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It's Monday evening, my first full day in Israel and the past couple days have been a blur. As I'm sure this will be read by friends and family, welcome my blog. I will be keeping entries short and rather informal as this is mostly to keep in touch with all of you.

So now that introductions are out of the way, I arrived in Israel yesterday afternoon and things have moved along pretty smoothly.
I was met at the gate by a volunteer from AACI who led me to the Absorption Ministry office and assisted in my processing there.

I received my Teudat Oleh, which is as of now is my only form of identification it includes my ID number, as well as my full name in Hebrew. Since U.S. passports list First and Middle names next to one another with no division, the man who processed me included both in my name on my file and Teudat Oleh. Also my name is now Eitan according to my documents here so my full name reads phonetically in Hebrew Eitan Powel (as in vowel) Henshell.

I'm settling into the kibbutz even though they put me to work today in the factory I thought maybe I'd get some free time as the Ulpan program doesn't begin until Sunday but it's fine. I'm all unpacked but I definitely brought too much stuff so hopefully I'll get rid of some things over the next 5 months.

It's a little strange living in what amounts to a college dorm room again but I'm sure I'll adjust. I don't have a roommate yet so I'm a little anxious about that but otherwise I couldn't be happier I mean this is Israel, and now i think I can finally say Home!
more to come!