First Day: Atlanta, Amsterdam, Prague, Krakow (Crakof) Writer: Matt Miehl

We left the airport, as most of you know, around 5 PM on Sunday. We took pictures and got to the gate with about half an hour to share. We boarded the plane as our own section “Now boarding zone one, zone two, the Weber School…” The plane ride was eight hours, and these eight hours were full of much merriness. I watched Grown-Ups, Inception, Grown-Ups again, and then listened to my iPod. I tried to fall asleep but I couldn’t due to the fact that with every mild form of turbulence we felt I woke up. We landed in Amsterdam and Maddy Openheim forgot her passport. The last time we saw her she was outside the airport getting onto a bus that was heading to the “Red Light District.” JUST KIDDING!! Maddy went back with our wonderful Head of School, Sim, and got her passport out of the plane. Maddy adds that her mom should not worry anymore; she will be more cautious.

We went to our gate for the flight to Prague, and the man said the plane hadn’t landed yet due to ice on the runway. We went to the bathroom, walked around the airport, and the chocolate store was quite popular among the participants of this trip. Suddenly, right as I was about to sign onto the free internet, the man at the flight desk yells to Mrs. Zebrak “Are you guys coming or what? The plane is about to leave!” We quickly scatter onto our final plane. We take off, I dose off, and we land an hour later.

We go straight to our next gate (C-11) and board the plane. This plane, however, wasn’t like most planes we are used to today. First off, we had to drive about a quarter mile to get there. This was the first time we saw snow on the ground during this whole trip, and we were walking in it. Needless to say, a snowball fight was in order. I check my ticket and see I’m in row two, and I think to myself, “Yes! First class!” Oh how wrong I was. We get onto the plane and it has 12 aisles and the entrance door is in the back of the plane. Even when I’m in the front of the plane I have to get off last. But we go up the stairs into the plane and this is the smallest plane I have ever seen. I look out my window and do I see engines? No, I see a propeller. Right then and there I knew this was going to be an interesting ride. Then, I see how aisle one is set-up. The two people in aisle one face the people in aisle two. So, the people's knees in aisle one (Josh K. and Rosa I.) are touching mine and Ethan L.’s. We sit in the plane for about an hour and a half and every fifteen minutes the pilot says, “We are about to take off in ten minutes.” Well, we are just sitting there, talking about how we know this will be an interesting flight when we start to hear banking in the cockpit. We all look at each other and begin to laugh. I’m in an emergency exit seat and I look at the pamphlet and the pictures are so poorly drawn and illustrate the most useless things (i.e how to swim). Eventually, we lift off and I’m a happy camper. On this flight there was constant turbulence, so I got no sleep. We landed in Krakow, half the grade got their luggage (the other bags were on a different flight), and we headed to the hotel for much needed sleep.

Maddy adds:
What parents needed to worry about:

1. While flying from Prague to Krakof, Poland, half the grade lost their suitcases; luckily, they were returned to them two days later.
2. Ben Grinzaid provoked two little Polish boys to have a snowball fight with him, Josh Kalish, and Jason Schwartz. In fact, the little boys followed the directions and won the snowball fight (home field advantage).
3. While stepping onto Poland, everyone notices that Poland is ten years behind America, but there are some really charming things about the country such as the antique buildings. For dinner we stepped inside a synagogue that was made in the 1600’s with humongous ceilings. Rabbi Phillip told us this amazing story about the founder of the synagogue. The story goes like this: One day this man, Yaacov ben Yannai had a dream that someone whispered to go to the bridge outside that was in a city (days of walking distance) away from Krakuf. He thought he was crazy, and ignored the dream. Then the dream happened two more times and on the last day he had this dream; the voice explicitly told him that he would find treasure near the bridge. So he goes to the bridge after walking a treacherous journey, and finds no treasure on the bridge. So, then he walks back to the his house and once more has a dream that he would find the treasure in his backyard. Lo, and behold, he found the treasure under a rock. I have no idea why the voice told him to walk all that wasted distance, but Yaacov ben Yannai transformed from a poor man to a rich one. He used the money to buy the synagogue. So, it goes. End of story. Dinner was delicious (Israeli dinner).