I lied
SO, I am still having issues with getting Polaris connected and am open to suggestions, but in the mean time, here is what I have been up to from when I left until Thursday. Pictures will be added later. There is no way I am going to fuss with this piece of go-se to get them uploaded. I'll let you know when they are added, so you can go back and look.
We got to the airport at around 1115 or so what with the flight not being till 1355ish. So, I check in, mom has some issues, but whatever, no big. I get up to the front to have them put the tag on my luggage and the guy asks me if I want an earlier flight to Chicago. Ok, sure, if you can get my mom on it as well. So, off we go to security, rushing because the new flight is boarding now, or so says the ticket. Well, TBP got flagged for pat down, and the people are so unhelpful with our inquires aas to whether our plan had left yet or not. Whatever, stupid people. So after the search we hightailed it down to the gate, and what do you know, but the plane has not yet boarded, an hour after the ticket said. So yays for us. Also, through out all this I meet a lovely person who you might know Ianto. Yay for more friends at the U for me to stalk hang out with. So we get to Chicago uneventfully, and all is well. While waiting for the Madrid plane I watched teh DWho movie which I carelessly stole from Ianto Saturday night.
The Madrid plane was delayed a little bit, but nothing big so it was fine. Let me tell you, that plane was big. It was also kind of empty which made for yay. Most of the flight I spent reading fic, but I also watched the second half of Hairspray Jade and Phantom will be pleased to know. I enjoyed it. The food on this flight was about your normal kosher airplane strangeness. Luckily for us, we brought samiches, cause we be smart. Not so luckily, we brought deli samiches. Yes, we are just that smart. 17+ hour trip? Let's bring deli!! Anyway, the dinner was not so good, and the breakfast blah. The non-kosher was yogurt so I asked for one of those and it was goood. For those of you who do not know me in real life, I am very picky about my yogurt, not so much the flavour but the texture. I will maybe explain sometime that is not now. Anywho. And then we got to Spain. As we began the decent, I looked out to the window across the way and saw a mountain. Above the clouds. It was fabulous. The Madrid airport is very quiet. So is the one in Tel Aviv for that matter. People just don't go hustling and bustling all over the place like they do in America.
It was very cool at the gate. You see, the flight to Tel Aviv was at 09something so there were all these Jews there. It was awesome. But more so, there was a Minyan. A praryer gathering. In the airport. It made me happy. There was an wifispot nearish our gate, but I forwent that, not because I didn't want to talk to y'all, cause really I did, but because I wanted to save le batteries for the plane. Which was a good thing, cause the original battery Polaris came with turned out to be dead, which is odd, cause I thought I had charged it. But that is ok, I had enough on the big one for the flight. So, back to the subject of this post. The lunch on the flight to Tel Aviv was HORRID. First off, the flight attendant was coming around asking the people who had kosher meals if he could open them to heat it make it warm. The answer to that is a big fat no. You open it, it is no longer kosher. Long story, not going into it here, kosher is confusing. So, that had me wary from the start. Well, we get the meal and in it there are two cans. One really large one, and one almost cat food sized. I'm looking at the giant can and it says something along the lines of tuna in French. So I think, eh, how bad can it be, I have not eaten in a longo time, I will eat a bit, just enough to hold me over to I get to Israel. WRONG! Oh so very very wrong. It. Was. Horrid. Trindajae, you had mentioned wanting MRE's for your survival trunk, well, if the same thing is served on the way back, it is all yours. And Ianto, if your introduction to tuna was anything like this, I understand. *shudder*
The clouds over the Mediterranean are amazing! Here is a picture.
That is one of the smaller ones, taken shortly before the descent. Those were some super cool clouds. And it was raining. Have you ever seen a storm from above? It. Is. So. Cool. So we get into Tel Aviv and get or visas, which was cool, but boring. And luggage getting was meh. Something cool here is that you do not have to pay for the carts. You know the ones you use to carry luggage around the airport? Yeah those. Anyway. So, we went outside to wait for my grandfather who was meeting us. Well, there was a slight SNAFU, and the lack of us having to go through customs, *boggle* Zadie thought we would be longer, and as we all know, buses take time. Anywho, he gets there and finds us and we get onto the Sherut, which is a taxi like thing that takes us to Tachna Merchaziet, the central bus station, where my cousins and grandmother are waiting for us at the food court. It's an odd thing about this country. People go to food courts. I mean they go to food courts. To hang out and stuff. It's crazy. Not to mention food court food here is worse then it is there. The pizza, twas nasty. This is because the cheese was American Cheese. You don't make pizza with American Cheese. *rolls eyes* Oh yeah, and before you can even go into the station you have to go through security, ok whatever. But we had our luggage, so we needed help, and were waiting for my cousins to come out and assist. Well, this guy, who might have been a security guy starts yelling at my in Hebrew and telling, I think, that I need to move over some other direction, that is not the door. Now, I don't understand him, and tell him so, in English. So what does he do but get louder, and faster with his yelling. So I tell him again. And he gets louder. Well, I am an emotion person as you all know. I am tired by this point, I had not eaten in a very long time, and I had been traveling for just about 24 hours. So I am not of the happy, and have lost my calm. I yell at him saying I do not understand you, I do not speak Hebrew, I am waiting for assistance, go yell at someone else. There may have been a few fictional swear words in there, I am not really sure. So instead of going away they guy taps me on the shoulder and asks, 'do you understand me?' "No, I jolly well do not understand you, frell off!" So he starts yelling, and gesturing, in Hebrew, again. Well, then we, ie TBP, yells at him in Hebrew that we don't speak Hebrew. Luckily, before he could start up again, my cousins came out, and in we went.
So, we hung out in the food court for four hours or so, talking and stuffs. It was a grand time. Shorty came by when she was done with class and the cousins got to meet her, so yay. And then, oh and then. It was time to catch the bus to go to Shilo, where the Raisins live. Well, there was one problem. We were not allowed on the third floor where the bus was because they thought there was a bomb. See, if anyone leaves a bag or something around, and they can not identify it, and no one claims it after a few announcements about it, they call in the bomb squad and evaquate the floor. Annoying, but I can see the logic.
We eventually, get on the bus, and get to Shilo. Sleepy time pour le Q.
I slept in till 1300 on Thursday. Teh horror. But that is ok. From the porch there is a wonderful view of the surrounding mountains.
there are two Arab ones over on the left,
and on the right is Eli
. There is an army base on the mountain across the way.
It is very easy to tell if a settlement is Israili or Arab. You look at the buildings. The Israili ones look like they do in America. The Arab ones are all boxes. Be there, and be square. *g* When Zadie came home from learning in Yerushaliem he and I went to the Miculet, which is kind of like a corner market, except they have everything. It is the Yishuv's store. They have chocolate milk that comes in a bag. It's really cool.
And now I need to let Zadie on the computer. So I shall go type about Friday and Shabbos on Polaris and shall post that in a bit.
We got to the airport at around 1115 or so what with the flight not being till 1355ish. So, I check in, mom has some issues, but whatever, no big. I get up to the front to have them put the tag on my luggage and the guy asks me if I want an earlier flight to Chicago. Ok, sure, if you can get my mom on it as well. So, off we go to security, rushing because the new flight is boarding now, or so says the ticket. Well, TBP got flagged for pat down, and the people are so unhelpful with our inquires aas to whether our plan had left yet or not. Whatever, stupid people. So after the search we hightailed it down to the gate, and what do you know, but the plane has not yet boarded, an hour after the ticket said. So yays for us. Also, through out all this I meet a lovely person who you might know Ianto. Yay for more friends at the U for me to stalk hang out with. So we get to Chicago uneventfully, and all is well. While waiting for the Madrid plane I watched teh DWho movie which I carelessly stole from Ianto Saturday night.
The Madrid plane was delayed a little bit, but nothing big so it was fine. Let me tell you, that plane was big. It was also kind of empty which made for yay. Most of the flight I spent reading fic, but I also watched the second half of Hairspray Jade and Phantom will be pleased to know. I enjoyed it. The food on this flight was about your normal kosher airplane strangeness. Luckily for us, we brought samiches, cause we be smart. Not so luckily, we brought deli samiches. Yes, we are just that smart. 17+ hour trip? Let's bring deli!! Anyway, the dinner was not so good, and the breakfast blah. The non-kosher was yogurt so I asked for one of those and it was goood. For those of you who do not know me in real life, I am very picky about my yogurt, not so much the flavour but the texture. I will maybe explain sometime that is not now. Anywho. And then we got to Spain. As we began the decent, I looked out to the window across the way and saw a mountain. Above the clouds. It was fabulous. The Madrid airport is very quiet. So is the one in Tel Aviv for that matter. People just don't go hustling and bustling all over the place like they do in America.
It was very cool at the gate. You see, the flight to Tel Aviv was at 09something so there were all these Jews there. It was awesome. But more so, there was a Minyan. A praryer gathering. In the airport. It made me happy. There was an wifispot nearish our gate, but I forwent that, not because I didn't want to talk to y'all, cause really I did, but because I wanted to save le batteries for the plane. Which was a good thing, cause the original battery Polaris came with turned out to be dead, which is odd, cause I thought I had charged it. But that is ok, I had enough on the big one for the flight. So, back to the subject of this post. The lunch on the flight to Tel Aviv was HORRID. First off, the flight attendant was coming around asking the people who had kosher meals if he could open them to heat it make it warm. The answer to that is a big fat no. You open it, it is no longer kosher. Long story, not going into it here, kosher is confusing. So, that had me wary from the start. Well, we get the meal and in it there are two cans. One really large one, and one almost cat food sized. I'm looking at the giant can and it says something along the lines of tuna in French. So I think, eh, how bad can it be, I have not eaten in a longo time, I will eat a bit, just enough to hold me over to I get to Israel. WRONG! Oh so very very wrong. It. Was. Horrid. Trindajae, you had mentioned wanting MRE's for your survival trunk, well, if the same thing is served on the way back, it is all yours. And Ianto, if your introduction to tuna was anything like this, I understand. *shudder*
The clouds over the Mediterranean are amazing! Here is a picture.
That is one of the smaller ones, taken shortly before the descent. Those were some super cool clouds. And it was raining. Have you ever seen a storm from above? It. Is. So. Cool. So we get into Tel Aviv and get or visas, which was cool, but boring. And luggage getting was meh. Something cool here is that you do not have to pay for the carts. You know the ones you use to carry luggage around the airport? Yeah those. Anyway. So, we went outside to wait for my grandfather who was meeting us. Well, there was a slight SNAFU, and the lack of us having to go through customs, *boggle* Zadie thought we would be longer, and as we all know, buses take time. Anywho, he gets there and finds us and we get onto the Sherut, which is a taxi like thing that takes us to Tachna Merchaziet, the central bus station, where my cousins and grandmother are waiting for us at the food court. It's an odd thing about this country. People go to food courts. I mean they go to food courts. To hang out and stuff. It's crazy. Not to mention food court food here is worse then it is there. The pizza, twas nasty. This is because the cheese was American Cheese. You don't make pizza with American Cheese. *rolls eyes* Oh yeah, and before you can even go into the station you have to go through security, ok whatever. But we had our luggage, so we needed help, and were waiting for my cousins to come out and assist. Well, this guy, who might have been a security guy starts yelling at my in Hebrew and telling, I think, that I need to move over some other direction, that is not the door. Now, I don't understand him, and tell him so, in English. So what does he do but get louder, and faster with his yelling. So I tell him again. And he gets louder. Well, I am an emotion person as you all know. I am tired by this point, I had not eaten in a very long time, and I had been traveling for just about 24 hours. So I am not of the happy, and have lost my calm. I yell at him saying I do not understand you, I do not speak Hebrew, I am waiting for assistance, go yell at someone else. There may have been a few fictional swear words in there, I am not really sure. So instead of going away they guy taps me on the shoulder and asks, 'do you understand me?' "No, I jolly well do not understand you, frell off!" So he starts yelling, and gesturing, in Hebrew, again. Well, then we, ie TBP, yells at him in Hebrew that we don't speak Hebrew. Luckily, before he could start up again, my cousins came out, and in we went.
So, we hung out in the food court for four hours or so, talking and stuffs. It was a grand time. Shorty came by when she was done with class and the cousins got to meet her, so yay. And then, oh and then. It was time to catch the bus to go to Shilo, where the Raisins live. Well, there was one problem. We were not allowed on the third floor where the bus was because they thought there was a bomb. See, if anyone leaves a bag or something around, and they can not identify it, and no one claims it after a few announcements about it, they call in the bomb squad and evaquate the floor. Annoying, but I can see the logic.
We eventually, get on the bus, and get to Shilo. Sleepy time pour le Q.
I slept in till 1300 on Thursday. Teh horror. But that is ok. From the porch there is a wonderful view of the surrounding mountains.
there are two Arab ones over on the left,
and on the right is Eli
. There is an army base on the mountain across the way.
It is very easy to tell if a settlement is Israili or Arab. You look at the buildings. The Israili ones look like they do in America. The Arab ones are all boxes. Be there, and be square. *g* When Zadie came home from learning in Yerushaliem he and I went to the Miculet, which is kind of like a corner market, except they have everything. It is the Yishuv's store. They have chocolate milk that comes in a bag. It's really cool.
And now I need to let Zadie on the computer. So I shall go type about Friday and Shabbos on Polaris and shall post that in a bit.