Israel - the land of milk and honey

I flew Delta to Tel Aviv via Atlanta and it was a good flight. I basically stayed up for the first meal and then took sleep meds, waking up thirty minutes before landing. Perfect! What was even better was the cacophony of Israeli accents and Hebrew around me - it was great. I was a little concerned about how quickly my Hebrew would come back to me, but it didn't take long. I even learned my first new Hebrew word of the trip: ozniyot (headphones)!

I arrived in Israel late on Friday just before Shabbat and was picked up by my best friend's fiance, Craig. After stopping off at their apartment, the girls went out for Hillary's bachelorette dinner at this place in Caesaria.

I haven't been to Israel in four years (since my first cousin Ilana got married), and hadn't been to Caesaria for years before that, so I was surprised at how much the city had been built up. Quite impressive, actually. And it was a beautiful night on the water... a soft breeze, good food (though crappy service), great company.

I'm a well traveled person and I know the tips and tricks. Once I'm on the plane, I change my watch to the time of my destination and behave accordingly. As a result, it's now Tuesday at 5:27pm and I'm feeling fine. No jet lag at all.

It's actually been a pretty productive trip too, work-wise. I went to Hillary's office with her on Sunday and Monday (Sunday is a work day here) and drafted briefs, responses, motions, and began a counter-claim. Felt pretty good. Now I'm working on a list of the people I need to visit. Only two are in the Tel Aviv area, surprisingly; the rest are in Jerusalem (J'lem, J-town, or whatever you want to call it). I got myself a pelephone (cell) and emailed all of them... now I just wait to hear from them. I'm not free until after Sunday though - WEDDING STUFF! :)

Hillary has had all sorts of issues with the wedding stuff. I tried to help her with it from Michigan, but it didn't quite end up working out the way we thought it would. Extremely frustrating and just not right. And I'm not even the one getting married.