Israel & Jordan

  The morning after my excursion to Jerusalem I got to sleep in. Dad had to finish his time at his conference, so he woke up in the morning and left me be. I relaxed for a few hours, but by midday it was time to adventure some more.  The conference, remember, was held in Rehovot, a town about 45 mins southeast of Tel Aviv. The conference organizers were splendid, partially because they had a lot of money to splurge on the attendees. This is because, from what I’ve gathered, they draw their money from a foundation wherein some rich person/people entrusted their fortune to be spent on science, technology, conferences, and the like. Plus it’s general Israeli policy to show non-Israelis how great Israel is.  So therefore we (as in the conference goers, as in not me really, except that at this point I’ve been adopted by the Society as an honorable conference guest because I’ve been eating their dinners and snacks this whole time) had a big day ahead. The organizers set up this...

I get one full day in Jerusalem and that’s it. My guide came for me in his Land Cruiser at 8am. His name is Reuven, he’s Jewish & moved to Israel 40 years ago. I didn’t ask but I’m almost certain he was originally from New York because that accent was unmistakable. Reuven was a kind fellow and also very happy to see me; I was his first tour since Covid! On this trip to Jerusalem I’m introduced to the pure relief the tourism industry is feeling to know that they are close to having their livelihoods back. This relief remains a common topic of conversation throughout the remainder of my trip.  I should mention, before we actually pulled out of the Weissman, Reuven called someone to check for news coming from Jerusalem. Apparently there had been civil disturbances for the two days prior, so he wanted to conduct a quick vibe check. His buddy didn’t answer the phone, which troubled him, but he turned on the local news radio channel to check there. It was exactly 8, so the news ...

  I legitimately did nothing for the first 8 hours of Sunday April 3rd, 2022. I laid up in bed and lounged around the guest house we were staying in at the Weissman Institute. Dad began his conference on this day, so I got to sleep in and finally recoup from my several days of traveling. I’m not normally one to rest during trips out of town. I generally prefer to absolutely run myself into the ground. But the truth is, Rehovot doesn’t have much to explore. It’s kind of a suburb of Tel Aviv where normal people just live and work. No attractions. Well, if you Google “What to do in Rehovot” the most interesting suggestion is to visit the Weissman Institute. So, I relaxed about and watched IRONMAN South Africa online.  The main task of the day was to actually organize the main task for the next day- a tour to Jerusalem. A colleague of my dad’s got us in touch with a few possibilities, but I had to decide on specifics. Honestly this was a pretty stressful ordeal because it was a pr...

  I woke up on the first morning in Tel Aviv with a start. Disoriented, I peeked my eyes open to see Dad hovering over me, “Leigh Anna, wake up. Let’s go out to the beach, but are you going to run? They have a great breakfast down there. Why don’t you eat and then we can go out and explore some before we hang out in the beach. I want to explore north of here blah blah blah blah.” My god can you give me a second?! I replied, “Ok, hang on, let me wake up.” I closed my eyes to save them from the sharp morning light. I rest, try to gather my thoughts, a few beats pass. I peep my eyes open again to see dad still hovering over me, silent, just looking at me! “CAN YOU GO AWAY?!”  So I was grumpy, Step 1. Step 2- get ready to run. Since Dad was so freaking pumped about walking north, I took off to the south. We’d meet back up in an hour. The promenade was buzzing with beach-goers, even at 9:30am!! I jogged 2 miles along the sea to Jaffa Port, the oldest part of the city. There wa...

  The flight to Israel began in New York at 11:55pm. The plan was to be sufficiently exhausted and able to effortlessly float away to dreamland as soon as we reached cruising altitude. However, that so far from what happened. Mainly because I couldn’t get comfortable, but also because of this: At the exact moment our pilot pressed his little foot (or thumb, or pulled up on the joystick, idk) on the gas of that plane, a group of people in front of me screamed “HELP!” out of the darkness. “WE NEED HELP!!” The force of the plane rushing down the runway has me pinned to the back of my seat, but I look up to find all the crew members sprinting forward into the dark aisles. “Help! We need help!” According to my years of expertise in irrational fears on planes, this cry for help means someone has opened the door to the plane and we’re all going to get sucked out of the vehicle if the pilot continues to leave the ground. So I’m panicked. Literally my first thought was someone opened t...

For the past two years, while I’d been distracted by Covid-19 and other worldly affairs, my passport had been tucked away in a drawer quietly expiring. I didn’t notice until it was too late. Well, almost too late. I mean, it was right on the cusp of too late. With the current state of our union it takes 5-7 weeks to receive your renewed passport in the mail if you go the expedited route. By the time I’d noticed my passport would expire a week after my return, I only had around 4 weeks to spare. (Your passport must be valid 6 months after departing Israel. Our passports aren’t like the things in your pantry- our passports actually expire BEFORE their expiration dates.)  So after my Dad and I booked our planes & hotels, planned our Israel/Jordan border crossing, and just overall daydreamed about our first travels together in 10 years- I realize I have some major roadblocks to finesse my way through.  The State Dept. has a whole scheme set up for idiots in this situation. Urg...