Hoorah for Israel!: First Day in Jerusalem

I've been in Jerusalem for 4 whole days now, so it's time for me to give an overview of my arrival and what I've been doing since I got here. Well, you all know the story about me trying to leave for Tel Aviv last Thursday...it was stressful but worth it. I ended up traveling with 3 other girls and after everything that happened I'm so grateful that I flew with them. I would have been fine on my own, but when we got to the airport in Huston we had to get our boarding passes to Frankfurt, but the airline employees couldn't find my roommate Sarah's ticket. We only had twenty minutes before the all the passengers had to board the plane and the employees were not helpful. So since mom and dad had me upgrade to an iphone I was able to get online and find a number for US airways (our last airline) so they could talk to Sarah and give her the ticket number for her flight on Luthfansa Airways. I know on here the story doesn't sound that crazy, but we ran onto the plane RIGHT before the door was closed. Then we took off for the worst flight of my life. I have never felt nauseus on a flight before, but on this one I felt extremely clostrophobic and ready to throw up at any minute. As I went through the channels on the radio I found a station that gave "yoga exercises" for the plane. I definitely recommend it for relaxing on a flight! haha

Anyways. Once arriving in Tel Aviv we headed to customs and it took a while again to get through because the woman checking my passport got upset when I told her I was going to be here for 3 1/2 months and I didn't have a visa. Luckily the women in the office that they had me go too were really nice, especially when I told them I was mormon, but when they asked how long I would be here I only said 3 months (because we will be going out of the country twice while we're here we didn't need to get visas for longer than 3 months).

SO...I waited for my bags and only got one of them. After checking all of the baggage claims Sam (one of the girls in my travel group) and I filled out a form for our luggage to be sent to the JC. We found out that our bags didn't make it onto the flight to Tel Aviv from Frankfurt.

I got tired of my clothes very quickly the first couple days here, but I was able to borrow clothes from Jaclyn once she got here. Then my bag finally arrived Monday night.

I bought some German Chocolate as I was running onto the plane from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv (Even though I was only there for a half hour I needed a souvenir)

Scenery of a city on the way to Jerusalem

After a few days in Phoenix and 20 hours on planes I'm here! It's supposed to say "Entrance" but I guess I didn't make that clear when I asked my friend to take a picture. I guess it's still appropriate - I was pretty much in a trance...

My roommate Sarah and I in front of our room. We had chills as we walked through the "outside hallway" and heard the Muslim Call to Prayer echoing throughout the city.