IN THE LAND

We arrived in Israel on the afternoon of Monday 19th April, without any idea where we were going to stay (surprised?). We were greeted on arrival by Ruby (Reuben) with his new look at a Breslaver - with long red payot (side-locks) and his big kipah.

David found us a hotel through the tourist support at the airport and we were eventually on our way to the Lusky Suites.

Before we left, however, had a moment of celeb-spotting. Saw Juliet Binoche, who was apparently in Israel filming a movie about the disengagement from Gush Katif.

Following our first night in Tel Aviv, where we had dinner with Sharron and Reuben, we spent a few days in denial. I only got out of bed because I had too and we were still exhausted and very weary. Caught up with George and Lina on Tuesday evening, which was great... I hadn't seen them for more than two years.

We started looking for somewhere to live, but realised very soon that that was going to be more difficult than we had imagines. Added to that, we soon found out that our Aliyah process was also going to take longer than we expected because we didn't have all the information we needed ...and because it is Israel.