(I thought this was a pretty cool sunset over Toronto, taken from the shuttle plane)
Air Canada, I must declare, has the coolest jet I've been on. It's the jet of the future! I'm glad that I didn't pack any books or magazines because the tv screens were touch-screens and everthing's On Demand. So it meant that if a movie already started in another flight, I would've had to wait for the next showing. Here, you could start your shows anytime you wanted. You could pick any shows! So I picked two movies- "The Counterfeiter" (about the huge counterfeit operation during Nazism where they attempt to destroy Britain's economy by putting in extra pounds in its currency) and another one about the South Korean women's handball team's journey to the Athens Olympics. I picked them just because they had subtitles- I could barely hear the regular movies. They were actually showing some of the recently opened movies like "10,000 BC" and "Definitely Maybe." The first class/business class looked like it was blasted from The Jetsons. (Apparently Ofek, the son, is going on this airline for his Canada trip at the end of the month so I told him all about it and he's really looking forward to it!)We had to make an emergency landing in Halifax because the plane had no water so we were delayed for 90 minutes. I was soooo tired and sick that I just wanted them to shut off ALL the lights!
Otherwise, everything else was cool with Air Canada. Just A LOT of little kids!
Not so cool with the passport control, on the other hand. It went like this:
PC: What's your purpose of your visit to Israel?
Me: Ulpan study in Haifa.
PC: How long are you studying for?
Me: 4 or 5 weeks.
PC: You'll need a student visa.
Me: What? I'm here less than three months!
PC: Yes but you have a student visa here and it's expired. If you're going to study here, you need to get a student visa.
Me: But it's only for 3 or 4 weeks and I'm here for another 2 weeks!
PC: Then where are you going after you finish studying?
Me: I'm just going to Tel Aviv. (panicky response)
PC: You have family there?
Me: Yes!!! (sorry Mom and Dad, I wanted her to shut up and let me go already)
PC: Okay, fine. If you're going to be studying for another 2 weeks, then you NEED to get a student visa.
I called Meredith, my old roommate from last year who's in Jerusalem now doing the ulpan. She had no problems apparently. I think it was just the fact that I had a student visa.
Shlomi picked me up and we drove back to the kibbutz. We had a quiet dinner of spaghetti and meatsauce while watching the news on Jerusalem's "terrorist" attack. I called Meredith again to get the English version of the story and apparently, the cab drivers were having a field day.
It's already all over and I'm just going to go into Jerusalem early afternoon tomorrow and spend the night with Meredith. I'm too anxious to see her as I won't really see much of her at all after our ulpanim are over but I will see Linda and Shlomi again in August. I know it's a long wayyyy off but with my own family coming in for two weeks in two and half weeks, I want to see them and show them around!
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