As of 9:30am this morning, we arrived in Israel. To prove how small of a world this is, the couple sitting behind us on the airplane were Christian Aggies! They graduated in 1995 and 1999! They saw my Aggie ring and immediately asked me when I graduated and an even bigger conincidence is that they are from Houston also! Crazy, right? Just an FYI for anyone thinking of coming to Israel, passport security is intense. Originally I went up to the desk by myself and I kept being hounded on why I was coming to Israel and I was asked at least five times if I had any friends or family in the country. Even though I kept saying no, they still kept asking me! Finally I had to get my mom to come to the window as well because they were asking all of these questions about the tour like where we were going, what hotels we were staying in, and whether or not everyone in our group was already in the country. Like I said, it was intense, but I guess they have to try to protect their county somehow! Anyway, so far our first day here has been a pretty good one. Once we arrived we got to our hotel, and due to lack of sleep on the plane, we took a nice 2 1/2 hour nap. Our hotel overlooks the Mediterranean Sea, so after our nap, we put our bathing suits on and headed to the beach!
As you can see, the Mediterranean Sea is gorgeous. The water was clear, but a little cold....kind of like Florida or the Caribbean. One observation that my mom and I made at the beach was about the people who go there. Surprisingly, the Israeli men are in extremely good shape and they like to participate in all times of activities while at the beach like paddle ball and kicking the soccer ball around. Although the men are in great shape, the women are not! It was kind of surprising to see the difference in the two sexes. Another interesting observation is that every one here smokes! It's just like Europe where almost everyone constantly has a cigarette in their hand! Just a few things that have reminded me we are definitely not in the states anymore...
After a few hours at the beach, I was intent on getting my first run in while in Israel. Those of you that know me, know that I run a lot and my next half marathon is in August, so their is no way I am going a month without running! I ran at the fitness center in our hotel, which overlooks the pool! I had to remember how to calculate km to miles since the treadmill shows km distances, not miles. After a good run, we went to dinner at our hotel. Most of the food they eat here is Mediterranean style with a lot of vegetables and fish, which I love...except for all the olives!
The top picture is an array of salads that I ate and it included everything from couscous to hummus to kosher pickles to tabouli! A few years ago I ate hummus almost every day and I'm pretty sure that by the end of this trip, hummus will again be a staple in my daily diet. The second picture is one of a couple dishes that the chef made especially for us. It was a meat and vegetable salad with this spicy and strong tasting vinegar dressing. So far, I have not been dissapointed by the food, but I'm sure there will be a few dishes that I try which might not be to my liking, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
Tomorrow we start our first day of our tour. The day will be filled with visiting numerous excavation sites and cities so stay tuned for updates and pictures!
No comments:
Post a Comment