Day 76/77 - Departure

I woke up with the sad knowledge that today would be my last day in Israel. Even though it was pretty early, I headed to Café Madaa for our last breakfast get-together, where I found Zvonimir, Rachel, Onur and Daniela already waiting. We drank coffee and had a leisurely light meal, after which Rachel K. arrived to meet Daniela for their day trip to Jerusalem. Rachel and I then headed to my room to grab a book I had borrowed from Noa, and she came along with me to drop it off in Perlman.

We then headed down Hertzl to the grocery store, where we both stocked up on food for our friends in the States. We both bought Tim Tams, and I got some chocolate and Bamba to go along with it, while she got assorted candy that isn’t Kosher back at home for her friends. We stopped at the change place for her to change her last paycheck into dollars, then went back to Clore to put away our foods, hoping they hadn’t melted in the boiling heat of the day.

We found a group readying to go out for lunch, so joined Jonathan, Dan, Ari, and Zvonimir, who were ready to leave. I called Asaf, and once he came down to the lobby, we headed out. For a slight change, we found ourselves at Aroma. We wanted to sit inside due to the blistering sun, but had to scrounge up some tables and chairs. Most of us got sandwiches, but Rachel got a salad which was so huge that even with the rest of us helping her once she had eaten her fill, we left more than half of it.

Back at Clore, I started packing. Ari was leaving for Greece soon, so he did the same, and as soon as he finished we said our goodbyes. Dan, too, was leaving, but only for the weekend, so we had to say goodbye as well. Asaf and Jonathan hung around, and Jonathan played some guitar for me as I worked. When he played Sweet Child of Mine, though, I felt the need to play him the Penn Band version. He and Asaf were very impressed, so we went through my whole Penn Band playlist, which includes only The Band that Rocked the Cradle and Four Score and Five Score and Several Years To Go…the latest isn’t yet on my computer. I promised to send it to them, as it has Carry On, and Asaf lamented the lack of anything “cool” like that at his undergrad. Yes, the band is COOL!

Anyways the rest of the afternoon was spent in the same way, with goodbyes (the easiest, and last, was to Rachel: I’ll totally be seeing her at Penn), and packing, and a shower. As my family’s arrival approached, Asaf and I went to the roof of Clore for me to get one last look at Rehovot. Then we waited on the steps outside. When they pulled up, we let them in, then grabbed my suitcases and brought them upstairs. I put my room key and key card in an envelope and left them in the box outside Nissim’s office, then we put all my stuff in Eli’s van and I said goodbye and thank you to Asaf.

Eli drove us to Tel Aviv, where we went to the harbor area and ate dinner at a place called Boya as the sun set. We were on the boardwalk and had a great view of the sea and passersby, and ate a great meal. Afterwards, we walked around a bit along the boardwalk before meeting Eli for the drive to the airport. We then said goodbye to him and unloaded all our luggage, and headed in.

Security wasn't a problem, but as soon as we were through, we saw that our plane was apparently TEN HOURS delayed. We thought this couldn't be right, so stood in line to check in anyways, like normal. It was quite a wait, but once we got to the front we were told this was indeed the case, and they rebooked us on a flight to Atlanta. Fine, as our car was in New York, and we live in Maryland. So we were three hours early for our flight, therefore only one hour early for this new one. We didn't dally as we went through passport control after checking our bags, then walked briskly to the gate and immediately boarded the plane.

This was a much nicer plane than the one that took me here. I flew Delta both ways, but on the way here it was direct, and on a very small plane (by international flight standards). This one was roomy and nice, and, though I slept, I believe I was comfortable throughout the flight. When we landed at 6 am in Atlanta, nothing was open yet, so we couldn't try to get on an earlier connecting flight to New York (ours was supposed to be at 12:30 pm). After a half hour of camping out at the unopened desk, people showed up and told us everything was booked solid. We decided to take our chances on standby on an 8:45 am flight, and luckily all four of us got on. This was a very small plane, but again, I slept and soon we were at JFK.

Our luggage got there too, luckily, so we gathered it and took the shuttle thing to our car. After the five hour drive, we were home again.

This concludes my journal entries about my trip. I had an amazing summer, and will continue to post a few things (like quotes, thoughts, etc) for a few more days or weeks (depending on when I get to it). Keep checking back periodically, and thanks for reading!

A bunch of the peeps at Aroma

Eating Aroma salad

A very slow water machine

And, my personal favorite picture:

Doesn't this look like it could be the worst date ever???