Hello from Tel-Aviv! Or, I guess I could say, Shalom. :)

I arrived after a fairly uneventful, although long, 20 hours of travel. It went by much faster than I expected, probably because I slept away a good chunk of the flight from Atlanta to here. I'm tired now, but I'm staying up for a bit to try to go for a regular night of sleep (it's about 10:30pm, and we are 10 hours ahead of my peeps in Seattle) in preparation for the program starting tomorrow evening. I can't wait! I felt so happy and excited when we landed at the beautiful Ben Gurion airport. It has this cool dome thing in the center of one area where water falls, like rain, into a small pool.

The hostel--48 Haryakon--is interesting. I'm paying a small fortune to have a private room my first night, with TV and own bathroom, since I'll be sharing with the students after today. It's kind of dumpy and noisy, but the privacy is nice, and I can watch Will and Grace with Hebrew subtitles. It's really good to have a bit of space right now and well-worth it, since I'm worn out from traveling. Plus, I'm the kind who shows up at a place like the Hilton and wipes the remotes down with anti-bacterial clothes, so I mean, I'm funny about these things. The best part is that the hostel is one block from the fantastic beach! The Mediterranean is gorgeous, and there's a really nice, relaxed vibe here. It's amazing, and I like how it smells. I think I'll spend some time there tomorrow.

I started reading Stephenie Meyer's Twilight on the plane, and I'm about 350 pages in. I'm so into it. It's exactly the kind of love story I find appealing, and I'm excited that there are three more books to read after this!

There was such a mix of people waiting to board the plane in Atlanta. There was what appeared to be a church youth group heading this way. I gleaned this information while waiting behind a few pre-teens in the security line. One was having trouble getting through the detector with his foil-wrapped burrito, and a girl with him said, "God doesn't want you to have that burrito." She seemed rather serious about it, too. Of course, I snickered to myself and whipped out my cell phone to text that little exchange to others.

I love it when people say "Shalom" to me, and I like saying it back. I can't help but hear it and say it like Uncle Andy on Weeds, though. That makes me laugh, and I can't shake it.

It's so strange to keep thinking, I'm in the Middle East. It's hard to believe I'm actually here.