The Nineteith Minute, Part 1

I apologize (sincerely) for my lack of posts. Every week of ulpan has gotten more intense: more material, more homework, and more grammar. We did, however, get a three day break (plus two days of weekend) off from class. What did I do, you ask? Flew to Malta and learned how to scuba dive. I'm sure you had a nice weekend too...

My trip started badakah hatish'im, that is to say, in the 90th minute. In Israel, the expression "הדקה התשעים" (hadakah hatish'im, the 90th minute) means the last minute. It is a reference to the 90th minute, the last, in a regulation soccer game. It is also the name of an Israeli travel website where you can book cheap last minute deals. Josh, my classmate from ulpan, would say that it is also a good metaphor for the Israeli culture, but that is another post.

For those of you who knew nothing about Malta
(which included me until a week and a half ago) here is a map
showing where Malta is relative to the rest of the Mediterranean. 

The aforementioned Josh approached me at the beginning of last week and asked me if I wanted to go scuba diving with him in Malta over the long weekend. I think you'll agree with me that it was reasonable for me to be skeptical. Traveling with a relatively new friend to a relatively obscure island country in the middle of the Mediterranean. On top of that, trying something new with potential risks like being eaten by relatively obscure scaly animal with teeth the size of my fists.

I simultaneously investigated and tried to convince my parents to let me go, in case I actually decided to give it the green light. It was a good price for the tickets and the hotel and, did I mention, I was going to learn how to scuba dive?!?! Josh confirmed the flight on Thursday and the flight was to depart at on Friday at 4:30am from Ben Gurion Airport. When we got to the airport, we found out that the flight was actually delayed for three and a half hours.

We spent an hour swept up in an angry mob of Israelis, who booked the same flight, looking for someone to get yell at. We tried to appeal to a manager, but he had already gone to sleep, not surprising since it was past 2 in the morning. Josh and I decided to take after the manager and found a corner to sleep until the check-in opened up.

We boarded the airplane at around 7:45 and I don't think that I could have stayed awake, even if I had chugged two Redbulls and ran an IV of Mountain Dew. Two hours later we woke up in Malta.