About 24 hours ago I arrived at the Miami International airport to meet up with my Taglit group. The security screening process that we all went through for EL AL airlines was the most thorough I have ever experienced. I was asked who I stayed with in Florida, how do I know them, what are their names. I was asked if I knew where in the bible my middle name, Aaron, came from and I had to explain his relationship to Moses. I was unable to remember the name of my torah portion but I just explained that it was a long one. After answering all of these questions, along with assuring them that no one gave me anything to bring on the flight, without flinching, they let me check bag and proceed.

My packing job for this trip was done in somewhat of a minimalist fashion although I feel like I have plenty of clothes. One thing I kept in mind was the countries in which I plan to visit, so all of the t-shirts I brought are solid colored, with no writing on them. This may be a bit extreme, but I figured backpacking through middle eastern countries is no place to express individuality

But for the next 10 days I will be traveling with a group of 17 kids from ages 19 to 26. At the moment we are making our way to Jerusalem to visit the wall and some other things. I will try and get an Itenerary up at some point.

…Well, this didn’t post as effiectively as I thought it would from my phone via email, but now I am able to post it straight to my admin site from my blackberry. Our first night we went to a Taglit event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the independence of Israel. I use the term celebrate loosely. The event we went to was pretty lame. Some cheesy guy up on stage tried to get everyone rowled up at this alcohol free event with 3000 taglit participants. I can honestly say I would have been more entertained at a broadway musical.

The rules of the trip are somewhat annoying. The alcohol rule says that we can’t drink at all until after all the events are finished and we are not supposed to go anywhere other than the hotel bar. This includes having a beer with lunch. With this being said, I have not officially arrived in Israel for I have yet to enjoy a local beer, but I have learned a lot of history for one day.

Today we learned about the destruction of the 2nd temple and how it was the worst thing to happen to the Jewish people in the history of the Jewish religeon, the first being the holocaust. But that is just a summary of one part of a very long day, 16 hours to be exact. 6am to 10pm.

Ok. Going to bed now.