July 8th - by Riley G.

On Wednesday, met at the Lufthansa at SeaTac Airport. We said our goodbyes to our family and friends and then we left for the gate. In a last minute effort to keep my travel things with me, I quickly added my shaving kit with shampoo, body wash and sunscreen into my carry on luggage. My sunscreen was too big and was confiscated before I even left the country...I felt like an idiot.

We landed in Frankfurt and quickly went through customs and immigration to our day hotel just outside of the airport. I thought that cars were driven on the left side of the road and cars had the driver seat was on the right side. Turns out it is identical to the States. We tried to shower, but we couldn't figure out how to turn on the light. Apparently, the room key needs to be placed in the slot by the door to turn on all of the appliances. Looking out o

nto the city, the streets are very clean. We took a train (the S-Bhaun) to the downtown area where we split up to investigate German culture for the day.

It was very warm, about 90 degrees F. We all got sticky and hot while we looked around the old german town. It looked like Leveanwoth, WA only in real life. In addition, almost everyone spoke english with minimal to no accent. It made touring easy. I even found this Hummel shop where they sold many of the same figgurines we have at home. Found a church in the city with incredible architecture called DOM also known as St. Barthalimues. This church has survived WWII and has pictures to prove it. During our long day in Frankfurt during our layover, many of us struggled to stay awake and soon became misserable. I decided to cut the edge off my sleepieness by finding a Starbucks...it tastes the same, even in Frankfurt.

At the end of the very long day, still no sleep, we head off at 10:00pm to the Tel Aviv gate at the airport. This process was extremely intimidating. Everyone was patted down in front of t

he whole line of people with a metal detector and was searched separate from the other gates in the Airport. This is because Israel feels threatened by the world and takes extra security measures to prevent any possible problems. We spent the night on the plane.