables and fruits are really to my liking, along with classic middle eastern food. I feel sorry for Henny, she's not a fan of all the tomatoes they have. Ah well. So far these two days in Israel have been great, I'm very excited for the rest of this trip!

 

God Bless,

 

Ella