I'm typing this on the plane going from Tel Aviv to Newark. It's a
quiet flight -- the absence of black hatters with large numbers of kids
is very apparent. I think it might have to do with the Jewish holiday
that just finished yesterday, and some special rules for Jews who reside
outside of Israel. Whatever the case, I'm glad for the peace.

The whole trip has been more quiet than my last one. While we did a
lot, we certainly didn't run around as much. With 5 kids, it's
increasingly difficult to do an outing. The older kids are bored by
many things that excite the younger ones. The younger ones have varying
levels of stamina, and breakdowns occur if things last too long. Still,
with family the best moments are always unplanned: teaching Katya to
draw (princesses, of course!), goofing around with Achi, falling asleep
with Mor asleep on my chest, playing strategy games with Elyasaf, these
are the reasons why it's worth it to me to pay the extra $$$ to fly over
when the kids are out of school and I'm able to get to know them.

Thursday night, I got the kids ready for bed. Ateret was saying
something I didn't understand. She's always played a bit shy with me,
but she shows signs of warming up occasionally. "A kiss," Elyasaf
said. I wasn't sure what he meant, because he was way to tough to be
asking me for something as sweet and as sentimental as a kiss. "Ateret
wants a kiss goodnight," he told me. I leaned over her bed and gave her
a little peck on the cheek. She smiled and closed her eyes.

Totally worth it.

- The woman behind you in line at the gate's special security starts to
argue that she was there first, tries to push past you and seems unaware
that she's not going to land in Israel any more quickly just because
she's jumped the line at security

- You cannot get to your seat on the plane because parents are blocking
aisles trying to renegotiate seats with stewardesses so that their 6
kids can sit together, and because some folks have started praying

- People are trying to broker space for baggage with stewardesses
because small mountains of bags in aisles should be allowed "just this
once." Oh, and I watched a fifty-something man throw a tantrum because
a stewardess had dared to move his belongings so that an overhead
compartment would close properly

The flight is often a good way to acclimate to the pushiness of Israel,
where no one lines up for anything, and it's all just survival of the
fittest. To be fair, after take-off things settled down. The kid
sitting beside me is nice enough - maybe 21yo, recently engaged, and
keeps apologizing for asking me to move so that he can go and pray or
visit with his family. I think his apologies are thinly veiled attempts
to get me to take the window seat, which he has pointed out would
require me to move a lot less. I've watched some movies, listened to
some Hebrew lessons, and even found time to post a little email to the
Blog about flying to Israel.

Well, I'm going to try and sleep some more. I will send this once I
land.

Keep in touch!

Josh