Travel Home, Conclusion

My body has completely shut down due to exhaustion and lack of sleep. I managed to fall asleep just before the plane took off. Being awake for 22 straight hours after many nights without enough sleep has finally taken its toll on me. Fast forward to flight #2 from Zurich to New York – Swiss Air has amazing chocolates. Once I got to New York I went to check in for my flight to Toronto via Washington DC. They said that the flight to DC might be delayed due to bad weather, thus making me miss my flight to Toronto. Shit! Not again! Luckily, the ticket agent was able to put me on a direct flight home to Toronto that gets in 4 hours earlier! I had to take a 1 hour shuttle bus from JFK to LaGuardia, and I managed to get home early! Once again 5 airports, 4 countries, 3 flights all in one day.

Of my 4 trips to Israel, this was my shortest one – only 7.5 days. Going and coming took almost 60 hours, and the ridiculousness of almost missing my flights getting to Israel was beyond stressful. I did not know what to expect from this trip. I had only met one person prior to this trip and I was the only Canadian. On a trip geared towards volunteering and community service I did not expect to see anything new on this trip. I did not know what kind of work we would be doing or what kind of impact it would have on me or the communities. I did not know what it would be like to be going to Israel just as Israel was going to war.

The work we did as a group was amazing. We saw a real change when 40 students spend a few hours a day volunteering. The entire group of people was awesome and they definitely helped to pass the time at some of the more tedious jobs (picking up trash). In the 7.5 days here, the only things that I had done before was shop in Tel Aviv (which I could have done without) and visiting the Western Wall and the tunnel tours (which is always a must!). Everything else was a completely new experience which was a pleasant surprise. There are a ton of things to see and do here and I was glad I got to experience a lot of new sites. It was important to be here in times of war. It is imperative to show Israelis that we stand with them and support them in times of peace, and especially in times of war. What you see in the mainstream media is not indicative of life in Israel. Everyday is still business as usual and I was not scared for myself, but only scared for others.

This was another incredible trip to Israel, and another one I will never forget.
Once again, the people of Sderot STILL need your help. You can still donate to the rocket proof playground here.

Travel Day 2

Still not there yet. Long story short, I get out of the airport in Tel Aviv at 4PM local time after a layover in Zurich, Switzerland. Amazingly everything went smoothly and I even got my luggage! From the airport it was a 2 hour drive south to Yerucham where we would be staying for the next 3 days.

I had a chance to shower and then we went for dinner in the hostel where we were staying. They advertised an Israeli dinner, but there was only bread, humus and salads at the table, which was disappointing. After about 10 minutes they brought soup which was surprising because we did not know there was more food. Then came the fries and rice. Five minutes later they brought schnitzel. Then I started to get full – I should not have eaten so much bread and humus had I known there was going to be schnitzel. Five minutes later they brought out the shwarma. I was not prepared for this much food!!! And lastly desert! The food was great and plentiful as it continued to be for the entire trip.

We had orientation after dinner and then we were given free time. Yerucham is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Israel and thus there is nothing to do here. We spent the rest of the evening at the park and hung out at the hostel.

The Amazing Race

The blog title is misleading – there is nothing amazing about this race. 5 airports, 4 countries, 3 flights… wait – that doesn’t add up…

My 6AM flight from Toronto to New York was cancelled and the only way I could get out of Toronto was by land, not air. They booked me on a flight from Buffalo to New York at 11:30AM, so I had to drive to Buffalo. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. As I was waiting in line to check in, the power to the entire airport goes out! They manually write me a boarding pass that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Because of the last minute flight change, I was not guaranteed a seat on the flight. I check my luggage and go to the gate where someone might be able to help me. Since there was no power, the people at the desk were unable to confirm my seat – they told me to call their hotline to confirm my seat, but the hotline told me to speak to the person at the gate! This continued for almost 4 hours!

At 1PM (an hour and a half after the flight was supposed to leave) power came back on. After waiting in several lines they gave me a spot on the flight, and a real boarding pass! At this point I am continuing to freak out because I need to get on a plane ASAP which is not here! The plane was redirected to Rochester and is now scheduled to leave at 245. This is not good, as my next flight is leaving at 610. Once on the flight, I manage to relax for about a nanosecond. My stress level then skyrockets as the flight can be summed up by the phrase “screaming baby”.

My boarding pass! Unbelievable!

We land in New York at 430, leaving me an hour and a half to disembark, get my luggage, change terminals, check in, go through security and find the gate. I also have no idea where to go to accomplish any of these tasks! When I got to the luggage carosel I immediately went to lost luggage. I was fairly confident that my luggage had made it – but I did not have time to wait for it. I was watching the far carosel from a distance as the lady was doing the paperwork; all the while I did not see any luggage! After the paperwork was done to re-route my bag to Israel I left the room and saw people on my flight at a different carousel! I immediately found my bag and told them they didn’t have to re-route it. To make another long story short I get to the gate 5 minutes before I get on the plane. Obviously I was the last person from the group to arrive. Ironically, had I made my initial flight from Toronto I would have been the first person to arrive.
At this point things started to improve. After a game of musical seats, I won by getting the aisle seat behind the washroom which had extra leg room!

Chicago - The Windy City

AEPi convention #2!!! This time in Chicago. During this trip, I was scheduled to be writing 3 final exams. Luckily, I was able to reschedule them; I wrote two yesterday, and one the day before. It has been a very stressful past few days, but I'm happy its over with and that I'm heading to convention. Unfortunately once I get back I still have one last exam to write.

The day started out early, as we left for Chicago at 730AM, and left on our 10 hour bus ride. We rented a greyhound bus for 25 of us from different AEPi chapters in the area. The bus ride was long and the scenery was extremely boring. We stopped for lunch at a Burger King in the states, and one of us tried to apply for a job. Additionally, I had a job interview with RIM while on the bus.

We eventaully arrived at the hotel, and checked all out stuff into the hotel. We went out for dinner to a famous deep dish pizza place, where the food was amazing. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, where we heard some speaches and then began our first night of partying.

The Canadian Delegation

The Last Day

My flight back to Toronto via New York City did not leave until midnight, so I still had the entire day left. I took the train into Tel Aviv University where I walked around the campus and went to the Diaspora Museum to learn about the diaspora Jews - those living outside of Israel. I made it back to Rechovot in time for lunch, and took it easy for the afternoon. I packed my stuff and watched President Bush arrive in Israel, and in Jerusalem. Bush was staying in a hotel in Jerusalem about 200 meters from where I had stayed. It was a good thing that I was nowhere near Jerusalem, as it was pretty hectic and crazy with all the security there.

Beautiful Tel Aviv University campus.

In the evening I met up with a friend of mine, Yuval. I had met him in Waterloo when he came on a campus tour of Canada, meeting Jews at different schools as well as sightseeing. We went out for dinner, then for dessert had a last falafel before he took me to the airport.

Going home

I had a 6:20AM flight out of Palm Springs, and had to catch a 4AM shuttle bus. As this was the last night, people were up partying all night. I along with a bunch of other people who had to catch the 4AM bus decided not to go to sleep at all, so we continued to party once people went to bed. Myself, and one other guy from Vancouver had the same first flight to Salt Lake City, where we were catching different connecting flights. We sat down in our seats, and before we knew it, the flight attendants told us to get off the plane. We had completely passed out, and didn't even realize the plane had take off or landed - best flight ever! I was not as lucky for the second flight. I was right in the back of the plane, so my seat couldn't recline. Not only did it not recline, but I'm pretty sure the seat angle was less than 90 degrees. Partway through the flight, I managed to find a different seat on the plane, but not much luck getting to sleep.

Final Thoughts
This entire trip was amazing. Traveling with Stoop and seeing 4 cities in 5 days without our own car was pretty grueling. Every day was long, jam packed with seeing as much as we could in each city, and we did a LOT of partying, and not much sleeping at all. Besides all the traveling and sightseeing, the highlight for me was hanging out the guys in AEPi as we traveled to each city. They were more than hospitable to us, and treated us like their own brother.