Backing up

So...aliyah.
Starting with JFK. We (the olim) got an email from NBN with all our flight info-- what time to be at the airport, baggage limits, pet info, what to bring...all of that. So I packed according to what they said, or as best as I could (translation: my luggage was overweight and I was praying they would ignore it.
Mom, Dad, Lis, and I packed up the car and went off to JFK. We got to the airport and there was a sign for NBN olim and a section set up for us:
There was so much luggage for the amount of people that there were. I have to get the pictures from my mom's camera, but...wow. There were dogs (a lot of them) and carts and...lots of luggage.
So we get there and we're putting my luggage in one area, and this girl comes up to me-- my roommate from Ulpan Etzion (who I haven't met until this point). She flew in that morning from Toronto...and her luggage did not arrive. And because of Canadian regulations, she had one bag with her, and all her documents were in her other bags, aka- not with her. She had to go sort out that mess. Thank goodness for cell phones-- she took mine, I had Mom's and Elissa's and Dad's. Then they called us to get our tickets and start checking in our luggage. On line, I met a bunch of people who were going to Ulpan Etzion AND in my section of the plane. Sweet! And Chari and Marcus came to see me off also! They came when I was on the line and brought me plane letters!

I got my luggage checked in (they didn't even LOOK at the scale) and went to wait for Eden. She eventually came back, checked her bag, and then we all went to the farewell ceremony (sounds so much better than, "goodbye ceremony." Dudy Stark spoke, Rabbi Fass spoke, some other people... (don't remember-- there was no mic and it was hard to hear) , and then they had cake and drinks and then we went to check in.Marcus had to go after this, but Mom, Dad, Lissa, and Chari came with me to the TSA security, as far as they could. It was definitely sad and happy.

More on the flight and the welcome to come...
At one point