Leaving on a (5) jet planes...

Well,  this sure has been a whirlwind of a week or so.  I did a surprise trip to America,  to Texas to be more specific.  My brother was having an engagement party and my wonderful husband told me that I should really go.  So,  after a few weeks of searching for tickets,  I was all set to go.  My brother knew that I was coming,  but the big plan was to surprise my parents who were also flying to Texas for the event.

To make a long story short ; success!!  It was such a success that my dear mother almost fell off of the escalator when she saw me.  I am that striking I guess.  Note to others.  Maybe don't surprise people on an escalator.

Of course,  I can't just have a regular trip.  It has to be interesting.  Here are a few bullet points only about my travels.  The actual trip seems well documented on Facebook already.  But I will mention that while in Austin,  Texas,  I had my hair cut by a Persian woman who was overly excited to meet someone Jewish.  Apparently her husband has Jewish neighbors (I'm assuming in Iran) and he always told her that Jews are very nice people.  I try!

Anyway.  Travel highlights :

ISRAEL  - JFK -  AUSTIN
+ aisle seat on flight to New York
- teenager next to me had no sense of personal space
+ kosher food went off without a hitch
- almost spilled my water when I heard the flight attendant explain to an Israeli that the kosher food was blessed by a rabbi.

+ on flight to Austin,  there were three Israelis
+ I told the one next to me that I felt like he was sent here by my ulpan teacher
- he half smiled and then went to sleep.  So no Hebrew lesson for me

AUSTIN - ATLANTA - PARIS - ISRAEL
- needed to pay for a second bag because I might have done some shopping
- both bags were then overweight,  by a lot
+ I totally MacGyvered those bags at the delta counter and made them both weigh 51lb
- which meant that my carryon weighed about 40lbs
+ plane back home was overflowing so they asked for volunteers to check their carryon bags
+ boom,  now delta had to deal with my extra heavy bags anyway for free!

+ I'm old enough to drink alcohol on the plane
- pretty sure the Russian flight attendant thinks I'm a lush
+ but she brought me extra mini liquors as a souvenir
+ Paris has a massage place in the airport (highly recommended)
+ latte is a universal word
-  I have zero sense if what a Euro is worth,  so it was monopoly money
-final flight home from Paris to Israel included a couple smooching next to me
- and the guy kept drumming on the tray  and he wasn't even good at keeping the rhythm
+ they finally fell asleep
+ back home and it's like I never left

Israel :
I had my first experience with getting to wait in the Israeli passport control line.  I was pretty excited at this new development.  Because now I'm officially Israeli and I have the travel documents to prove it.  But that excitement turned to panic.  "omg,  I'm in the Israeli line.  So they'll assume I'm Israeli.  And what if they ask me questions in Hebrew and I don't understand them and I seem suspicious." And then it was my turn.  They just looked at my documents and at me,  and didn't even ask a question.  They didn't even comment about my name,  telling me that I have a boys name.  I was actually sort of disappointed.  But since I'm Israeli now,  I just acted like it was no biggie.