Day 1 of Classes

Hello world,

Just like that first day of kindergarten, high school, college and grad school, we experienced a first day of classes again.  We put on our finest, packed our lunch boxes (ok, they fed us) and walked to school.  Today we were introduced to Pardes - a non-denominational, open-minded institution of Jewish learning.  Most learning is done "chavruta"-style, best described as partner socratic method.  Just like law school.

We will be taking three classes, one together (about on public prayer) and two separately (on other things).  We're very excited.  They should be challenging, even for a wonderful teacher like Seren and a Socratic expert like Craig (ok, if there were grades on the Socratic method, I would have failed law school).

Classes run Sunday-Thursday and we look forward to them, and the extra curricular activities that we have too.  It should be great.  There are lots of people here in the program from all over the world - Brits, Israelis, a Frenchie, Russian, Pole (originally from Brazil) and lots of Canadiens, who make me feel right at home.  In fact, the bulletin board includes a listing for an event on July 1 - Canada Day.  I'll have to represent. 

Last night, we explored Emek Refaim, which is the main drag of the German Colony - almost like a gentrified East Village or West Village.  Or just any place where young expats live.  We had a delicious meal.  Seren had chicken over humus.  I had ground lamb over rice.  I wrote down my ingredients to hopefully make it.

We just got a cell phone and seren is playing with the rings.  It sounds like 1998 all over again.  Thank goodness it isn't a Zach Morris phone.  Oh for the love of my ears, STOP!!!

Tonight, if we can stay awake, I think I'm going to suggest that we go to the old city.  Jerusalem is like LA.  In LA, everything is a 3-hour drive.  In Jerusalem, everything is a 20 minute walk.  Happy happy!

Until next time,
Craig

At Pardes!

We are in Israel! We landed safely at 5:30am (local time) on Monday, June 29. Taxi (sherut) to Jerusalem, got to our apartment (22 29 November), and rested. We've since walked down the street to Pardes (pardes.org) where I write this post. It's hot hot hot here, but we're happy to see the sun after a rainy NY June. Off to find falafel :)

Arrival in London

We just landed in London, having flown over Wimbeldon and Wembley
Stadium. We also saw the river Thames and of course Big Ben,
Parliament,Big Ben, Parliament.

Kosher Meals First

The captain's statement preceding breakfast on our way to london:

"because of the unusually large number if kosher meals requested on
todays flight, we're going to serve those first. If you requested a
kosher meal, please put down your tray table and get the flight
attendants attention as they pass."

There are lots of black hat Chabadniks on our flight. They got most of
the meals. I had to flag. Seren got a kick out of the captains
statement.

All Our Bags Are Packed

We're ready to go.

In 8 hours, we're boarding our flight.  In sharp contrast to my wife, this is the longest I'll have been away from home (Seren was away for much longer during college and then again when she was in Korea).  I'm so anxious and nervous.  But, as Seren keeps reassuring me, all will be well.  Our first stop is Israel for three weeks.  It's a western country where we can buy anything we may need and where the food is most certainly Craig-friendly.  It's like the shallow end of the pool that is this trip.

So we're ready.  It's going to be an adventure, but a fun one.  Speak to you from Israel.

Let the fun begin!

Hello! This is exciting :)

Leaving on a Jet Plane

World,

On Sunday, we depart for the seven seas.  Our stops are Israel, Paris, Korea (just the south, though we will see the DMZ), Hong Kong, Cambodia, Thailand, Australia and a night in LA.  We will be keeping a blog of our trip.  You can access it at http://serenandcraig.blogspot.com   There are no quizzes except for our parents.  We will have a full itinerary up there before we go.  In addition, we will post our thoughts, experiences, a list of beers of the world, a total number of times we hear "Halo" by Beyonce (we've had car rides from White Plains to NYC where we've heard it 3 times) and photos, if we can do it.

If you need to find Seren or me while we're away, the best bet is to email me, unless you really want to email Seren and don't want me seeing it.  We will both check our email, but it is slightly easier for me to do so.

While we're away, we'll miss everyone, but will see our peeps when we get home around Labor Day.  In the meantime, if you have any special postcard requests, let us know.  We'll see what we can do (so far Helsinki -- just a stopover -- and Coogee Beach, Sydney Aussieland are the leading requests).

We'll miss you.

Love,
Seren & Craig

Our Itinerary

As requested, here's our itinerary:

June 28, 8 am -- Depart NYC/JFK to Tel Aviv/Ben Gurion airport via London-Heathrow.

June 29, 530 am-- Arrive in Israel.

June 30 -- Pardes begins

July 22, 8am -- Fly to Paris via London Heathrow. Arrive in Paris at 4pm.

July 26, 1050am -- Fly to Seoul via Helsinki.

July 27, 820 am -- Arrive in Seoul

July 29 , 7am -- Tour the DMZ (cool, I know).

August 6, 750pm -- Fly from Busan (major city in southern Korea) to Hong Kong.

August 10, 855am -- Fly from Hong Kong, arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia at 1030am. We cross into a new timezone and my birthday becomes 25 hours. Nice.

August 14, 945am -- Fly from Siem Riep, Cambodia, arrive in Bangkok, Thailand at 1050am. This is our one not-in-network flight. We're flying Bangkok Air which has a monopoly on many flights in and around Thailand.

August 19, 610pm -- Depart Bangkok.

August 20, 605am -- Arrive in Sydney.

August 24, 1035am -- Fly to Cairns (northern Australia for the Great Barrier Reef).

August 27, 140pm -- Fly to Melbourne.

September 2, 1015am -- Fly from Melbourne to Los Angeles, Arrive in Los Angeles at 730am.

September 3, 915am -- Depart LAX for JFK and be home.

How to Track Us

The next post will be our itinerary, but first I wanted to give instructions, mostly to our parents, on how to follow the blog through Live Bookmarks in the list of bookmarks under where you enter the URL for a site. This allows you to click a button to see what's been posted without having to open the blog. It makes blog-checking a wee bit more efficient. These instructions are for Mozilla Firefox. I have no idea how to do this on Internet Explorer.

It's really easy and applies to many other blogs.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page. See the link that says "Posts (Atom)"? Click it.

A new window will open with a funny-looking version of the blog. At the top, make sure the box says "Live Bookmarks" and then click "subscribe now." Make sure the pop-up box says "Bookmark Toolbars." If it does, click ok and you'll see a folder-looking thing appear towards the top of Firefox. Click on that and you can see all recent posts and compare them to what you've already seen.

Perfect, no?

Ready...set... GO!

We're making our final preparations before we depart (packing, cleaning, finishing travel details). Thanks to everyone who offered us advice and put us in contact with locals. We appreciate your help and support!

Welcome to our travel blog

On Sunday, June 28, Seren and I start our around-the-world voyage when we board our flight from JFK to London Heathrow to Israel. Our travel will take us from NYC to Jerusalem to Paris to Korea (South) to Hong Kong to Cambodia to Thailand to Australia to Los Angeles to New York. Along the way, we have layovers in London (two) and in Helsinki. We have something like 16 or 17 flights on various American Airlines-affiliated airlines in 20+ airports.

With the exception of Israel, where we'll be studying at Pardes Institute, we don't have much planned for our trip. In Paris, we'll drink wine. In Korea, we'll either try to get into the North or eat lots of kim chi. We'll beach, we'll climb, we'll relax, we'll do everything. And on this blog, we'll keep you posted.

We're armed with an Ipod Touch with wifi access, a camera and a journal. If we can write a 30-page journal for a 10 day trip, imagine what we can do with a 10-week trip. And that's why we have this blog. We hope you follow it and travel with us. We'll try to post pictures on here, but our Ipod doesn't have a camera so it may be tricky. We'll just do some google searching and steal other people's pictures.

We'll be back in New York on September 3. In the meantime, keep in touch.

Love,
Seren & Craig