Day One - Tel Aviv: Well we all made it to Israel safe and sound, although several of us had quite the adventures getting here--flight delays and cancellations galore for a few of us (including yours truly). In one case a flight through Detroit was delayed too long to get to New York to catch what was supposed to be a flight directly to Tel Aviv so the two on that flight had to be routed through Frankfurt. In my case I had a flight cancellation in Chicago and, after being stranded at O'Hare for nine hours, was finally rerouted through Paris. It's actually a much longer story than that, but this is all about Israel, so all that happened to get here are just side notes.
Though they certainly make for good ice-breakers at dinner, as seven of the ten of us learned in no uncertain terms tonight, as Brother Michael-Leonard and Andy--two excellent storytellers--were relating their own crazy experiences from their flight, everything from people constantly in the aisles, angry flight attendants, large groups of Orthodox Jews regularly getting up to congregate for prayers next to the exit doors, a man being threatened with a "report to security" when they landed because he wouldn't follow directions, to even a woman becoming ill and the flight attendants only thinking to ask after 10 minutes whether she was taking or had taken any medicine, at which time it was revealed that someone had tried to "help" her out by giving her a sleeping pill. But don't think that this was the extent of the dinner table conversation, and although we were missing three including our leader at dinner because he had to make a late trip to the airport to pick up the two who had been rerouted through Frankfurt, over dinner the tone was set for what is shaping up to be quite a group.
For starters, we have five monks and five lay people. Of the five monks, one--our leader, Father Michael--is a priest while at least two others (possibly more, but this hasn't come up in conversation yet with Brother Elias or Brother Stephen) are in the process of ordination, Brother Michael-Leonard and Brother Bradley. All Benedictines, four of the five from St. John's Abbey, the fifth, Brother Elias, a visiting monk and St. John's School of Theology graduate student from an abbey in North Carolina. Of the five lay people we have three women. Ashley is an undergrad from St. Ben's who just finished her sophomore year and was inspired to take this trip by her older sister's similar experience. Jane is from Canada, near Vancouver, and is working on a part-time theology graduate degree on the side of her career as a family practice physician. Siobhan is also a graduate student in theology, her program at Villanova University in Philadelphia. Then two men among the lay people, the first--Andy--is also working on a graduate degree at St. John's while working on campus as well, and of course, yours truly, Alex, a 2006 graduate of SJU, old friend of Brother Michael-Leonard and Andy from our undergrad years, and a current graduate student at the U of M in vocal performance
Not much to do the first day of any trip, of course other than group members getting to know each other, so beyond dinner various combinations of us were able to enjoy our settings--a couple even managed to get in a swim--our hotel is overlooking the Mediterranean here in Tel Aviv with seafront high rise hotels, apartments, and other buildings as far as the eye can see, making and a gorgeous setting in the center of modern day Israeli life independent of the religious content. We were reminded, though, that this scene changes quite a bit, as if you walked along these beaches for around 60 miles south, you would end up in the Gaza Strip. Obviously not an area we are going anywhere near, though I'm quite certain implications of this situation will come up at times in the upcoming three weeks. (It may start becoming more clear as to what direction things will be going rather soon, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be in Washington this week, supposedly to deliver a speech on where he sees things progressing next in the light of recent events.) But for today, this was not forefront from our mind as several of us took a walk along the beach and just asked each other more of the basic questions that members of groups that include some complete strangers must always ask. Tomorrow after a possible tour of Jaffa, we head north towards the Galilee, with Nazareth as a main highlight. From the modernity of Tel Aviv to the footsteps of Jesus in Nazareth tomorrow, the adventure awaits us........
Alexander Adams-Leytes
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