Night time on our first day in Israel

So I am sitting in the Hotel Kibbutz Shefayim bar with a bunch of the guys from the Futsal Team (Aaron, Sergio, Coackley, Lederer, Jesse and myself). We are to tired to even drink water. The rest of the team is sitting in their respective rooms getting ready for bed. Its 12:10am here and we have been traveling all day....even longer.

As soon as we got off the airplane in Tel Aviv we walked out to get our bags and we were met with a 4 part band playing music for us while standing on stilts....yes on stilts.....we grabbed our bags and went to our bus. Two full buses took about 60 people to the Shefayim hotel. It took 30 minutes to get us to our final destination and to our surprise as we pulled in we noticed an outdoor futsal court right across the street from our hotel.

We checked in, went to our room and before we even put our bags on the beds we picked up our boots and ran to the futsal court. We actually got in trouble for trespassing since the facility closed at 5:00pm. Sergio and I talked to the security guards and worked it out with them. They were more then happy to let us play on the court for about 30 minutes while they cleaned up to close the park.

This marked the first time the entire futsal team played together. I can tell you that we look good but need to work on our team dynamics. Basically we need to play together a bit more so we can learn how each of us play.

We ended up leaving a tad early because one of the players happened to kick the ball over the fence of the court. So we called the game...got the ball and went back to the hotel. We had 30 minutes before Shabbot Dinner at 7:00pm.

We all changed and looked good in our polos...sorry no pictures yet...the battery died to the camera. We had a nice dinner followed by an orientation meeting for all athletes staying at the hotel.

A few of the guys went right back to the rooms after the meeting to sleep and a few of us went to the bar to sit and talk. Right now everyone is in bed and I am sitting alone writing this.

We have our first training session tomorrow (our first official) from 7:30 to 9:30 am. We have to meet to get on the bus so it can leave at 6:45am. None of us are happy but its what we have to do to get our training in. As soon as we are done in the morning we are coming back to the hotel...sleeping....having lunch then going out to tour Israel. A lot went on today with the traveling and the entrance into Israel. I can only imagine what is going to happen tomorrow. Stay tuned and find out as we do.........

We are now in Israel

We just landed in Tel Aviv ...Israel. We went threw customs picked up our bags and are now sitting on the bus that will take us to our hotel for pre camp. Tonight we rest and have dinner tomorrow we start training.

Starting our Journey

Today is the day. It finally got here. Aaron and I are on our way to meet our team in Philadelphia. Its 57 degrees out side and raining in Cleveland, Ohio. Tomorrow we will be in the desert oasis known as Israel. Can't wait...

3 more days

It is now 12:00pm on Monday June 29th....we have 81 hours and 15 minutes until we leave Philadelphia to represent the USA in the Maccabiah World Games.

All of our paperwork is finalized and submitted...all our uniforms and team gear is accounted for (minus the 3 t-shirts I have per player and a grey dry fit shirt we will get at pre camp...YES MORE GEAR IS COMING)

Our flight leaves this Thursday and I know for me this week will be the slowest week of my life...Thursday can not get here fast enough.