Welcome to Israel!

My flight for Israel left New York at 130PM on Wednesday and was scheduled to arrive at 7AM on Thursday Tel Aviv time (midnight EST).  For some reason they told us to show up for the flight 4 hours before!  Well I ended up showing up at 9AM which made for a very long morning of just sitting around waiting for the flight.  They did a whole lot of behind the scenes processing of our documentation during that time and on the flight, so that was the main reason for having to show up so early.  Not a lot of exciting things happened during those hours except good conversation and meeting people who were on the flight.  During the processing they check to make sure all your documentation is correct.  They also ask if you would like to change your name (simply because you can). I said yes (kind of).  I decided to change my name from Alex to Yitzhak, which is my given Hebrew name.  So now my documentation reads my first name as Yitzhak.  In doing so I am now introducing myself as Yitzhak, but feel free to still call me Alex.  My reason for changing my name is kind of simple and logical (or so I see it as such).  I was given a Hebrew name at birth.  It seems only natural that in the Jewish State of Israel I should be using my Jewish (Hebrew) name.

We finally boarded the plane and I was happy to see that someone intelligent created the seating arrangement.  They put all the families and screaming babies at the back of the plane, and us young single people they put up towards the front of the plane.  Usually flights to Israel and not fun because there are screaming babies all over the place, but this was a pleasant surprise.  The flight was a quick one - only 9.5 hours, when its usually 10 - 10.5.  I was unable to sleep a wink on the plane because I was too excited to arrive already.  Even though it was only 9.5 hours in the air, it felt like a lot longer like when you keep looking at your watch because you are excited to get to the destination but that in turn makes the time go even slower.  I spent the time meeting new people and socializing on the plane.  Everyone on the special charter plane was in the same situation as me - making aliyah, so it was exciting to be sharing this experience with other people who were just as excited as I was to be moving to Israel.

Posing for a picture with a bunch of important people wearing suits moments after we  got off the plane!

9.5 hours later, the plane touched the Israeli soil and at that moment I officially became an Israeli citizen!  They brought the border pratrol officers on the plane in order to check our passports, which made things a lot easier for us.  Once that was over and done with it was time to disenbark and begin my life as a real Israeli.  Standing on the tarmac at the bottom of the plane's steps were about a dozen photographers, TV cameras and press.  They were there to document this exciting moment in our lives.  It was televised on TV and online here.  This kind of publicity shows the value that the State of Israel has in bringing in Jews from around the world to settle in our country.  It was a surreal experience to finally step off the plane as an Israeli and it went by too quickly.  After a quick photo-op we boarded a shuttle bus that drove us approximately 3 minutes over to the terminal where the ceremony would be held.  We got off the bus to a crowd of people cheering with signs, and Israeli flags.  They were families, friends of people who had landed and also random Israelis who came to welcome us home.  We snaked through the path through the cheering crowd like rock stars and then we arrived inside the terminal to congregate and get ready for the ceremony.

There were many dignitaries and some government ministers at the ceremony. The ceremony felt very long as it was about 2 or 230 in morning and I had gone through a long day.  To sum up the ceremony in one sentance, everyone that spoke was very happy that we decided to move to Israel, and they wished us luck and welcomed us home.  Once the ceremony was over it still wasn't time to leave the airport - we still had to go through immigration, sign some papers and get some things.  After waiting around for over an hour, I was naturally the last person called to go through immigration.  The lady took my picture for my teudat oleh (the ID card indicating that I am a new immigrant), made me sign a few things and gave me cash!  How awesome is that? I get off a plane and the government gives me cash!!!  What could be more important than getting cash from the immigration office? Well, I will answer that in a bit.  The woman gives me a bunch of things and I ask if I have everything.  She says yes, and just about beats me to the door as she is going for lunch.  I leave the office, and the waiting room is empty.  Great.  I go downstairs to pick up my luggage - also the last person to get my luggage.  I figured everyone was already long gone on their way home.  But luckily when I went to wait for the free taxi that I get (another benefit for making aliyah) there were still tons of people waiting.  I got a nice boxed lunch and a free plant from the JNF. There were even about a half dozen people still waiting for a cab that was going to the same place that I was.  This was convenient because the cabs were more like large shuttle vans, and they probably could have fit all 6 of us in one and take us to the same place.  Well, that would be logical and in Israel, they don't do it that way.  I went in a cab with 3 other people who were going to different places within Jerusalem.  Naturally I was the last of the 3 to be dropped off, yet we had passed close to my neighbourhood first.  2 and a half hours after I left the airport I finally arrived at my new home shortly after noon.  During that cab ride, I managed to get my first 45 minutes of sleep. As we were stuck in Jerusalem bumper to bumper traffic, I saw someone that I knew, rolled down the window and yelled at him from across the street. It didn't take long at all to randomly bump into someone that I knew.  It happened again at the bar later in the evening too.  Shortly before arriving at my destination, I get a phonecall.  This was odd because I had just received a pay as you go phonecard to get me started from the immigration office.  I think who possibly has this phone number?  I answer it and it was someone from the immigration office, duh!  They asked me if I had my teudat oleh with me.  My response was "umm... i dunno - what does it look like".  I didn't think that they gave me one and when one person in the cab showed me her's I told the person on the other line that I didn't have it.  She told me that I never took it with me when I left the office, to which I corrected her "actually you never gave it to me!  Let's be clear I didn't take the card because a card was never given to me!"  They said okay, we will call you back to tell you how we are going to get it to you or you will have to come back to the airport.  Great, just my luck.  The most important document that I needed to take, the stupid woman didn't bother giving to me.  I'm convinced it's because she was in a rush to go to lunch.  I guess its only natural that this kind of thing would happen only to me.  They called me back later saying that they would send my ID card with someone else who was also coming to the same place as I was who landed several hours after me.  Having chatted up the cab driver and him overhearing my situation and my swearing in disbelief of the immigration office and their shitty (dis)service he laughed and with a smile he enthusiastically said "welcome to Israel!"

Once I arrived at the Ulpan I went to register and have them print me a student card that is to be used in order to get my meals and enter the campus. The only things they needed from me were my teudat oleh, ID card and a picture of me.  Well I had a picture of me, I just explained the story of where my teudat oleh was, and the ID card for some reason we didn't get but were to go pick it up the following week.  I told them that I didn't have either a teudat oleh or and ID card and they said "thats not possible, you were supposed to get your teudat oleh at the airport.  You need that, its very important."  They didn't want to believe me when I told them that they never gave me one.  So it immediately became apparent to everyone that works at the ulpan that I was the fool that somehow ended up leaving the airport without getting the most important piece of documentation.  It all ended up working out in the end, but obviously the whole situation was just a big mess.

I moved into my new appartment which I will call home for the next 5 months.  There is a washroom, tiny kitchen and a bedroom which is about 15' x 8' which sleeps two people.  I started unpacking my things and meeting new people as they were moving in.  I managed to nap for about 45 more minutes at night before going out to the city center with a few new friends I made to celebrate our arrival and for becoming Israeli citizens.  At about 2AM I arrived back at my roomlike sauna (yes, I am implying that the 4 walled area was more of a sauna than it was a bedroom) and attempted to get a good night sleep after having slept a total of 1.5 hours in almost 2 days.  All in all it was a very exciting day and I was happy to be back home in Israel.

At 9AM I got woken up by someone knocking on my door.  So much for catching up on sleep.  It was my new roommate right from the airport all the way from Melbourne, Australia.  We started chatting for a while and he seems to be a great guy (and I'm not just saying that because he's probably looking over my shoulder right now).  Shortly thereafter I left to go visit relatives for Shabbat before the ulpan program officially starts on Sunday.

How cool is this?  This card came inside our packaged airplane meals.  This card definitely made up for the shitty food!