Hurry Up and Wait

That was the motto of our first night together. I got to the airport around 10:45 p.m. (we were told 10:30 … according to “Jewish time,” I think that qualifies as being early actually). It was nice to meet in person all my other teammates – I met the Florida crew over Passover while I was in their neck of the woods, and Lindsay and I knew each other from college bowling.

We had plenty of time to meet and socialize, because we did a lot of waiting. Waiting in the terminal, waiting to check-in at the gate, waiting to board the plane. What’s ironic is, as we were walking down the terminal to our gate, an El Al agent was yelling at us, saying that we were holding up everyone. Yeah, standing in line waiting rather than sitting for a minute is much more effective, but I digress. Although, that’s probably a concept we should all get familiar with, since traveling around with roughly 800 people is going to entail a lot of “hurrying up” and a lot of “waiting.”

I’m actually writing (part of) this from the plane. It’s about 6:45 p.m. Israel time (11:45 a.m. on the east coast). My posts from Israel will be recorded on Israeli Time, so don’t let that confuse you (remember, Israel is seven hours ahead of the East Coast, 10 for my peeps on the west side).

True to form, I didn’t sleep all that much on the plane but I got a few hours that will tide me over until we arrive at the Kfar Maccabiah, our home for the next four days. I figure that after landing, claiming our luggage, doing the customs thing, boarding the busses, and finally getting the Kfar will be enough activity to knock me out and I’ll wake up tomorrow on Israeli time. We’ll leave the Kfar on Friday to move to our hotel for the actual competition.

The terminal and plane ride have been a very social affair. Not only has it given my teammates and I an opportunity to socialize with one another, we’ve had a chance to chat it up with other athletes. I mean, our 747-400 plane had more than 450 passengers, and enough baggage and equipment to comfortably furnish a small country in the Pacific Ocean. I thought us bowlers had it bad, having to lug around three, four, or five bowling balls (yes, some people brought five balls with them). We saw baseball players carting numerous bat carriers and containers of practice balls, and the Rugby team had plenty of practice crash pads to go around. Then there are tennis racquets, golf clubs, softball equipment, and more. Thankfully, those that needed to check a third piece of luggage were able to do so.

Arriving in Israel is always a unique experience. That first step out of the airplane onto the stairway, the first breath of Israeli air – words cannot describe it. And, walking down those stairs to music and the scene of all the athletes gathering for our first Israeli welcome … that really set the stage! Now you can enjoy a piece of the magic too!

We then headed to busses where we were whisked away to the Kfar. No worries about baggage claim. No worries about customs. All we had to do was hand in our passport. That’s what I call traveling in style!

The Kfar is an enormous complex with a fitness center, pool, tennis courts, and a hotel and conference center. In Jewish tradition, we walked into an intimate buffet feast before going to our rooms … to which they’ve delivered our luggage and some water. The rooms are modest, but the four of us in here will get by just fine.

As soon as I can, I’ll post a picture of us … Laila tov (good night).