Leaving...On a Jet Plane

So we had a last dinner in Independence Square, with our last falafel, pizza and ice cream and head to sleep early. Then we wake up at 2:00 AM in order to make our 5:30AM flight. As we get inside the airport to the rental car return area, we learn that our rental car agency is not located at the airport, it's outside the area 15 minutes away! We drive around trying to look for it unsuccessfully, and finally Dad decides to drop me, Ben and my mom off with all the millions of luggage (4 pieces per person x 4 of us - 16 pieces of HUGE luggage!) while he figures out how to return the car and get back to check in at the airport.

My mom and I are pushing around 16 pieces of luggage, Ben is complaining he doesn't want to walk, he's tired, etc. -- so my mom tries to call the rental car agency to find out where they're located so she can help direct my Dad, but the voice messages are all in Hebrew... so she goes to the Information booth to ask for help and the lady is so rude there and my mom is stressed out so she screams at the lady the F word and walks away - OMG we almost get arrested, we'll miss our plane for sure!

we're soooo tired!

oh no... we're not gonna make the flight!

My mom says, get off the floor and just keep walking (yes we're lying on the floor exhausted at 3am), so we do - over to where you go through security questions and scan your bags. We get in the line with all our tons of luggage and then we can't go through yet because my Dad's not there yet. So my mom texts my dad to hurry, and we hang out waiting... eventually, he comes and we go through security but something gets screwed up and they don't tag half our bags appropriately... we find this out AFTER going through a bunch of other checkpoints, and my dad and I have to go ALL the way back with half the luggage while Ben/my mom wait at the counter (the flight's been boarding for 45 minutes already). Then back at the first starting place, all our luggage gets manually checked one by one (and I told you already we have a lot of luggage!).

ok this is ACTUALLY our luggage once we made it to Boston but it's a good place for a photo of luggage!

When we meet up with Ben and my mom, this time there is a nice lady at the ticket counter who says she'll escort us through the whole airport otherwise we won't make our plane -- so we cut all these lines and go through employee checkpoints all the way; the lady is holding Ben's hand and running with us.. I felt like a movie star getting special treatment while everyone else is dragging themselves through long lines... anyway, we are running like secret agents and get to the last x-ray scanner (yes we have about 6 laptops, DVD players, etc. that all require being taken out of their bags, etc. - ugh!) well who do we see but our old friend Adi who stayed in Worcester for last summer! I'm like "Adi!" and she's like "Caleb!" and we start hugging, and she turns her head (she works the scanner, she's the security guard) and all the people in line we just cut start screaming at her that she's turned away from her job to hug me - anyway, it was really funny because she's someone we've been trying to see the whole time in Israel but never got to!

Well, whew! We made it to the plane before the doors closed but not by much! The guy who was supposed to sit near us was not having any part of it, so he moved to a different open seat. The flights were fine and we made it to Boston after going first to Rome.

Wow it was strange to be back on American soil after all that time! And it was COLD with snow on the ground!

We got the Worcester limo and headed straight to our new home in Holden and to start our new life... new adventures will begin!

Get ready for my NEXT blog!!