Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Travel Day

This is my first attempt at keeping a blog, so here goes. I'm writing from JFK airport in NY where I have just gotten off of my flight from Atlanta. I have about 6 hours to kill until my ElAl flight to Tel Aviv. From Tel Aviv I will be traveling to Jerusalem where I will start my year as a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College. It has definitely been a journey getting to this point. I had been freaking out about how on earth I would bring all of my stuff with me, but I ended up working it out. Since I had a domestic flight before my international flight, I was worried that I would have to follow the domestic baggage rules (which definitely would NOT have worked for me). After calling delta and finding out that they would follow ElAl's baggage rules, I had to stop myself from declaring my love to the delta agent I was talking to. She pretty much made my day.

The next step was actually packing. I could have 2 bags up to 70 pounds plus my carry ons. I soon discovered how much suitcases actually weigh. I found a giant suitcase in my basement, preceded to weight it, and when I saw that it was almost 20 pounds I quickly decided that duffel bags were the way to go. Then came the actual packing. When you're trying to plan out what to bring for an entire year, it requires a whole lot of planning. I figured I can get most basic toiletries and essentials when I get to Jerusalem, so I really just had to go through all of my clothes, pick out what would go and what would stay at home, and then figure out what other items I wanted to bring that might be harder to find in Israel (for me this meant sheets that lived up to my softness expectations and my own pillows). I managed to eliminate a lot of clothes, but shoes were a different issue entirely. I will not admit to the actual amount that I ended up taking. In all fairness though, I did cut out MANY of pairs.

It was an extremely tight squeeze, but considering I have already lasted the first leg of the journey; I would say it has worked out. One of my duffels was exactly 70 lbs (I weighed it many times in advance to make sure), and the other was about 64. I was really hoping that the bag was bigger so that I could use up that other 6 pounds. I had to eliminate my photo album and some other things from my carry on to make room for the little bit of stuff that couldn't fit into the duffel. It's ok though because my parents are visiting over Sukkot (holiday that falls late September/early October), and I am going to have them bring me an additional bag with some more winter appropriate clothes, and all the stuff that I couldn't fit the first time. As far as winter in Israel goes, we have been told to pack really warm things because it does get cold, and that people from warmer climates (which would be me having lived in Atlanta and New Orleans my whole life) should not underestimate this. I really have no idea what to expect.

I have never been so impressed with how much I managed to squeeze into a suitcase. I couldn't even fit another sock into that bag if I wanted to. My bags are checked all the way through to Israel, so I don't have to deal with them now. The fun part will be when I get to the Tel Aviv airport. I know that I can get a luggage cart at baggage claim, but don't know if I can take it outside with me to where I have to catch a sherut (which is like a taxi that gets you from the airport to wherever you need to go for very little money).

There really isn't too much else to report at this point.Things will get much more exciting once I'm actually in Israel. For now I get to kill more time in the airport. I have a friend going to Germany today and it turns out that our airlines are in the same terminal. Hopefully we will get to meet up, and that will cut down on my boredom. Thanks for reading this far. I promise it will get much more interesting once I have real things to report on. Next time I will try to put up some pics of my apartment!

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