Saturday 7/8/06 – Jerusalem, the Fuchsberg center, Tel
Aviv and home – Day 13
Saturday, they didn’t push us to go to services, and knowing
our flight wasn’t going to leave until almost 1
am Sunday morning, we elected to sleep in. We got up, showered,
ate, and packed and then it was time to leave for the only thing on the
schedule for Saturday - a visit to the Fuchsberg center for Conservative
Judiasm, which was walking distance from the hotel.
They talked about the conservative movement in Israel
– They have about 50 synogogues across Israel.
We asked whether they had a political party to further their goals and they
said no – first of all, they think religion should be separate from politics
and second, they can’t muster the 70,000 votes to get a seat. Then they
took the kids off (the kids played Jeopardy) and the adults had a “shiur”
(lesson/discussion) – the point of the shiur was to show how the mishna
supports discussion about the laws in the torah. Marc loved it. I
amused myself by translating the Hebrew. It was basically a sermon.
Afterwards, they served us lunch at the center, and then we had the rest of the
day free. I called David and he came to Jerusalem
to pick us up. Marc and I and Mom and Dad played bridge, while we waited
for him. The kids were having some trouble getting along. I was
glad when we could leave. David took us to his apartment, where we hung
out for a while and then went to dinner. Benjamin ordered meatballs in
tomato sauce on rice which he didn’t like and stuffed grape leaves, which he
did. Jonathan ordered pancakes which looked very different from what he
expected, but which he liked. Marc got a chili chicken sandwich, which
turned out to be a chicken sandwich with a chili pepper in it. I ordered
an eggplant and cheese sandwich, which was only so-so. Such was our last
meal in Israel.
We went to get ice-cream. Jonathan passed, as usual (Israeli ice cream is
too creamy for him – even the sherbet.) Benjamin got vanilla, which was
pretty good – better than what we had been having in a lot of places
lately. We walked back to David’s apartment and played Shesh-besh
(backgammon). The cats were starting to get to Marc and me, so we decided
to head out to the airport, even though we had not yet received a call from the
tour saying they were leaving Jerusalem.
The call came in ~8:30, not bad
considering that the hotel had lost one of the backpacks – fortunately they
found it in the end. Security at the airport took about an hour. We
went to a bookstore and asked if they had Harry Potter in Arabic, but I don’t
think they had anything in Arabic. I did buy two children’s books in
Hebrew though. Cost me about as much for the two as one would have cost
me in the states. Then we dealt with the gate balagan. They wrote
D4 on the boarding passes, but the gate was really C9. At one point we
were talking to the El Al people at D4 and we asked how full the flight was –
100% full with standbyes. They asked us if we wanted to get bumped –
well, when’s the next flight? There was a flight that left 5 minutes later that
went through JFK and arrived 30 minutes later. What would we get for
being bumped? 4 round trip tickets to be used within a year or $900 –
“OK,” we said, “let's do it”. It was all dependent on whether they could
find our bags. So we waited with baited breath, dreaming dreams of coming
back over Christmas break or spring break. But – no dice. Oh well,
no loss either. So we got the boys McDonalds and waited (at gate C9) to
board. We took off uneventfully and tried to sleep from 2 am to 8 am
(Israeli time.)
When we decided we couldn’t even pretend to sleep anymore,
they showed another movie, but the sound was awful, so I frequently couldn’t
figure out what was going on. Then they served breakfast. Breakfast
wasn’t bad - omelets or blintzes. Then we landed in Toronto, went to the
holding area, back on the plane for another 5 hour flight. The kids were
as good as gold the whole time. We landed a little bit early, and customs
were nothing. We handed them our paper and walked through - they didn’t
ask us a single question. We got out to where the limo was supposed to
be, and there was no limo. Sigh. So we caught the Fly-Away (the bus
to the San Fernando Valley) and Blanche picked us up from the fly-Away station
and took us home. We arrived home a little after noon.
Epilogue
Now that it’s all said (and said and said) and done, what do
I have to say about the trip? First of all, I want to thank my parents,
because if it wasn’t for them, it wouldn’t have happened, and it was a wonderful
experience. We heartily approved of all the choices the tour made of
places to see and wouldn’t have skipped any of them. There were numerous
problems (did I EVER mention a hotel without talking about some balagan that
had to be straightened out?) but nothing that made a difference. And the
kids – well, I have to thank them too. Not once did they whine or
complain. (What never? No Never. What never? Well, hardly
ever!) And they had lots to complain about: unfamiliar food, long
lectures, long bus rides and all of this frequently on less sleep than usual.
They were angels. We had the usual issues that come from being on a
tour. It drove us crazy that they would say, “Be at the bus at 7:30 so we
can leave at 7:45,” and then they wouldn’t leave until 8:00. We always
let the boys bring a DS or a book, even for a 5 minute bus trip, because of the
half hour it took for everyone to show up. But taking a tour was the
right way to do the trip. The tour itself was billed as being for 13 year
olds and their families and it was an interesting mix of activities that were
oriented for kids and those that weren’t. The tour had clearly chosen
some activities specifically with the kids in mind (jeep ride, river rafting, camel
ride – particularly the camel ride!) But then on the more touristy events
(Caesaria, Beit Shean, Masada) there would be these longwinded explanations
that left the kids bored and wanting to move on. The kids would have
liked more free time to relax, swim, and play games, but I wouldn’t have cut
out a thing – well, maybe a lecture or two! When we go back, (and we are
already talking about going back) I would like to spend more time at Yad V’Shem
and at the Israeli Museum – and more time on the beach in Tel Aviv. The
kids want to spend more time at Eilat. We all want to go back.
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