I'm here!!!

Oh man, the last 48 hours has felt like one long continuous day, which it pretty much has been. I left Provo at about 8:30am on Tuesday, the 8th, arriving in the JFK airport at 6:30pm, leaving at 9:10pm and arriving in Tel Aviv Wednesday, the 9th, at about 2:30pm. So I am all kinds of messed up on the time. And I am really really tired. Unfortunately in the 15 hours I spent on a plane, I was unable to find a very comfortable sleeping position, shocker. However, on the flight from JFK to Tel Aviv I had my own personal tv and they served us dinner and breakfast…neither of which were very good, but when you are starving you'll eat anything! I was so incredibly happy to get off the plane when we arrived! But I wasn't excited to have to carry my 300 pound duffel bag through the airport again, and apparently neither was it because one of the straps broke (the other one that you didn't break Brad, ha). But I got a good upper arm workout from it, so I guess I won't complain too much. We walked through customs and everything was in Hebrew and you flush the bathrooms with a pedal and everyone is Jewish...yeah it's different here. But I was so happy to finally be in Israel! We had about a 45 minute bus ride to the Jerusalem Center and let me tell ya…this place is beautiful! We got to the center overlooking the city and it is amazing! And the center is gorgeous, I already love it. Tonight we had a couple of orientation meetings and we got to our rooms and unpacked everything. I realized I brought a lot of stuff! Ha, guess I am not too surprised with how much each of my bags weighed. We had dinner and it was actually pretty good. The olives are bitter, especially the green ones, but they're straight from the olive trees here, not from a can! And I had pita bread with nutella spread on it for dessert and that's when I knew that I would love it here haha. After a few short meetings in our classes they dismissed us for the night. And now it is 10:00pm and I am exhausted and ready for bed!

When we first walked in the gates to the center this afternoon they said, "Welcome to your new home." I think that's when it kind of hit me that I am going to be living here for the next 4 months…this is my temporary home. I am so excited to start this adventure and to make friends with all 81 of these people. They all seem so great! I love my roommates already and everyone is just so happy and friendly, I love it! My attitude has entirely changed in the last 48 and I am very grateful for that. I am no longer terrified of being away from everything and everyone I know for the next few months, but just so excited and feeling so blessed for this opportunity I have to be here! I know it's going to be so good for me and will be such an incredible adventure!