Gandalf: "No, and if you do, I promise you will never be the same"
- The Hobbit
That's about the best I can summarize our expectations in the days leading up to our departure. A whole lot of uncertainty with only a couple sureties:
1) This would be a wild and crazy adventure.
2) Whatever happened over the next two years, good or bad, would leave us forever changed
As a quick background, though you may already be familiar with this program, the Olmsted Scholarship Foundation's goal is: "To provide outstanding young military leaders an unsurpassed opportunity to achieve fluency in a foreign language, pursue graduate study at an overseas university, and acquire an in depth understanding of foreign cultures, thereby further equipping them to serve in positions of great responsibility as senior leaders in the United States Armed Forces". In a nutshell, it's the greatest opportunity that seemingly no one really knows about. Study abroad for a couple years, gain fluency (although I'm quickly scaling back my use of this word), travel like crazy with your family and get paid to do it. The foundation staff and scholars we've met thus far have been absolutely incredible. It is truly the 2nd best fraternity in the military, following closely behind my original community.
So, we landed in Tel Aviv on Shabbat (our first exposure to the shutdown that overtakes this country from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday). Knowing United Airlines, it wouldn't shock me if they secretly planned for us to spend four hours on the tarmac prior to the 11 hour flight from Newark, but the jokes on them. I slept the whole flight thanks to modern narcotics. Poor Brittany was stuck with whatever pregnancy-safe medications we could find, which was basically just Benedryl. Once we touched down, Stew and Elizabeth Welch, the scholars that preceded us here in TA picked us up and dropped us off in our wonderful apartment. We are up near the top of a high rise with a balcony overlooking the Med and a couple extra bedrooms for guests (hint hint) or surprise babies.
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| Its a good thing United didn't charge us for the 8 bags weighing 70lbs apiece |
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| Our first breakfast on the balcony |
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| View from the balcony facing west toward the Mediterranean |
The first 7-10 days were honestly miserable. We had just enough check-in stuff with the embassy that we had to wake up periodically, but not enough that would force us to stay awake to keep the jet lag at bay. 30 minute catnaps nearly always turned into 6-7 hour sleeps, and we paid for it. To add insult to injury, we went the first week without any internet (ghasp). I know, it was a soberingly painful withdrawal while we got our cell phones set up. I don't laugh as hard now when I read CNN articles about internet addictions. I don't know how anyone moved overseas before smartphones. Without my Google translate app, SIRI's pronunciation slaughter of Hebrew road names during GPS directions, TripAdvisor restaurant recommendations, and Amazons deadly "1-Click Buy" (arrives tax/shipping free in our mailbox in 5-6 days), I'd have probably packed up and gone home. Thank the Lord I wasn't born 40 years ago. I would have been the weakest link for sure.
I'll explain it more in the next post, but we also have struggled initially with some misplaced expectations about Tel Aviv itself. Some of it is justified, but most of it, we are quickly learning, is the error of placing American ideas and viewpoints on a place that looks and acts very American sometimes, but in many ways, is absolutely not. Anyway, more on that later.
Shalom,
Garrett
