Isreal Day One - LAX to Jerusalem

Wow, what a day. As some of you probably know I am taking an interterm class this January (and end of December) in Israel. Today was the first day of our trip, we left LA on El Al airlines, flew directly to Tel Aviv (in an incredibly long, 14 hour flight), and then after dinner some of us took a walk down to the wailing wall. It was a really full, really stressful day, but the ending was incredible.

This moring (techinically it was yesterday morning, but for me it was this morning, I finished packing my bags and then headed out towards LAX. We had some textbooks that we had to bring for this class, and they were kind of heavy, so I weighed my suitcase three different times and then dumped stuff out three times before I finally got it under fifty, then I left.

(What I packed into my bag before I started dumpin stuff)

I dont' know if any of you have flown El Al before, if you haven't, let me tell you about them a little bit. They are (I think) the only Israeli airline, and they have (I think) the best saftey record in the world. The reason that they are so safe is because they have the most intense security I have ever seen. I am sure that the security was increased because of the guy who tried to blow up the airplane a few days ago, it is safe to say that it was the most stressful departure I have ever had.



After I got to the airport, I began to wait in line with our group, we got there early (and it was a good thing) so that they could get us in before the rush. Most airlines have ticket agents who work up through the line and help to make sure that everyone can get through the process as effeciently as possible. El Al has security agents that work their way up through the line to see if you need to be pulled out of the line for further questioning. At first I wasn't worried about anything, the security girls seemed nice and some of them were really cute, and when one got to me it was a pretty easy exchange. When she saw the stamps for Arab countries in my passport I had to explain what countries they were and why I was there. I thought it went well, but then she left for a moment and brought a pretty large and intimidating guy, whose indimidation had nothing to do with his size. Our exchange went like this:



Him: I am head of El Al security, tell me about countries in your passport.
Me: (nervous) all of the countries? You want me to name them?
Him: Arab countries.
Me: uhh, Egypt and Dubai, the United Arab Emerites. My dad works for an oil service company and I was visiting my parents when they were there.
Him: Which company.




I named the companies that Dad had worked for and he said, "Petroleum, ok." And walked off.

Then the cute security girl was back, and she was very nice, but she did ask to take all of my carry-ons to search them before I brought them onto the plane. She told me that I could take my wallet and that I would get everything else back at the gate when I boarded. She wouldn't even let me take a camera book that I had with me in my coat. "This feels heavy for a photography book, we better check it." All in all a little scary and pretty inconvenient, but not awful, at least not until I saw the big security guy pull another one of the girls on our trip off to the side for a longer questioning session. She has lived in both Lebanon and Jordan and has a number of Palestinian friends, which it turns out is big trouble in El Al's eyes. They made all of us, even our trip leaders Dr. Rigsby and his wife Donna head through to the gate while she was still off to the side of the ticketing desk while they decided what to do with her. Half an hour before boarding word came down, El Al decided that she couldn't fly. They ended up moving her to Lufthansa, and she'll get her and meet us tomorrow, but I didn't find that out until after we landed in Jerusalem. It was pretty intense. At that point I was thankful that mom and dad were here for petroleum reasons and not other ones. Otherwise I might not have been on that plane either.


At the gate, before I got my carry-ons back they tested my shoes, boarding pass, and passport for explosives residue (that was pretty cool) then we load up on a bus that takes us to a special boarding area that is far away from everything else. Police cars escorted our bus to the special El Al boarding area and there were police at the boarding area too. My carry-on had been completely emptied out and then repacked. Anything with batteries had the batteries removed (including my noise reducing headphones) and my camera had been tested at different settings to make sure it worked.


As for the flight...well it was long and uncomfortable. We sat on the tarmac for an hour before we took off (leaving an hour late), I guess there was a bag the decided was suspicious and took out of the plane. There were lots of noisy kids, I was stuck in the middle seat, and the seats were very, very tight. The only other flight that compares to the sheer uncomfortableness was an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to LA (that then broke down and spent the night in Oslo before resuming again).


I was very, very tired when we got to immigration and met an immigration agent who must have been the sister of the scary El Al security guy. Eventually she let me through and I actually made it to Israel. The airport is pretty nice. There was set of posters on the wall that had the "first man" of a bunch of different countries. Socrates for Greece, VanGogh for Holland, Motzart for Austria. The first Isreali man? A cactus. I've been in this country for less than a day, but I get it.


Jerusalem is a realy cool city with a distinctive feel. I think it is one of those places that you would never mistake for something else. All of the buildings have to have the same limestone facade so that the city looks uniform, it gives it a really old, cool feel.

(Jerusalem from our bus as we drove in. Every building in the city has this same limestone facade.)

We are staying in a hotel right inside the walls of the old city, the gloria hotel.

(a hallway in our hotel)

After dinner about twenty of us went off to look at the western wall. I thought we were going to the western wall of the old city, near the Jaffa Gate, which is right by our hotel. Instead we walked further into the old city, through narrow, winding streets filled with shops selling identical souveniers, we walked through the Christian Quarter, the Muslim Quarter and into the Jewish quarter when we turned a corner and, wow, we were looking at the temple mount. The western wall is also called the wailing wall. It is all that is left of Harod's temple, the one that Jesus overturned the tables in. It was the outer wall of the temple, inside the wall now stands the dome of the rock. Standing there and imagining what the temple must have looked like, all I can say is that it must have been incredible. We walked down to the wall took pictures and prayed. It was pretty incredible to be there, to be at what is left of the temple. There are signs around that ask you to respect the place where God's glory dwells, which is what the Jews believe. Some Orthodox Jews walk backwards when they walk away from the wall so that they don't turn they backs on God or his glory.

You have to wear something covering your head when you go to the wall (if you're a guy, girls need to have no head coverings). They provide cardboard Yamikas for you as you go up there to pray. Praying down there at the wall was pretty amazing. Amazing enought that when I walked away I walked backwards.

(The western or wailing wall where Jews still come to pray and stuff prayers into the cracks in the wall. The men and women pray seprately, men on the left and women on the right.)

(Me in front of the wailing wall.)

A long day ended up being a long post. We are in Jerusalem all week, tommorow we officially begin our tour of the Old city of Jerusalem. As always, thanks for reading.