NeMon'ess's Journal: I'm in Israel

I wrote a JE a week ago, but the browser ate it since I logged in with the Public Terminal option.

I went on a Birthright trip for ten days with 40 18-26 year-olds. We're all Jewish by birth, but most of us were secular. Our program had four mountain bike rides, aparently the first tour to try that. Some other tours are for Hillel or Orthodox groups. Tuesday night the official tour ended and about 30 people flew back to New York. For $200 I extended my stay until Monday night to see my Mom who has been living here for two years.

I've had a great time going around this New Jersey-sized country. We traveled just over 1000 miles in our bus. Now I'm more rested and seeing a few things there wasn't time for before.

The rules for extending tickets are both flexible and strict. For the same fee I could have flown back up to 90 days after the tour. However I have to fly back from Tel Aviv to JFK no matter if I lived in New Jersey or Miami. (One tour departs from Miami) A few of the ~10 who extended are flying to Egypt or eastern Europe to sight-see before coming back to Tel Aviv for the flight home.

Of course I live in the Bay Area, and I before this trip I hadn't been to New York. So I"m spending Tuesday through Friday afternoon in the city. Tuesday morning at 01:00 my eleven hour flight takes off and I'll be in JFK around 06:00. I'll sleep on the plane, giving me a long day, but maybe I'll nap before seeing Rent at 8pm. Thursday night I'm seeing Avenue Q, but the rest of the time I've left open.