i made it!

wow, so i finally made it! i can't believe i'm here. i'm actually staying in the West Bank, aka Palestine... and as you can imagine, it's a totally different world. the city i'm in is predominately Muslim and i've already heard the call to prayer and a muslim "worship" service announced from the mosque for the whole city to hear. that might take some getting used to.

i love it already though! it's so great to see my friends again. another couple that i'm friends with are here visiting before they take off to Uganda for the next 2 yrs. so the 5 of us are planning to go hiking tomorrow at Wadi Qilt and then to the sea of galilee on sunday. stay tuned for pictures.
on another note, i flew with an israeli airline out of Toronto.. and let me just say, that i have never been so nervous in my life going thru security. El Al Airlines is one of the most secure in the world, which is great.. i'm all about security, but man they gave me such a hard time. they took my purse and carry on backpack for "double security check" and then wouldn't let me have it back until i boarded the plane. that's a first. they also took my laptop saying that there was a security issue with part of it and they wouldn't allow me to have it on the plane. i had 2 options - either let them mail it back to NC or put it under the plane in my check in. neither of which were options for me. i explained that i was uncomfortable sending my laptop under the plane, especially since they couldn't guarantee the safety of it. after much haggling on my part, i finally had to talk with the supervisor and he made me give it to one of the flight attendants, who stuck it in a cabinet until i arrived in Tel Aviv. i also got padded down 3 times. also a first. flying to Israel on an Israeli airline is not a joke.

here's a few pics from the apartment...

view from the roof
apartment buildings

from the roof - which i love, and am totally stoked to have some good quiet (or not so quiet) times up there