I have arrived!

I arrived in tel aviv yesterday at 3:15 Israel time. The plane was almost entirely occupied by a tour group of seniors from Tennessee. I sat next to Skip, a pastor from one of the churches involved with the tour. He is active with his youth ministry and thought it was really fun to fist bump. I shook his hand to say goodbye and he fist bumped me and then gave me 3 peanut butter chewy bars. He told me I looked like the type of person who would like peanut butter. I wondered how he knew this about me. Is it it my glasses? It's always the glasses...

I rode the commuter train from the airport to Binyamina train station (about an hour). The commuter trains are much much nicer than the Marc trains I have grown so accustomed to. They smell like clean. They are also soundproof and, i think, electric. All i know is that when you sit in them, you feel like your in a hospital waiting room. I was a little self-consious because I was riding the train during rush hour and I had two suitcases in the aisle and everyone had to squeeze past them. I kept reminding myself that I was never going to see any of those people again and so it didn't matter how obnoxious they thought I was.

When I got to Binyamina I found a young man who I knew was American (he is actually from Toronto). I could tell by his hat and his English and the Canadian flag on his bookbag. I asked where he was headed. He said Maagan michael. We split a cab for 60 sheklim and arrived here at about 6:30. We got all checked in, ate dinner and went for a walk around the kibbutz and down to the ocean with a girl from Guatemala and a girl from Argentina. What I am appreciating a lot right now is my Spanish education. Since I speak Spanish much more than Hebrew, I am able to communicate with a lot of the Argentinian Jews fairly okay. I have only met one American. Her name is Danielle and she is very cool. Today she is wearing a vintage Bob Dylan sweatshirt. I like it.

My roommates:

1) Sarah. Age 18. From Holland. Just graduated from high school. She speaks English well. Thank goodness. She loves to make jewelry and has really cute chucks. She is helping me with my Hebrew words since classes haven't started yet. Today I learned the words: summer, water, cellular phone, computer, rat, butterfly, we, coffee and cat.

2)Angela. Age 21. Angela is from the Ukraine. She speaks no English. Communication is almost impossible. She asks questions in Russian really fast and then we stare at her and then we start laughing...not at her, of course, but at the humor of it all. She definitely lives life differently than me. She has Skype on ALL the time, even when she is not talking. You can see the sofa at her house in Ukraine on the video feed. It looks lovely. She talks on Skype without a headset in Russian. It is half fascinating and half annoying because it lasted until 2 in the morning. So, Sarah and I were really tired today. She also smokes A LOT of cigarettes.

As for the food...I'm in heaven. There are more cucumbers and cabbages on the kibbutz than I have ever seen in my life. Today, I had tuna pizza for lunch. They also have a cappuccino machine and a coffee shop.

It has rained all day so we spent the day in the moadon (the clubhouse) playing apples to apples, scrabble, and then putting together a puzzle. Sarah, Danielle and I also went to the kibbutz green store (grocery store) where I bought a loaf of bread and some cheese.

I am going to go Skype my mama. I hope everyone is healthy and happy!

With undying love for angry bird fruit gummies, rain boots, my Hebrew/English dictionary, and the upcoming summer,

I remain,

J. Michael Hess Webber