There were palm trees in Israel. I had had no idea what the landscape would look like.

The closest things so far that I've seen it look like is New Mexico.

The first leg of my trip (USA to Belgium) was on an Indian airline (not sure which company exactly). The plane was very big and very fancy (beautiful gold calligraphic logos on the interior walls, flat screen monitors that showed our progress over the ocean along with flight information--altitude, speed, etc--that rotated with other media, all of which was also reflected on personal screens for each seat, etc). I also remember the food, of course. It was Indian, and better than on many American flights I've been on. I think I had curried shrimp...I approve.

They took the batteries out of every single electronic I had, unpacked my entire suitcase, unfolded the convertible cloaks, and then piled everything back together messily, couldn't fit it into the suitcase properly, and bound the entire mess up with special packing tape. It was not the highlight of my trip, but I was just glad the plane didn't leave without me and that they let me continue going to Israel at all.

My flight stopped in Brussels, Belgium at which point I transferred to an El Al Airlines plane. A neat, plainclothes-ed woman asked me questions whose answers she definitely was not satisfied by. My trip was open-ended. I didn't know the address of where I would be staying.

I got strip-searched while they delayed the plane.

In the week that B- was already in Israel, I completed our two convertible cloak packs. They were long, hooded, converted into backpacks, and were decorated with patterns in waterproof reflective tape (for visibility).

I had just gotten a sewing machine for my birthday from B-'s family. I worked for weeks on a prototype of the convertible cloak/pack while we waited for the real fabric to arrive

B- did research about what fabrics would be light-weight, water resistant, flexible, and affordable. I called fabric supply companies and we ordered 7 yards (I think) of a slightly-stretchy denim-looking-finished water-resistant material for what seemed like a reasonable price at the time--I forget now how much.

A large bottle of water (perhaps 1.5 liters) cost, I believe, 2 dinars, though I can't specifically recall.

At the Valentine Inn there was a vegetarian banquet. I forget whether it was an everyday occurrence (though I think it was). I think it cost 2 dinar per person (a little under four dollars). Cheap, but you get what you paid for--they had a large, long table set up outside laden with an impossibility of dishes, but the decidedly good ones went quickly and most of the foods all tasted the same--not of much. The staff cooked for the banquet all morning and serving plates kept being replaced from the kitchen as they ran empty. The hit of the banquet the time B- and I attended was a huge, towering bowl of pasta, plain, I think, save for some kind of fat--and maybe cheese? I can't recall; I just recall there was no traditional American pasta sauce on the vat of chopped spaghetti. I also remember fried bean balls similar to falafel, and white dips, and flatbread.

For our travel plans to work, we decided that we'd need convertible backpack/coats. They had to be waterproof (or at least water resistant). We didn't worry too much about warmth, considering that it was summer (though now I now how bitterly cold summers nights in the desert can be).

We had plans to travel from Israel to Cyprus to Turkey, continuing west by land until we reached the western coast of Europe, at which point we would part ways (he to England for school, me back to the New World).

B- left for Israel a week before me.

I didn't go to graduation or prom because they coincided with the beginning of my trip. I probably wouldn't have gone to prom anyway. I probably wouldn't have gone to my graduation anyway. I remember going to the prom 'show-off' in the parking lot of FDU in years past and standing amongst the unadorned hoard, gazing over the fence set up between us and that year's partygoers. How bizarre. I remember being told that Z- went to graduation (outside) barefoot. My good friend H- was valedictorian; well did she deserve it. I kind of wish I had been within the top one or two of my class, but alas, 5.