Home beis

 OK, I'm back and have had a few hours to try and make sense of everything. I shall pick up from the airport and work forward to some musings before signing off.

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People started showing up in earnest by 1:30 AM. I watched them straggle in, some awake and aware, others dragging, and many annoyed at the delay. I saw that the esteemed Josh Gotlieb and wife Annie were there! We chatted for a while and then he went back to try and track down a family member.

More and more people are noticing that the USB ports in the "free charging stations" aren't connected to anything and that someone seems to have stolen all of the wall outlets.

Our plane, the Rishon Leziyon, has been parked for a while. It is a lovely if slightly smaller plane. The Beit She'an is also around here but not at the right gate. The Gotliebs told me that they were offered a chance to be bumped and rebooked and would be given a hotel voucher. I wasn't given that! I would have taken it in a heartbeat. Just glom off of the hotel for a bunch of hours, sleep in the tub, eat more. But nope, no one said a word to me. Not fair.

Unlike other flights I have been on, the boarding process here did not ask us to line up based in group. Not that anyone listens to those directions anyway, but I felt less guilty about jumping on line as soon as they said that boarding would commence (about 4:10AM). This time, I had a carry on so I needed to ensure an overhead bin close to my seat. I got on and went to 35A (exit row). The overhang of the bins was annoying but I got my stuff up and settled in. The seats felt slightly narrower than the one I rode in on on the way here. And the guy next to me filled up his entire seat so it was tough to get out of my spot, between the overhead and his presence. He also put his carry on on the floor in the empty space in front of us once the flight got going so when I got up, I had even less walking room.

Before we even took off, I chomped on a sleeping pill and I don't recall taking off. I woke 4 hours later, and promptly went back to sleep. Repeat every hour for a few hours. Eventually I got up to daven, and later, try to work on a puzzle or two. But I was still so tired that I cuddled back up and nodded off. No music, no movies, no TV. I missed both meals and at least 1 minyan. And yet I was still incredibly tired after I deplaned. Also, the teenager who was on a group trip of Israeli kids who had been under rocket attacks started the flight by crying incessantly and wanting to leave because she was scared of flying. That's fine. She eventually had a fine, fun time except she never really learned, and nobody told her, that the video screen and back of the seat in front of her were connected to the front of the seat in front of her and to me. She kept kicking and pushing it. Good thing I was able to fall asleep repeatedly.

It was COLD in the plane. Ambient temp was fine, but I was at the window side and it felt like there was a pinprick hole and -40 degree air was rushing in. I wasn't wearing layers because it plane wasn't cold on the way in. The wall and my left armrest were freezing to the ouch.

So we land, I jump off quickly, get through passport control early and then to the baggage carousel where I wait for a while until my bag emerges. First in, last out, I guess. But that's ok. I'd rather hurry up and wait than stand in line and fret. Randy was there waiting and I made it back to here.

OK, to sum it up I wanted to add a thought. The power of fluency in a language has nothing to do with having a strong vocabulary. Real fluency is tested when a native mumbles or speaks quickly or has a regional accent. I was at El Al security and the woman, after looking through my stuff said something. It was noisy in the airport and she was not speaking slowly and clearly. It took a while until she switched to English. She had said a single Hebrew word, one that I know well. But because I couldn't hear clearly, I was lost. In English, I can look at the situation, hear enough of the word to use context and figure it out, or see the movement of lips and put them together with sounds to figure it out. But while I can understand (generally) when people speak clearly to me in full thoughts, slangs and verbal shorthand, or the accent of someone's Hebrew make it really tough for me.

Stop giving me lessons in easy phrases, and start giving me lessons on how to recognize those phrases when they are said by a native Arab speaker who has a mouthful of marbles.

I have already started thinking about my next trip. Or maybe, I just haven't stopped thinking about this one.