Later Today

Hey hey hey,

It’s me again. And I’m finally here! And guess what I’m typing again. My uncle said that it was fine to use my laptop here the way I was planning to (if you have questions ask me when I return). Because he works at the airport he was allowed to wait for us right where we got off the plane and not after immigration-where everyone else had to wait. He checked my laptop and gave us a cell phone to which my mom could call to if she wants to contact us (which was so far three times today).

But before I get to anything else let me tell you about my very first view of Israel from the plane’s small window. Remember how I said in the last post that I barely slept. Well it’s true I could barely keep my eyes open during that flight. However when the pilot let us know that we were going to land in the Tel-Aviv Airport, I sat bolt upright in my chair and gazed steadily out the window, waiting to see my very first sight of my land, our land, the holy land of Israel. The entire ride down, my eyes were fastened to the window. Although it looked like regular land I knew inside that it wasn’t just some piece of territory. This was ours. And we were never going to give up fighting for it.

When we got off the plane and after we said good-bye to my uncle, we continued on to the immigration center. Since my father is Israeli he had to go where it said “Israeli passports” and I had to go where it said “foreign passports”. I was nervous because I don’t like doing things I never did before on my own for the first time. But there was really nothing to be afraid of. The guy asked me two simple questions and the stamped my passport and bid me a good day. Did you hear that Gitty? I got my FIRST STAMP! Woo-who!!!

For some reason, don’t ask me why, we didn’t have to go through customs. Then as we were walking out towards the gate where everyone was either waiting for their loved ones, families or business partners, I saw my grand-father. Remember that I hadn’t seen my grand- father since my bas-mitzvah in 2006, almost 6 years ago. With her was my father’s sister, Yochi, who I hadn’t seen for 12 whole years. She had visited us when Devorah was a year old. We found a small table to sit around and just talked and caught up on the past few years. After ½ an hour my grand-father and we parted ways. We made up a date for when we would meet so that he could take me to Jerusalem. My father let me sit in the passenger seat of Yochi’s car so that I could see Israel the right way for the first time. It took us 35-45 minutes to get to my grandparents house. Two of my cousins met us just as we were getting out of the car. And although I had only written to them here and there on Facebook, we hugged like we were old friends. To make a long (and probably boring to you) story short, I met all most of my cousins and aunts and uncles. They were all very nice and sweet and couldn’t stop telling me how much I resembled my mother. Yochi’s five-year-old daughter was there too and warmed up to me in a second. She went from just giving me a quick hug to following me wherever I went. One of my other older cousins saw that I had a laptop, but no internet connection so he told me that he was going to give me his internet USB stick to use for the time that I am here. Hopefully I will be able to create my blog tomorrow and post what I had written there so I can share it with you guys.

Have to go now. It’s getting late and tomorrow is Friday.

Lots to do and lots to see,

Luv Chaya