UP UP AND AWAY!

So… 13 hour flight and I somehow only managed to sleep for about 30 minutes. I put my headphones in, turned on my Israel music playlist to set the mood and hoped I would drift off into a sleep and wake up hearing the flight attendants playing Hatikvah. I woke up, little did I know, about a half hour after I fell asleep and thought I had slept for hours. Checked my watch and couldn’t believe only a minimal amount of time had passed. Perhaps my mind is so caught up in the adventures that lie ahead that there is no time to rest.

Oh well, that’s one of the things about travel I have become quite accustomed too. No sleep and always on the go. We have about two hours until landing and I have lost any hope of gaining sleep and have just convinced my self that sleep won’t be necessary… I will be so excited to get off this plane and start touring that I will quickly forget I have gone about 23 hours with no sleep. I will sleep when I’m dead, when in Israel there is too much to do and no time to sleep.

Had I slept on this flight I would have missed out on great conversations with the two women sitting on both sides of me. They asked me why Americans are so fat. At first I was kind of offended and then I started to wonder what was I offended for? American society prides itself on meat and carbs. Although I love a good bagel and French fries, Israelis are always so shocked at how poorly balanced our meals are. For breakfast, the lady next to me told me, she was given potatoes, bacon, eggs, sausage, a waffle, English muffin and a cheese Danish. She said that would never happen in Israel. I think that’s one of the things I will be adding to my list of reasons why I need to move to Israel: a good sense of portion control and an understanding of what a truly balanced meal is.

Sorry mom, I haven’t even had a chance to kiss the ground in Israel yet and I already know I won’t be ready to leave after just three months. I have been on many many flights before and never have I been on a flight with complete strangers, from two different worlds, a language barrier and felt so comfortable and had so much to talk about. I LOVE ISRAELIS. I love Israel and I cannot wait to touch down.

- Anna Rubin