So I'm here. The trip here wasn't terrible. Two flights were delayed so I had a 7 hour layover in Detroit and another 6 hour layover in New York but other than that, everything went swimmingly. Israeli security wasn't bad at all. I was stopped right outside of the plane by a woman who asked me what I was doing in Jordan and Egypt. After I told her I study the region, International Relations, and Arabic, she kind of rolled her eyes and rhetorically asked "why?" She then asked me what my business is in Israel so I told her I'm just touring the holy land; couch surfing, hostels, etc. She told me that couch surfing wasn't very popular here; I responded with the statistic that around 6200 homes are available to couch surf in Israel, that kind of quieted her down and then she let me go. Customs was really easy too, the woman there looked at my passport, then at me, checked if I was on any "lists," and then let me through. I also had pre-Rabbi Dave help me out which was cool, he helped me find a sim card for my phone/find the sheirut service.
From there, I took a sheirut to Jerusalem and from there, asked around until I found a bus that took me to the border of Israel and Palestine. I walked through without any trouble and then took a taxi to the farm. We were stopped in front of the farm by Israeli military personnel and my taxi driver seemed pretty scared. They made him shut his car off, open the trunk, etc. Then I made my way to the farm with Samuel, a French guy I met who's checking out the farm as well. There are also two Germans here who have been here for 9 and a half months now (they're here for a year). They seem pretty legit so I'll enjoy working with them, they're both 20 so it's cool that they're close to my age. Sam is 30 but he'll talk to Daoud tomorrow about hopefully sticking around and volunteering for a couple months.
The farm is pretty rustic but comfortable. We have electricity for the most part at night with solar-powered internet access (or a battery). I'll be sleeping in this large tent-like building with paved floors and a whole mess of beds for volunteers. We are also restricted to one-minute showers so I figure I won't be doing that very often. I'll shower every few days, that should do the trick. Tomorrow, Daoud will show me around the farm and show me the ropes; I'm really excited to get working.
