The Flight To Israel!

Tuesday January 26, 2014

The day has official come I can’t believe I leave for NFTY EIE today! My tummy hurts and my knees are shaking but I think it is a mix of nerves and excitement! I have two giant rolling duffels, a small carry on duffle, a backpack, a winter jacket, and a pillow pet! I got to the airport and it was just crazy and a bit intimidating. The big group of EIE students and most of their parents were waiting inside the terminal at JFK. All the students dragged their bags into a line to be individually interviewed by El Al staff. They asked me questions such as: do you belong to a temple? What’s on the Passover seder plate? Why are you going to Israel? After that my bags were sent through! Now that all the bags are checked all the students said goodbye to their families and headed off to security, which took awhile to get everyone through. We all met at the gate in which our flight was departing from. As soon as I got to the gate, the first thing that really made me feel like I was going to Israel was seeing the ultra orthodox men who stood by the window and faced the plane. They stood there praying until they were asked to board. Just seeing a variety of different types of ultra orthodox, Jew flying to Israel to visit family, and the crazy loud group of EIE students, all come together on one flight to go to Israel. It is just an amazing feeling! For the flight I sat in row 48 K which is a window seat. In my row I sat with two girls named Hanna London and Jamie Lief. We got two meals on the plane dinner and breakfast and I was lucky enough to have slept for a decent amount of the flight! During the flight, we got yelled at by the flight attendants multiple times to take our seats, not jump over seats, only three people to a row, don’t stand in the aisle, etc. It really felt like I was on a bus going to a NFTY-NEL event.  I am excited to get off the plane and land in Israel for the first time!