Birthright recap part 1....

To make this easier on all of us, I'm going to try to spilt up the posts by day. Let's see how I do...

DAY 1:
Land at Ben Gurion international airport around 1 pm Israel time. We left New York at 8 pm EST. We are all very tired. We are greeted by Shlomo "Momo" Lifschitz, the program director of Oranim, our trip sponsor, who shakes each of our hands and says "welcome home". We collect our luggage, leave the airport through the easiest customs ever (if you have nothing to declare, you just walk right through) and go to our bus. When I tell Momo I am going on Israel Service Corps (also a part of Oranim) he goes "THAT'S YOU?!" and gives me a big hug a kiss on the cheek. he then pulls out his cell phone and starts dialing Erez, the program director of ISC, and puts it to my ear and says "talk to him he thinks it's me. He will be very surprised. It was crazy, but pretty cool. My introduction to Israel...

We board the bus and drive to Jerusalem. We go to this scenic overlook that shows the old city of jerusalem from afar and a mountain side with graves on it 9its a holy site but I can't remember the names). We say the Shechianu (prayer over things that are first) and have wine. Many photos are taken. We then drive to our hotel. We have our first Israeli dinner-lots of salads, DELICIOUS dairy, and the best potatoes we had on the trip. Then Momo speaks to us about our trip. He tells us that the most important thing on this trip is to fall in love. He tells us to use the phrase "What's cooking?" when hittin gon people. He tells us about the wonders of Israel. He tells us if we fall in love and invite him to the wedding he will give us a free honeymoon in Israel. he tells us to have lots of Jewish babies. He is very funny, but you would have had to have been there. When Momo is done, some people swim in the hotel pool, some people begin partying, but most people pass out from exhaustion.