Monday, June 29, 2009

Hello from Israel!

Well, we left Birmingham this morning at 6 AM and arrived in Newark, NJ (via Atlanta) around 11:30 AM. What a chaotic start to our trip....first we arrived about 45 minutes late to Newark and then Sean's bag from Birmingham did not make the flight! After checking with baggage, we found out it had never been scanned in, so they had no idea where the bag was. Luckily, it came on the next flight from Atlanta and arrived at 12:30 PM. We were waiting in a very long line to go through the "profiling" at El AL before we could check in for our flight, which was leaving at 2:30 PM. To make matters worse, Sean and I were not even seated together. Once we were finally seated, I knew exactly what a Sardine must feel in its case....very cramped, hot and not too pleasant of an aroma. We had many very religious people, men, women and children who were praying all the time, especially when the sun started to rise, not to mention the lectures about being Jewish, to any and all that would lsiten, including those that did not want to listen!

We arrived in Israel (Tel Aviv), about 8:15 AM ( 45 minuted late). Now the fun began....did you say Chineese Firedrill in reverse? I thought so, because that was exactly what it was like getting our baggage and clearing customs! I have never seen so many disorganized people in my life, not the least of which was the rudeness and breaking in line all the time. Marie, this was almost as bad as Rio de Janeiro in 1988!

Well we finally cleared customs and got on our bus and made to our hotel for Pre-camp. It is very nice and the food is very good. the people here are extremely pleasant and helpful. The team is now swimming to try and stay awake until training at 4 PM. We will have a very light training session, just to lossen up our muscles from the long flight (10 and 1/2 hours). After our 1 hour session, we will go back to the pool for a coll down stretching sinner session. Dinner will be at 7 PM and then a team meeting with the Maccabi Staff and then a coaches meeting will follow. After that we will go to bed and crash.

Tomorrow (Tuesday), we will have our first true training session at 7 AM until 9 AM and then from 4 PM until 6 PM.

I will post again tomorrow and I hope everyone has a great day!

Best regards to all,

Preston and Sean

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3 comments:

  1. Teenage Tri QueenJune 29, 2009 at 6:09 PM

    Hey, it's Chloe! I'm glad you made it safely to Israel. Have fun training, and keep up the posting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. daveJune 30, 2009 at 6:38 PM

    Coach,

    I can only relate these experiences from living in Israel from December 1985-April 1987. At a bank in Jerusalem, a clerk informed me that she had moved money from my account to make for an overdraft in my brother's account (he lived a couple of blocks away for a few months). That topped the woman at the post office in Arad who loudly proclaimed me foolish for sending back to the states a large shortwave radio my family sent, rather than pay the far-too-large tax for bringing the thing into the country. For Americans, Israelis are an acquired taste. After several months to a year in Israel, I became used to the, uh, personal nature of their inquiries.

    ReplyDelete
  3. daveJune 30, 2009 at 6:39 PM

    dave, above, is Dave Schechter, father of Eyal, #18.

    ReplyDelete

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