This morning Debbie was trying to do her online check in and it said she had successfully cancelled. She was in a panic. She went down to the desk to get Harun to help her. It turned out to be fine and he printed out her boarding pass. Then we asked him to do ours, too. We had arranged for the van from the hotel and arrived at the airport in plenty of time, but Istanbul airport is very confusing. We stood on one line for about 20 minutes and then they said we were all in the wrong place and we had to go on another line. However, have I said how much I love Turkish Airlines? On a 2 hr flight they gave us a full lunch. Three of us ordered Raki ( Turkish a anise flavored liquor) - no charge.
We got to Jerusalem with no problems. We got a van from the airport. There were 3 other guys in it with us. One was a young guy from Toronto who is studying in Tel Aviv. I don't know what he is studying. Another was a British guy who worked for the UN. He showed us photos of bombed out houses in Gaza.
We got to the college at about 5:30 and needed to be in the cathedral at 6:00 for Eucharist. We quickly changed and walked to the cathedral. The service was very nice. I really liked the sermon. He talked about us being here on God's time. He said "Please don't think you're here because you bought a plane ticket. You're here because God wanted you here. Even your faith isn't your doing. Others gave it to you."
After the service, we went to another room for a reception. They had wine and chips. We all had a chance to get to know each other. (We are all wearing name tags). There are 7 people here from Pohick in Falls Church. I'm not sure if there are any other church groups. There are quite a few who are clergy. We are about 30 in all. At 7:00 we had dinner. It's cafeteria style and was very good. You bus your own table afterwards. I sat at a table with some people from Pohick. They were very nice. It's definitely an older crowd. There are about 2 young guys and everyone else is my age or older.
When we finished dinner, we went to another room for some instructions. They have ID cards with our photos (that we sent to them months ago). We needed to sign them, but our group leader will carry them so we can get into places as students. Also, if we have laundry, we put it in a basket and bring it to the 4th floor in the morning. It's $5 to wash and another $5 if we want them to put it in the dryer. Line drying is free. They had said we needed to pay for Internet, but it seems to be free. We also haven't paid our other half of the tuition yet. Apparently, we will do it tomorrow.
I had an email from Jon Clodfelter that his flight was delayed till 8:20. He sent it to Genia and me, but Genia only works till 3. I told Judy. She seemed to know what was happening. Hopefully, Jon has arrived now.
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