Note: This post was written on Friday morning at the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, but wasn’t posted b/c of poor internet connections there and at the Newark Airport.

As you’ll recall from Andrea’s post last night, we were optimistic about our plane taking off and the state of Israel-Palestine negotiations.  As a reward for our unmitigated optimism, we were deboarded from our plane and our flight was cancelled.  It’s a mere 8 ½ hours since then, and it has been a long slog of calls to the airlines, the travel agent, spouses and significant others, and anyone else who we thought could help us get around a particular airline’s incompetence.   And don’t forget the 2 hours of sleep at a hotel paid for by said airline.  It’s been frustrating, tiring, and annoying but I guess this is how most in this country feel about the Israel-Palestinian conflict.  They have to live it every day, but fortunately for us, the light is at the end of the tunnel – we’re at our gate and about to board on a Continental flight to the US – and I’m looking forward to some sleep in the air.

Other than our flight problems this has been a great trip, and I’ll trade a great trip for a frustrating ride home any day of the week.  We’ll have much more to blog about after we have some time to reflect on things.

P.S. – Continental has been great to work with so far.  Thanks for your help in restoring some of our optimism.