Our bags are packed (mostly) and we are ready to go! It's 10 PM the night before we are set to fly out for Israel and we are all pooped. Packing up most of your life in 6 or 7 bags is an exhausting feat. I am definitely glad that we are close to the finish line, or at least the end of this segment of our journey. Much more surely lies ahead!!!
We had a wonderful send off party last night - a big thank you to Stephanie and Will for making it happen. Thanks as well to all those who attended. It's nice to see to be able to see our group of friends and in one place before we leave NYC.
Our flight leaves from JFK tomorrow afternoon at around 5:30 PM. Vlad, Alla, and Michelle are coming in early tomorrow to see us off and help with any last minute arrangements. We have an 8 hour flight to Berlin, Germany via Air Berlin. We are due to arrive in Berlin on Tuesday morning (Jan 10th) at around 7 AM and we have a two hourish layover before our flight to Ben Gurion. Our second flight is about 4 hours and we are scheduled to land in Eretz Israel around 2:30 PM on the 10th. Right on 24 hours of travel time!!! (I hope I sleep on the plane).
Thankfully Marina and I have a 5 or 6 day "vacation" in Jerusalem before we move in to our dorm apartment. We are staying in a hostel in the city center and hope to learn the ropes while we have free time. I'm sure it will take several days to get over the jet lag and get acclimated but I trust that living in New York for 4.5 years has trained me well for big city life - even though Jerusalem is small compared to NYC.
I know that everyone will be on the edge of their seats to read about what Marina and I are doing. Please don't be too upset if there are no posts during the first few days. I anticipate that we will both be slightly overloaded but I will do my best to put up some pictures on Facebook and I'm sure there will be status updates as well - some may be in Hebrew or Russian so you better start brushing up!
Much love from New York; much love to come from Israel.
~Evan and Marina
So proud and happy for you both. Safe travels to the holy land. So glad you have this blog. It is such a great way to keep the family in touch.
ReplyDeletexoxoxo