In Israel

Hey Everyone!

I made it to Israel safely after about 20 hours of traveling. I got to Newark at about 2 pm and then hung out with my uncle and aunt and cousins for a while before going back to the airport to meet up with the group. The first person I met in the airport was a girl named Jordan who happened to be best friends with two of the only people I know going, Molly and Zoe Stern. After hanging around the airport for a while, we boarded the airplane and started our way to Tel Aviv. I sat next to a girl named Melanie from Fresno and a girl named Rio from Carmel, both in California. (If you're wondering why everyone is a girl its because there are only 30 boys compared to 90 girls.) The plane ride was long but not too bad. I slept for most of it and talked and watched part of Wedding Crashers. We made it to the Kibbutz at about 6 pm on Monday where we met the principal, moved into our rooms, ate dinner, got our phones, and hung out for a while.  

Everyone I've met is really nice. Most people are from the Northeast or California. I'm the only Texan so I got to represent well. (I wore my UT shirt on the plane on purpose.) I have three roommates. One is from Northern Virginia, one from San Francisco area, and the other from Boston. They're all pretty cool so far. The food the first day was alright. Its going to take some getting used to. I brought Easy Mac and Pace salsa with me. And there is the Markilit which is a small grocery store on the Kibbutz, so hopefully I won't wither away too quickly.

Today we met our teacher for our general studies (math, science, etc.) and they all seem pretty nice. I sneezed while my math teacher was talking and it was kind of gross and thats as exciting as the teacher meetings were.

Most of this post was written at 5:30 am because I was jet-lagged and then I edited it because now its 6:15 pm. I have so much more to say and there will be another post coming soon! 

Joey Blatt