I'm here

I’m in Jerusalem. Got here safely, although there was a little holdup at the Schoenfeld airport: The slacker border patrol at DeGaulle airport in Paris didn’t bother to stamp my passport, so when I got to passport control in Berlin after having stayed with my daughter overnight, dropping off a bunch of stuff she wanted from the states, there was no evidence of me entering Europe . . . I did have my boarding pass from one leg of the flight, thank goodness, but I also realized how deeply suspicious it must have looked to have this woman -- although looking quite harmless-- fly into Berlin, stay 23 hours and then be boarding an El Al flight to Israel. The guy put on his hat, left the stand and I thought I might be stuck in German bureaucracy for hours. Meanwhile, the line behind me was getting longer and longer. Finally, he came back and had Xeroxed my passport and had written in all the details of my arrival in Paris, etc.
. . . You could tell we were coming from Europe and not the states because when we landed, then was only a little bit of desultory applause. I met a young woman who’s staffing the trip and we took the shuttle together and she said that, even on Delta, everyone was applauding when the plane touched down. Even though the shuttle ride was mostly in the dark, I did see a bit of the barrier fence. I slept a bit on the plane, but if I don’t hear from Ellen and Abby (Mishkan members who got here a few hours ago) within the next hour, I think I’ll turn in early. I’m setting up a personal blog that has my writing and will have links to the rhr and group web sites. There’s nothing in it yet and probably won’t get really going until at least Tuesday.