Pictures Taken On the Way To Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, and Inside

Hello kids! It's now the middle of the night when I'm writing this- you're all sleeping, but I am waiting for my airplane to America. I'm sitting in the airport now. Let me show you what I did so far.

First, I packed my bags! 

Remember- before we left, we took a bunch of pictures together?

And then you helped me bring all my stuff outside to the bus stop, and waited with me for the bus? We gave each other lots of delicious, yummy kisses and then Abba helped me put all my stuff on the bus! Look how many things I have!! Chana Liba cried, but stopped crying a little bit after that.

This is what the bus I was on looked like. It was a nice, new bus, not an old, icky bus.

Here's Mommy on the bus!

After I got off the bus in Yerushalayim, I crossed the street and went to wait in the lobby of a Hotel, called Shaarei Yerushalayim. A hotel is a place where people sleep when they come to a place where they don't know anyone- they pay to use the rooms, and the lobby is the bottom floor of the hotel, where they have couches and chairs.

This is what the lobby looked like.

And here I am in the hotel lobby!

I waited for an hour until something called a Nesher Sherut came. It's like a taxi that takes a bunch of people to the airport. It looks like a Hasaa van.

I took this picture in the Nesher Sherut, but it didn't come out so nice. Can you see me?

I got to the airport, and they had these wagons for all the suitcases to go on, and that made it a lot easier for me to carry everything! Here I am with all my suitcases on the wagon!

I got to the entrance of the airport. I took this picture and then a lady told me that I can't take a picture of the security people, and she's in it, but she said that's ok, I didn't have to delete it. This is where I went into the airport.

Look what I saw when I came into the airport! A big room, with lots of signs, lots of places to wait in line- and I had no idea where to go! I went over to an information desk and asked them where to go, and they told me where. 

I went to wait on this line.

While I was on the line, a security guard asked to see my passport, which is a special book that tells people in different countries who I am, what countries I've been to before, and without it I am not allowed to go from one country to another. Here's my American passport.

Then the security man asked me where I lived, so I told him Kochav Yaakov, and he asked me if I have an Israeli passport, so I showed him that as well. He asked me a lot of questions, like where I was going, if I have family who lives in Israel. I told him my Imma, Abba, brothers and sisters, and kids all live in Israel. He wanted to know my kids' names, so I told him Uriel, Shmaya, and Chana Liba. 

He said I should go take my big bag that I was going to put under the airplane, and put it into this special machine.

This machine takes an x ray of the suitcase and makes sure there are no bombs inside, because we don't want there to be a bomb on the airplane, and bad guys have tried to blow up airplanes with bombs before.

Afterward, I took my suitcase out of the machine from the other side.

I then had to go to the place where they would take my suitcase to stick it under the airplane... but it was closed! It wasn't supposed to open until closer to the time that my plane was leaving. 

So I just sat there and waited for it to open up.

I didn't need to wait too long before it opened.

They gave everyone tags to fill out, with their names and phone numbers and address, just in case your suitcase gets lost, so they know how to return it to you.

I then attached the tags to all the suitcases. 

When it was my turn, I put my suitcase on a scale, and they weighed it to make sure it wasn't too heavy.

Then they put a tag on it, so that the people in the airport know where my suitcase is supposed to go. You see that it says JFK on it? That means its going to the airport called John F Kennedy Airport, in New York, in America.

Then they started giving me trouble, because I am pregnant. They were worried that I might have a baby on the airplane, even though I'm not supposed to have a baby for a while... They were calling a whole bunch of people to see if I was allowed to fly, and then finally they let me. They gave me a ticket and then I went on to the next stop.

There was this big room with lots of stores...

And on the other side, there were doors that only people who had tickets and were flying out of Israel were allowed to go. They didn't let me take a picture of that. I don't know why.

Then I got to a room where they wanted to see my Israeli passport, so I showed it to them. They were checking to see if I was allowed to leave the country. There are some people here who are bad guys and are trying to run away, and Israel won't let them leave because they want to catch them, so they were checking I wasn't one of those bad guys. I am not a bad guy, so I am allowed to leave Israel.

They gave me this little pink paper that said I have permission to leave Israel.

I had to swipe it on a door, and the door opened for me, and I went through.

I got to this big loooong hallway that was so long that there was something like an escalator on the floor- except it didn't take you up any stairs to another floor- it was flat and just took you down the hallway so you didn't have to work as far.

There were even little cars for police and other people who couldn't walk as well to use to go down the hallway because it was so long.

At the end of the hallway, there is a really really big room with lots of stores, and tables and couches...

And in the middle of the room, there is a pretty fountain that sprayed water, but the spray kept on changing, like when we went to that place in netanya in the kikar with the water that sprayed everywhere and you played in it.

On top of the fountain there was this window... and it also dropped water into the fountain like a water fall some times.

 This fountain is just for looking at- no playing in it.

This is the room I am sitting in now, and using the computer. You see the water behind me?

My tummy was hurting me because I was hungry, so I ate some popcorn and a larabar, and started to eat an apple, but the inside of the apple was mushy and rotten and gross, even though it was a new apple Abba just bought yesterday at the makolet.

In a few minutes, I'm going to go to where I am supposed to wait for the plane, and I'll take more pictures, of the waiting area, of the outside of the plane, of the runway, of the inside of the plane, and lots of other things. I'll put those pictures on the internet when I can.

I love you! I hope you like these pictures and my stories of what I am doing!

Which was your favorite picture?

I think my favorite pictures were the pictures of me and everyone in the family, hugging right before I left!