Still Alive and Well

I started off my trip to Israel by getting to the airport way too early. I wanted to try a new off site parking lot and it was raining, so I left earlier than I should have. To kill time and prepare myself for the 11+ hour flight I sat at the beer & wine bar in the E terminal and had 3 glasses of wine figuring if that was not enough to get me sleepy the Tylenol PM surely would.

I got to the gate a half hour before the flight was supposed to leave figuring that I would be there right as they started boarding, only to find out that they were already at zone 7. Being a Delta Medallion traveler, I was able to pass up all the riff raff and go to the head of the line - and then had to take my shoes off again. And take my laptop out again. And show my passport again.

I sat next to a brother and sister in their 20's who were traveling with their parents to Israel. They were quite and polite which made the trip a bit easier. I decided to watch the movie 'Juno' on the headset screen as it was free and then I dozed on and off with the cabin lights out and all the window shades closed it was hard to tell how much time had passed. When I woke up long enough to give it some thought, I figured that we were probably about 2 hours away from landing. After I checked the flight information screen I saw that we had only been flying for about 6 hours, and still had 5 to go. I went back to sleep for a while and the next time I woke up we were over Greece, which looked very nice from the air. I watched most of 'No Country for Old Men' and then it was time to land. For the record, I never got up the whole flight.

Anywhoo...

Security was easy as was customs (getting out is supposed to be another story). I converted $200 to NIS (New Israel Sheckles) which is way better looking than our money and was good to go. Anthony, a fellow HP tech from Virginia, had flown in a couple of hours before I did and was waiting for me outside the airport and we took a cab to Herzelia and the Daniel Hotel.

After checking in and relaxing for a few minutes I went to the lobby to meet with two of the guys from R&D; Matty and Eli. They took me to the Marina for dinner which was very nice. We talked about the color management product until after 11pm and then back to the hotel where I crashed for the night.

A couple of observations:

#1 - Israel is nothing like I expected. At first glance it seems like Las Vegas, but without the casinos. After going to the marina and the shopping mall where the restaurants are the resemblance was even more striking.

#2 - If you had asked me a week ago what one word jumped into my mind when I thought of Israel, I would have said 'Camel'. Now I would probably say 'Jet Ski'.

#3 - They have Ace Hardware and Toys 'R Us here. Who knew?

Today we started the classes. There are four of us; Anthony and me, Alessandro from Italy, and a guy who's name I can't even spell phonetically from Dubai. Our teacher is originally from Chile, and our teacher tomorrow is from Scotland. It was 8 fun filled hours of standing on concrete. The rest of the week promises to be the same. Hopefully we will be going into Jerusalem one evening.

More tomorrow.

- Update. The guy from Dubai is named Anand. I think I just heard him wrong the first time.