And some last thoughts...

Day 5 – is it a day?
We woke up at 645 – which was supposed to be 7 but the clock on the tv was wrong – and got ourselves ready. I still hadn’t decided if I was going to go to the airport with Sharon or not. She had a 10 am flight and I had a 230 pm flight. But I decided to go with her. So we stopped at 7-11 to get me one last blueberry muffin and then headed to the airport. Yes, I checked in over 6 hours early for my flight. We hung around the airport til Sharon had to go, and then I sat and did work and caught up on things. Sadly, I would have had to pay for the internet access so I wasn’t online. But I think that’s why I got so much accomplished!
Here’s what happened in my time alone. It began at 930. I found out that the wireless wasn’t free. I started reading 1 Kings for class. Got through it, started on 2 Kings. Got bored. Filled out an Ed form that I needed to do. Added to my to do list. Stared off in space. Listen to music. Finished off the relating of what we did in Copenhagen. Read the rest of 2 Kings. Stared off into space. Did a crossword puzzle. Finished said crossword puzzle. Stared off into space. Stared at Departures board. Listened to Americans playing guitar. Tapped foot to try to keep the beat. Stared off into space. Decided I had to pee. Decided I didn’t feel like getting up yet. Stared off into space. Decided that I should write this all out for the entertainment of my readers. Time check? 12:23. Listened to “My Humps” playing out of the American computer.
In all of this, a group of touring teenagers came by, drinking beer, and decided to sit next to me. They are annoying. A flight to Prague got cancelled and so the area Im in, the area where one can change a flight, got filled up with people trying to figure out how and why they would go home. This is like talking to someone, but not. Hmm. I went and killed the last bit of money that had been left remaining between me and Sharon…on candy, of course. Walked around, finally got onto my flight. I was in the 2nd row. Too bad that wasn’t first class! Quick hour and a half flight to Zurich – I read more Poisonwood. The guy next to me slept most of the way, but interestingly, he had hair on the tip of his nose. Now I know you’re thinking, ok a few hairs. But NO there was a PATCH of hair at the tip of his nose. Got to Zurich, found shopping. Wandered around. Decided that I was QUITE possible that I would soon go crazy, so I splurged and spent $10 on internet. And got to talk to people for awhile. Headed to the flight around 715…but first I picked up a shitload of chocolate for people . . . and then grabbed a sandwich and went to my gate. Turns out my Swiss Air flight is also an El Al flight. So we got the security check. And when I say the security check, I mean THE security check. Apparently I was a suspicious creature, who knew. Where do I go to school, why, can I show my original flight itinerary, who bought the ticket, from where, why is the credit card different, where are you in Israel, where in Jerusalem, why are you studying there, what were you doing in Copenhagen….on and on and on. A second guy came over to ask more. Yes – to me, a poor little student. But I told the first guy, when he was finally letting me go, that im happy that at least they do it. Sucks that it was me, but hey, they had no clue who I was or what my intensions were….In the end, that first guy asked, informally and with my permission, what exactly I was doing – like why I would want this degree. He asked, to be a teacher? And I said, well you don’t get it as an Israeli, but Judaism is different in Israel – and in the states we have to work for it. Also he asked what I thought of Jerusalem – I told him it sucked to try to learn the language – though I did talk to them in Hebrew for a few minutes to prove that I knew the language….and that the religious people look down on me and that sucks. It was interesting. I felt like they should have known I was safe when I took out my Steve’s Packs Jerusalem wallet. I mean, how much more does that scream, LOSER? 8 pm…waiting at the gate. Determined to stay up for dinner, but SO exhausted. This has been a long ass day of traveling….sat next to an Israeli couple, so I got to speak some Hebrew. They showed The Family Stone, which ive seen and had no desire to see again…so I read, did a crossword puzzle, spaced out. Could barely fall asleep – dozed off for about an hour and then stared more. Talked some more Hebrew with the lady next to me. We landed around 2 am, and I breezed through, got money ( I was out of shekels – that was its own balagan!) and got on a sheirut to Jerusalem by 230 or so. My sheirut had 8 other people. A group of 5 that had been in Kiev – with the style of frummies….2 parents, a friend, and two kids – who were nice and loud. And then two separate frum couples. Yes, I stuck out like a SORE thumb. Luckily there were only a few stops because they were all in groups (ive been in sheiruts where each person gets their own drop off…) so it was a quick ride. Two groups on the outskirts of the city…one in mea sheirim, and one in the Old City. And then finally – just me, alone in the sheirut. In the states it would have felt really sketchy…but for some reason it felt ok. We had a whole conversation about how I had just seen a tour of the city! He said that’s worth it to live in Rechavia (I was going back to Karen’s place). We talked about the history of some of the streets and he told me some pretty interesting stuff. It was really cool – another one of those interesting Israel experiences.
Got into Karen’s place. At first our watchdog Asher wuffed a little, hearing someone…and then I said “Asher it’s me” and he was reallllllly excited. To the extent that he peed on the bed in excitement. How cute is that? I was WIDE awake which Asher enjoyed, Karen did not. I got a whole 3 hours of sleep, a shower, a bowl of cereal, and off to school.
That was fun. Chag Sameach – enjoy Purim, remember – get so drunk that you don’t know who is good and who is bad J