Tel Aviv and the airport

I get through the breezeway and head up an escalator. I get stopped by a security girl as I’m reading an article. I knew I should have waited on the article. That totally made we stand out as one to pull aside for questioning. She asks for my passport and my reason for my stay. How long is my stay? Who am I doing business with? What industry? I’m not even at the customs area. She waves me on. I make up that I’m the only hot American walking off the plane and that’s why she stopped me.


The first thing I notice in the airport is the ads are all in Hebrew. I only can figure out what they are advertising by the pictures. If the pictures are clear….then I’m not. Like the ad with a goat, is it for milk or just a random image associated with this product like the bunny and Energizer?




I stand in line for customs. An hour passes and I get the wave to continue on. I made it! It’s now Sunday at 1030a. I grab my 1 checked bag and go to look for my driver assigned to pick me up. I hope he’s there.




I see a green sign similar to the green in Animation Lab’s logo. That must be him. Hello! Are you Mark? Oh good it’s him, or I look like a Mark and he is lucky at guessing my name. I’ll just go with this guy. He introduces himself as Mordehai (pronounced: mor-eh-hhai, while doing the hhhh in the front of your mouth, on the ‘h’). He’s super cool. We go to his Mercedes taxi and we head off. As we leave the airport, he points out Tel Aviv in the distance. We have a 40 minute drive ahead before getting to Jerusalem. The landscape reminds me at first of Texas, near the airport. Browns and flat. As we get closer to Jerusalem, it gets hillier and now it looks more like Southern California. Even the vegetation looks similar and the dried brown hills.