Israel begins

OK, Israel has been nice so far. I say nice, because it hasn't been great.

Yesterday we arrived at 4 am, and they didn't let us go to sleep until 9 that night. So, everyone was ridiculously tiered, and couldn't pay attention to anything. I also have these three friends from long Island on my trip that I want to hang. Imagine the most obnoxious ten year old in the world and give him three friends who are all encouraging themselves, and put them in twenty year olds bodies. that's pretty much what I deal with everyday. The next thing that sucks is that everything is a production. When I travel alone, or with two, or even three, things go smoothly and quickly. You can go from thing to thing in a moment. This trip it takes 15 minuets to exit a building, and the four schmucks from Long Island are always keeping the group behind.

Finally I dint like our guide. He is a very strict man who runs us on military efficiency, which is tiresome, so not only are we wasting time with the big group, but we have no time to kind of putz around these areas, it sort of sucks. I also don't think he is very knowledgeable, today he told us the color of a shull is meant to scare away satin, and hell. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Jews don't believe in a hell or satin. Those are christian ideas. I didn't say anything, but I really think hes wrong. Another example of this is when I first got there I asked what the deal with tish bah ave was, and how crowded and unwieldy it would be in the old city. I said this after having already voicing my concerns via email weeks earlier. He assured me it would be fine. Two hours latter he told the group that the old city was impossible to go to that day, and we had to change the schedule. Why did it take him to the last possible second to figure out what I knew the moment I saw the schedule. He is an idiot, and a poor tour guide.

The are some good parts. Most of the group s pretty chill. I have enjoyed the few things we've seen, and am finding things interesting. Svat was cool, and I enjoyed our rafting down the Jordan River today. So, I hope things get better, and I continue to have a good time.