Finally made it here to Israel. I flew out of Dallas Oct 1. (Nigerian Independence Day!), courtesy of one of my brothers. We had a pretty fun night before I had to leave, we stayed at his friends place and watch last House on the Left, which is no joke, and I slept very well. I met up with Sydney and Christine at DFW, and everything was good, even the 5 hour layover we had once we landed in JFK. We met the 4th American, Brittney Carter, Tom Flink (General Manager), and Roni Lupu (agent in Israel) at the airport near Tel Aviv in Israel, then went to go eat at Arnolds, an Israeli spot. The food was definitely different, Christine and Brittney were open to trying the different options they gave us as appetizers, and there were about 15, no exaggeration! I enjoyed my entree, salmon with a tasty sauce and rice. Learned my first Hebrew word: Thank you: Toda
It took us 3 hours to get to our town, She-ar Yashuv, and our teammates Elite and Chen were there with the manager Einate to greet us. The house really nice! There are 4 bedrooms downstairs, and 3 upstairs, very spacious, yet cozy. We all got semi acquainted with each other before heading to bed. The next day we went to the bank to set up accounts, exchanged to Shekels, and took pictures. The holidays here are in full swing, which means some days stores are open until 9, and others they are open until 12, so I do things here all depend on the holiday flow. The first practice went well, they didn't kill us, although being in shape for this team is important, 40 minutes of full court! The language barrier could have been very difficult, but everyone on the team speaks some English, so they translate when the coach talks (yells). Can be quite amusing!
We finally go to go grocery shopping after not having time previously, and I loved that, pretty americanized. I got some delicious fruits that I finished rather quickly, but Chen's mom picked and gave us bags full of peaches and apples from an orchard. So far I have had 1 israeli dish, pizza, hamburgers, chicken, meatballs and rice (made by Chen), pasta and chicken, which i made. So the food has been diverse, and good!
I watched the Barcelona v, Real Madrid match (Messi v. Ronaldo) on Sunday at the managers house with Elite, Chen, and Brittney. The meal we had there was delish! A corn pie, bread with cheese or mushrooms inside, salad, tuna, pizza, the works. It was almost as good as the game was. I had a great time, the family was very inviting, I found out how into soccer I was :)
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