Okay, so as I said, I am back in the United States. I have spent the past couple of days catching up with my family and getting used to being home. I started sorting pictures and uploading them to facebook. I am also working on typing up the journal notes I took while I was gone as well as adding other things that I remember. My current plan right now is to post one of my journal entries about one or two days. Please remember that these are not edited so this is by no means a sample of my best writings. My only goal is that they make enough sense for me to remember what happened.

So here for your reading pleasure is my first day of Travel.

May 29

I began my Israel journey not on an airplane but on a good old fashion train. Around 10 a.m. my mother and I loaded my suitcase into her car and drove to the train station. The weather was breezy and cool, perfect for waiting outside on a bench for a train I assumed would probably be late. (The last time I took the train to St. Louis it was 3 hours late. I could have driven there faster.) Mom did not have anything planned for the day, so at least she would be able to wait until it got there this time. I wouldn’t have to wait by myself.
Shortly after we got there, we saw Dad walking down to where we were. He had taken off work for a little while to come and see me off. We sat for a while discussing the places I would be seeing and talking about what time it was in Israel. I had changed my watch about 2 weeks before hand since I generally used my cell phone for U.S. time. This meant that while I was traveling I had no idea what the local time was. I turned my cell phone off to conserve the battery. I wasn’t going to be using my cell phone while I was gone, but I needed it when I got back so I had to take it along. I didn’t want to cart the charger over there, so I just left my phone off.
Surprisingly enough, the train was on time! It was actually a little early (there was a point were it had to move off the tracks for another train, which did end up putting us a little behind schedule. An Ozark shuffle or something like that. They had to move the train backwards.) I boarded the train and began to look for a seat. I wanted to be able to sit by myself, but that clearly was not going to be an option. The train was crowded, and every seat already had at least one person sitting in it. I found an open aisle seat. A little boy had been sitting there, but he had moved to sit in the lap of one of his grandparents so I thought it was okay to sit there. When the conductor came by to take tickets, however, he skipped me. When I got his attention, he told me the seat was already taken, and that I would need to move. Turns out, everyone has to be in an assigned seat, whether or not they are actually sitting in it. I got up and moved to an empty seat next to a blond woman a few rows back. I remember being slightly intimidated because I was not dressed as nicely as she was. (I did not want to take anything I would be upset about losing to Israel.) That was, of course, very silly. She was very pleasant, and we chatted at various intervals during the trip. If I remember correctly, her name was Jennifer, and she was traveling to St. Louis to meet her husband for an Air Force function (a retirement party, I think). She had recently graduated with an Air History degree and was/is considering going to grad school eventually for Museum Studies. She wasn’t sure exactly when that would happen because her family was moving to Louisiana for her husband’s residency. We discussed some other things, like history (Mayans and Aztecs and Incas) and the economy. We passed by a coal train that had derailed. It was mangled and there was coal everywhere.
We got to St. Louis pretty much on time, despite the short delay for the other train. Grandma was waiting to pick me up. We went out to lunch because she said she did not have much food in the house because she was getting ready for her trip to Maine. After lunch we went to Walgreen’s to pick up pictures and ran into Hajime. Grandma and I had plans to eat dinner with him and his wife Clare that evening. I had a choice between Chinese and Italian and I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to have. They both sounded super delicious. After picking up pictures at Walgreen’s, we went to the grocery store to pick up an apple and granola bars (for breakfast and a snack for my trip.) Then we stopped by a Border’s and bought a Hebrew phrasebook (had I been thinking more, I would have gotten an Arabic phrasebook as well. We were in Jordan for a couple of days and in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem.)
After running those errands, we went to Grandma’s house. I finally got to see the Sun Room she and Sue had built out of their deck. It was very cool. There was a big chair, a couch, a table and a T.V. I eventually decided on Italian for dinner, and we left around 5:15 to meet Hajime and Clare for dinner. It was very nice to see them, and Clare gave me a little bag for my trip. Hajime and I order the same thing for dinner, but since I ate several slices of bread, a bowl of soup and part of a salad before my meal came, I sent the leftovers home with him. Grandma wouldn’t eat them because it was too hot.
After dinner, Grandma and I went back to her house. I called my parents and then grandma and I watched a movie (Raising Helen). I went to bed after that because I had to get up early to go to the airport to get on a plane to ISRAEL!