For those of you who don’t know, I received this fun thing called “tracheitis” on Monday night. If you have no idea what it is, you can click here for all the fun symptoms. I noticed it my last night of work at Dairy Queen when my body practically shut down as I developed a fever. I had chills, felt like I coughed up a lung and was more exhausted then I could handle. The day before my flight, I met with my nana and mom who made it clear that I need to see the doctor before I leave. Unfortunately, I’m very stubborn. Fortunately, I have family who is also stubborn when it comes to making sure I’m healthy. The doctor diagnosed me and gave me some Z-Pac to help me get over it.

Why do I say all that? Isn’t this supposed to be about Israel? Well, as much as my flight on EL AL was the best overseas flight I had, it was and still is a problem when I’m trying to have a conversation with someone and I’m dry-heave coughing my lungs up (As a side note, when I had my fever I also had pain in my lower right abdomen. I thought for sure it was appendicitis, but the doctor said it’s just pain from coughing so much. [*Insert “wiping sweat off face/almost wanted to punch someone” face here.)]

So enough of my side tracking and gross cough sickness. ISRAEL! The Holy Land! Flying EL AL! You heard me say that was the best overseas flight so far: That is true. However, I was detained with my carryon bag because the converter I had for my outlets were setting off some kind of “bag signals in their system.” I was then refused to let it fly with me.  So apparently they are sending it home in Washington? Yeah, I’m just as confused. They also WRECKED my checked bag. I get the security aspect, but you don’t have to misplace everything in the bag and not put it back to do so. But the flight was great and (seemed) quick. We landed in Israel Time at 7am (midnight in EST). Then came the fun part: driving in Israel for my first time.

I’m not going to lie, this made me more nervous than anything. After we rented the car, we found out it wasn’t big enough to fit everyone (even though I specifically asked for a car big enough for 6 people and baggage). One of the couples (Pastor Phil Krist and his wife Becky) offered to stay at the airport until I made my second trip. Everything went so smooth and easy…until we got off the highway. Navigating in Tel Aviv was awful! The directions I had weren’t very efficient and I ended up getting us lost for close to 25 minutes! Needless to say, I was scared, nervous and upset with myself. I am very hard on myself, so when things don’t go the way I want or I don’t do something right, I get very upset with myself. However, by the grace of God, my Maps App on my phone was working! I don’t know how it works while in Airplane Mode (I couldn’t get directions, but it showed me the maps and where I was), but it worked and I was able to navigate to the hotel successfully from there. Obviously, the ride back to get Pastor Phil and Becky was a cake walk comparatively speaking.

I spent the rest of the day relaxing, trying to overcome this “tracheitis.” The next 10 days are going to be filled with plenty of pictures, videos and lots of interesting posts. Feel free to follow my journey on these social media sites: Instagram / Facebook / Twitter.

*The picture is from the sunset over the Mediterranean tonight.