Three boarding passes and one taxi ride later . . .

We've arrived in Tel Aviv. Finally.

Security, especially going from Newark to Tel Aviv, was a nightmare. Our connector from Dallas to Newark ran late, so we had to run to the El Al flight to Israel, but we really thought we had sufficient time. Lo and behold, we got "randomly" pulled aside (all six of us, believe it or not) and we were held up for 2 1/2 hours (and the rest of the plane) while they took our bags apart and questioned us. Eventually, we found out that there was a medical emergency so the plane wasn't going to leave on time anyway, so apparently the Israeli attendants thought it would be ok to detain us--perhaps out of boredom? Whatever the reason, they ultimately decided to confiscate two cameras (although they left us the one that was obviously a video camera), a tripod, and an empty backpack. It was all very strange. Nonetheless, we got on the plane for Tel Aviv. We were served dinner, then the lights were turned down for sleep, and then we were served breakfast, both of which were very good.

After less that 12 hours, we made it to Israel. Yay! We took a cab ride across town to a small town on the edge of Tel Aviv called Old Jaffa, to stay at a hostel called the Old Jaffa Hostel.

The hostel is a beautiful old building on a cobblestone street. There's a flea market going on this morning that I really want to check out before we leave for Jerusalem.

And ending thought before I head down to the market: While I was on the plane though, I saw a kid using a Kindle. I was suddenly struck by the idea: the next generation of kids might not grow up with books. Sure, they will have digital files on hard drives whose appearance will mirror that of the original subject matter, but they will never feel the texture of printed pages between their fingers or smell the crisp fragrance of freshly-printed leafs of off-white paper. And maybe this will be a good thing--less tree-killing and whatnot--but I can't help but be sentimental. As a kid, I never went anywhere in a day without at least 3 or 4 books. These days, I hardly have time to crack a book outside of class. With this trip, it appears I will have more time for reading, but I think I forgot how voraciously and quickly I can read, and I only brought 2 books for this entire trip and after the flight here, I've already finished the longer of the two. I have several titles on my computer in an e-reader program, but I'm not entirely sure I can bring myself to stare at the screen long enough to finish even one of them. Guess I'll just stare at the computer screen while typing more blog posts instead ;)