We’re finally on board and ready to fly to Israel!

• The flight was long and exhausting (10 hours; nearly 6,000 miles)
• Sleep was scarce; some of us only got between 1-4 hours of sleep.

When we landed, we headed in the direction of the passport-checking area, where we waited for about an hour to get our passports checked.

After we got through the passport-check and received our permissions to stay, we headed to retrieve our luggage. Everyone found theirs In under a minute, with one exception: Mr. Marlow.

Mr. Marlow, like an eagle, sought after his luggage but could not find it. After about 10 minutes, he had no choice but to head over to the lost and found to file a claim. While he sorted things out, the rest of us took a trip to the bathroom, and some of us, in the process, brushed our teeth.

Update: Mr. Marlow’s and the other person’s luggage looked exactly the same; the person seems to have taken Mr. Marlow’s luggage instead of his own. Now, we must simply hope that this person does not like the contents of Mr. Marlow’s luggage more! 🙂

Circa 12:20 p.m. Friday–

Our Israeli friends Ori and Gal greeted us at the exit of the airport, giving each of us a welcome balloon, handshakes, and hugs.

We headed to the Amal School in Hadera. Once there, we had a delicious and much-needed lunch, which included falafels, pita Bread, and shawarma.

We toured the school. There was a robotics workshop room where we watched a robot designed to lift square blocks in action. We then went to a room where all the Design majors work. And we went to a room where Israeli Air-force students meet and study.

After the tour, each of us went with our host families and did many different activities. Some of us went to the beautiful beach which is about 10 minutes away from the Amal school, others went bowling, others spent quality time with families, and much more.

Currently, at 9:49 p.m., some of us have met at Idan Sucher’s house to lounge around, listen to music, and get to know each other more. We will soon head to our hosts’ houses again to rest for a very long day tomorrow in which we will visit Galilee, Nazareth, and several places within the two cities.