4. A missed day, now is the fourth day

I’m never, ever, ever, ever going to complain again about getting up and going to school too early before I finish sleeping. Everyone is busy around here by 6 am. Still dark, but people are out rushing here and there, going to work and starting their day. Israelis don’t waste their day, at all.

We had some day yesterday. We got up at 5 am. By 6 am we started to walk in the cold and dark streets. By 7 am we were on the train to Jerusalem. I never been on a train before so I looked around and took pictures and smiled. The train was jammed packed with soldiers going to the bases and families with kids.


Houses, fields and the Sea were passing by the window real fast. Every so often the train stopped to let people out and others to come on board and then continued. We got off the train in Tel Aviv, which is another big city in Israel, and we stood there waiting to change trains. When it arrived it had many security guards on it. We were checked and our bags were checked a few times. Passengers boarded with us and the same families with kids that were on the first train also boarded this train. One group included two parents, and a girl who set beside us on the earlier train and her three brothers. Her family spoke Arabic. The second group included 2 parent and 4 kids as well, all little ones, even a baby, and they were speaking another language, I could not hear them clearly.

The Arabic speaking family took out the lunch they brought with them, spread it on two tables and set down to eat. They saw us smiling and invited us to share their food. We had our own bun so we declined. The other family set in the other cabin and their children were running after each other from the front to the back of the train. They enjoyed the play.

When I took pictures, the girl asked us to take her picture. Mrs. C. told her who I was and took our picture together. Her father told us that she is 12 years old, but he did not tell us what is her name. Together, we are photogenic, don’t you think?



One family got off the train in a biblical zoo in Jerusalem, maybe we’ll go there another day. That would be fun. Can you imagine a zoo full of animals that used to roam this country during the times of the bible? I sure hope my hosts will take me there, even if it takes 5 hours each way again. The rest of the passengers left at the very end of the run.

We then took two buses to get to Jerusalem to visit a friend from Mrs. C. childhood that she did not see for over 40 years. It was a good visit. We chatted in Hebrew and in English and went back to the station to catch buses and train again, back to Nahariya. It took 5 hours to get to Jerusalem and another 5 hours to get back. We were tired and hungry and stop in a restaurant with two big penguins in the front, and after we walked home. Totally bushed, we were under the covers and asleep by 9 pm. (21:00).

… This morning when we got up the beautiful blue sky of yesterday changed into a stormy rain. Israel had 5 years of drought. So the rain is very welcome here. Children at school run outside jumping and calling out “halleluiah, thank you God for the rain” because all of us here know that we need water.

I went today with Mr. & Mrs. C. to buy groceries and to do some banking and our umbrellas turned inside out and we had to walk backward into the wind to get to the store. We will stay indoor for the rest of the day, cooking, pattering, playing on the computer, resting and catching up on some indoor things. A quiet day.

This is Flat Stanley, reporting to Emilee from, Thank God Wet Israel.