Students of IDC of Herzliya
As I mentioned, I was invited exactly a month before the Taste of Israel program began. When I received my invitation via email, I was thrilled! But it was short lived. It dawned on me that my passport and my permanent U.S. resident card were expired. As a Canadian citizen, there were a few obstacles I needed to overcome since renewing these items took a bit of time. Renewing my Canadian passport required me to drive 11+ hours to/from to Windsor, Ontario Canada so that I could have it processed in person. Apparently renewing a Canadian passport at a U.S. passport office is not an option. Even after driving all that way, I had a very small window of time to have my passport in my hand. Thankfully the Canadian offices were working through passports faster than usual so I received my passport exactly 10 days before my flight.
At the same time, I also began the renewal process for my permanent U.S. resident card. That took longer and I was fortunate to have an extension placed on my expired card exactly 4 days before my flight. Four days. Talk about cutting it super close. Needless to day, the fact I was able to get all my stuff done in time was quite a feat in of itself. I kept saying to myself that if it turned out that I couldn't go, then it wasn't meant to be. I'm so thankful that things worked in my favor and I was able to partake in such an amazing trip.
So the day comes and my flight is set for 3pm on Saturday, September 1st. The week leading up to this date was nothing short of hectic. I was packing up what I could, not for the trip but rather for the move from a 5 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment. It was time to downsize since the house sold faster than anticipated. As much as I would have wanted to relax a bit before my flight, I was signing a lease, picking up keys and moving a few things into our new home. Then it was off to the airport...
The first leg of my flight was from Chicago to New York. The flight was quick, nice and smooth. It was in New York where I met Amy Sherman, who I previously traveled with just a year ago to Alaska. There we caught up with each other since our Alaskan adventure. We had several hours to kill since our flight from New York to Tel-Aviv was around midnight. Once on board El Al, the Israeli airlines, we settled into the very last seats in the rear of the plane for the 10+ hours ahead.
Flying red-eye eastbound gets some used to because you essentially lose a day. Although we left the U.S. around midnight EST, we arrived in Tel-Aviv Israel just before 6pm Israel time. We were greeted by Lior Shabat who picked Amy & I up from the airport. We also met up with Carey Jones of Serious Eats, who was on the same flight. From the airport, we get to our hotel which sits right on the Mediterranean Sea. I took the following picture from the balcony of my room...
After settling into our rooms, we freshened up and were whisked away to a special welcome dinner at Liliyot Restaurant. This restaurant is unique in that it's a restaurant that integrates a social project into the daily business of a restaurant. Ever since it was founded in 1999, Liliyot has welcomed at risk youths and provided them with a real opportunity to integrate into society in a positive way by means of professional training in the culinary field. Chef Noam Dekkers, one of Israel’s top chefs, is the executive chef of the restaurant and serves as a mentor and role model for these youths. We had the pleasure of speaking with him and learning about his efforts was inspiring. There at the restaurant, we also met up with another blogger, Zing Yang, along with more students from IDC of Herzliya and a local Israeli food bloger, Sarah Melamed of The Food Bridge.
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