End of the road...

So I'm sitting in the Newark International Airport writing my last post of the trip. All I can say is that this was such an incredible experience. I will sum up what we did during the last week of the trip.

On Monday we went to Caesarea which is a really cool, touristy area. There are all these ancient ruins and we toured and watched a movie about the history of Caesarea. It's a port city where ships would come in, many ships that brought immigrants to Israel over 60 years ago came into Caesarea. We also went to a museum that is completely pitch black and you are supposed to be blind and the tour guide is blind and you go through the museum and feel what it's like to be a blind person. It was amazing! So much fun. Monday night we stayed in Tel Aviv at a kibbutz hotel. We walked to a beach that was near the

kibbutz. Mattan came and picked me up and we hung out in the evening. On Tuesday we went to the Azrieli

mall which was nice because we got to shop a little bit, I bought a lot of Michal Negrin jewelry for my mom and for friends. We also toured in Tel Aviv and saw the Yizak Rabin memorial. We went to Sheinkin street which has a lot of stores and it's also a craft market. That was really nice. Tuesday night we stayed in Jerusalem. We went to the Kotel and did a tour of the tunnels underneath the wall.

On Wednesday we went to Yad Vashem and to Mt. Herzl. I have been to all of those places before but Yad Vashem was amazing this time around. The first time I was at Yad Vashem was on birthright and I remember being so exhausted that I didn't get much out of the experience. This time I was alert and I paid attention and it was very emotional for me. Our tour guide Baruch told us his father was a child that was had to do forced labor in the Lodz ghetto. He started to cry which of course made me bawl. Wednesday night we saw a show at the Tower of David. It was very cool, basically it's these pictures that get shown over the entire ruins of the tower of David. It shows the history of the city of Jerusalem. After the show we went to the International Craft Festival where we saw a concert and got to shop. It was like a huge art fair.

On Thursday we toured the old city of Jerusalem and went to different churches and to the Kotel again. Then we went to Ben Yehuda street to go shopping. The whole group had a big dinner together because it was the last night. From there, everyone went to the airport. I took the train to Tel Aviv with Baruch and Mattan picked me up at the train station. That night we just stayed in and watched movies because I was exhausted and it was late.

On Friday we went to the Azrieli mall so I could exchange some of the Michal Negrin jewelry that I bought and that my mother did not like. Haha. I also bought myself a top at Mango. Then Mattan and I went to Nahalat Benyamin street to go to a craft market. We had lunch at this awesome place called Moses. I got a portobella mushroom burger. Afterwards we went home to get ready for shabbos and we drove to Maccabim where Tamar lives. The three of us had Shabbos dinner together and it was wonderful. Tamar made chicken stir-fry, cauliflower and meat something or other which was soooooo good, eggplant salad, regular salad, and apple pie. I was stuffed. After we left Tamar's we went to Mattan's aunt and uncle's house. That was fun, we sat outside and talked for a while. It was nice to see Shira their daughter who I met at Stef and Shalom's wedding and I met their son as well.

Saturday we went to the beach. It was really beautiful and we stayed for a couple of hours and mostly played in the water. There were such cute dogs there and they were swimming in the sea with their owners and playing fetch in the water. I was in love, I wanted to pet them so bad and it made me really want to take Cody to the beach. Before we knew it it was time to go to the airport. I of course cried a lot :(. It sucks so bad because even though leaving Mattan was so hard, it was so hard to leave Israel. I'm so in love with the place. If you've been there you must know what I mean. I get such an incredible feeling being there and I feel like a different, and better person when I am there. I'm not even back in Detroit yet and I can't stop thinking about when I can go back to Israel.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been keeping up with the blog. It's been so fun writing for all of you and I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures in The Holy Land.

amazing weekend

So this weekend was absolutely fabulous. On Thursday the group went to class and then got back around 2:30, then we had the rest of the weekend free. Mattan came up to Afula to pick me up and we drove to Zichron Yaacov which is a cute small town with boutiques and wineries. We went to the Tishbi cafe and had a bottle of wine and ate cheese and crackers. It was very fun. The shops in Zichron are adorable. There are a lot of artsy places. There is this paper store that has all the paper making equipment outside and you can see how they make paper. There are also a lot of jewelry stores and stores with art, it reminded me a lot of an art fair. After Zichron Yaacov, we drove to Shave Tziyon. The water there is absolutely gorgeous, we walked to the beach and also BBQed dinner. That was a lot of fun. On Saturday we went to Rosh Hanikrah which has caves and the water crashes inside, it's unbelievable. You walk inside the caves and the water is so loud and wild, it's very cool to see.

After Rosh Hanikrah, we drove to Tel Aviv and then to Maccabim where we spent time with Tamar and Dana and her husband. I also met Mattan's old friend Noga who was such a sweetheart. It was really nice, we just hung out at Tamar's and ate leftovers from Shabbos and drank coffee. This morning everyone woke up and went to class to take our final exam. It was pretty easy, we had to choose three questions out of five to answer. I wrote about Theodor Herzl, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how the Holocaust changed the Zionist movement and Israel in general. It was pretty interesting to take the exam because although I had been learning all about this all month, I hadn't applied any of my knowledge until now. I realized I learned a lot! haha. After class we went to our last lunch ever at Kibbutz Sarid. That was sad, I will miss Sarid's pickles and chicken nuggets and especially their soup. After lunch we were allowed to go back to the college and work on our papers. I chose to do so because I hadn't worked at all on it over the weekend. I got 2 and a half pages done while I was at the library which was really good because the paper only has to be three pages long. Then we came back to the dorms and I packed a little and cleaned up. This evening was the final dinner with all the camp staff, federation staff, and our professor. We went on a tour of the kibbutz where the dinner was (I forgot what it was called) and then we ate dinner there outside. It was gorgeous out! The weather was perfect and the view was breathtaking. The people that work there cooked all different kinds of pizzas for us and there was a lot of cakes and other things to nosh on. We sang some songs and gave speeches and said our thank-yous to everyone. Unfortunately my camera died while I was there and I didn't get any pictures but there will be a lot on facebook that other people took. Tonight is our last night in the dorms and we are going to Tel Aviv tomorrow. That is going to be a lot of fun.

time of my life

I am so tired but I won't have any time this weekend to update the blog so I am going to do it now but it might be short and sucky so I apologize in advance.

Monday the group went to Nazareth to tour different churches. We went to the church where Mary found out that she was pregnant with Jesus. The churches we saw were gorgeous. Monday night

I went to Barbarosa (a bar in Ramat Yishai) with two Israeli guys that live in our dorms and with Becca, Hannah, and Danielle. We met up with Shani who is one of the teachers that we worked with on the kibbutz. That was a lot of fun. On Tuesday during the day we went to Bet Shean which is a ton of cool ancient ruins from Roman ti

mes. There was an ancient Roman public bathroom which was very awesome. We sat on the toilets and made constipated faces, you can see those pix on facebook. After that we went to the Sachne which is a natural spring.

We went swimming and played in the waterfall. We got back around 3:00 so I decided to be spontaneous and go to Tel Aviv. In Tel Aviv Mattan and I went out with Shy and a couple of his friends. We went to a bar called Yam Bar and it's on the beach in Herzliya. It was very chill and nice. I am glad I went because it was the last time I'll see Shy because he is going to Maryland for a few weeks and he leaves in a couple days. Today we went to class in t

he morning and then swam at Ramat Dawid (Yoav's kibbutz). We then went to Nahalal which is a pretty famous Moshav in Israel. Right now I am just hanging out and doing laundry and I am going to bed soon because I'm exhausted. Tomorrow should be fun, Mattan is coming up north and we are going to visit his friend in Nazareth.

Zippori and Tel Aviv

I had the most incredible weekend! Friday morning we woke up and went to Zippori National Park. It was very beautiful and there were tons of very cool ruins. Apparently Zippori is where the Mishna was written. This is a picture of an ancient Roman theater. Zippori is where the Romans and Jews lived together and there was a lot of controversy because the Romans lived a very materialistic lifestyle and the Jews had to figure out how to either adapt to that lifestyle or keep distant from it in order to maintain their moral standards. This theater was used for entertainment that was crude and sexual and it was a place for prostitutes to come. The Jews were forbidden to go to the theater because it was against Jewish morals but many Jews came anyways because it was a very extravagant and fun thing to do during that time period. After Zippori, we came back to the dorms and got ready to leave for the weekend. I took a bus to Tel Aviv and Mattan picked me up at the bus station. We went to his place and got ready and then went to meet his dad and his dad's girlfriend. They live in Ra'anana. They were so sweet and gave us cookies, coffee, watermelon, and chocolate. It was so nice to meet them. After that we went back to Tel Aviv to pick up Mattan's friend Shy and we drove to Maccabim where Tamar lives. We had Shabbos dinner and it was so wonderful. She made sooo much food and I had to try everything, I was so full afterwards. After we left Tamar's we went back to Tel Aviv to party. Mattan and I dropped Shy off and then went to a birthday party which was kind of weird and not giving off very good vibes so we left early. We went to meet up with Shy and

(Ishay, Me, Shy)

his friends at a bar called The Clara. It was enormous and very beautiful. The bar is completely outside and there are couches and tables and the railing goes around the outside of the bar and you can look out onto the ocean. The waves literally crash up against the side of the bar railings. It is very cool, I tried to take a picture but it was too dark. On Saturday Mattan and I picked up his friend Yaela and drove to a beach on the Med. sea about 30 minutes north of Tel Aviv. Shannie lives in that area so she met us there and so did Mattan and Yaela's

other friend Nitzan. We stayed at the beach for a few hours and just played in the water and laid out and drank smoothies. It was so relaxing but I burned the back of my legs a little bit. At the beach we saw these kites and went to check it out and they were connected to surfers. Apparently the kite gets blown by the wind and it makes the surfboard fly like ten feet in the air. You have to be really good at it for it to work I guess, apparently Mattan has some friends that can do it. After the beach Mattan and I met up with Shy and we went to Max Brenner which is a chocolate factory and restaurant. They have an entire menu of everything chocolate. I got a dark chocolate truffle milkshake. It was to die for.

This picture is of Mattan and me on the beach drinking the best smoothie ever.

Everyone got back this morning from Tel Aviv and wherever else people traveled and we had to go right to class. We had a four hour class but it wasn't too bad because we talked about some really interesting things. Tonight we are doing Israeli cooking at a Moshav in or near Afula, I'm not quite sure. It should be good.

(Happy 1 year Anniversary Stef and Shalom!)

Feeling better!

So today was amazing! I am finally feeling a lot better, yay! It was the last day of camp and we had a party all morning. There were huge blow-up toys like a moonbounce and a "rock wall". There was a DJ and someone leading games. It was so fun. We danced and played all morning. I worked the hotdog and chocolate fondu stand with this guy Moshe and one of the teachers named Shani. We were laughing and joking around and Shani thought it would be funny to put chocolate all over my face, which of course instigated the other counselors and campers who also started rubbing chocolate all over my face. It was gross and messy but of course hilarious and so much fun. This guy that was leading the games had all of the counselors come to the front of the gym and we had to wear these hats with whistles hanging from them and we had to try to catch the whistle in our mouths. I did not succeed. After washing off the fondu and cleaning myself up a little bit, the helper in Edna's room thought it would be funny to get me soaked so I spent the rest of the morning in soaking wet clothes, thank goodness Anat had an extra camp t-shirt that I could wear to class. After the party in the gym we all went to our classrooms to spend quality time together and say our goodbyes. We got paper bags and everyone signed them and we all received certificates and mugs. It was pretty emotional, although I am going to miss the kids so much I am also happy that we will have an easier couple weeks for the rest of the trip. The camp was such an incredible experience and I loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat. While we were coloring on our bags the kids started drawing all over me, so of course I joined in and drew all over them which just backfired even more. Needless to say it was a very messy day for me, luckily none of the marker was permanent but I still have shapes on my knees and some highlighter on my cheek haha.

In class today we watched a movie called "Sallach Shabati" with Zero Mostel. It was hilarious. I also had a little pow wow with our professor and came up with a few ideas of what to write my paper on. I'm going to write on Exodus for sure but there are a few concepts I can talk about. The paper only has to be 3-5 pages so it shouldn't be too hard.

This weekend is going to be fabulous, I am going to Tel Aviv. On Friday night I'm going to Tamar's house and doing Shabbos with the whole fam. I can't wait to see her and Shannie and to meet Shannie's fiance. Friday night Mattan set up a bunch of his friends to go out and practically our whole group will be in Tel Aviv so we'll all meet up and go out clubbing. Saturday I plan on spending every waking hour on the beach in Tel Aviv. I was supposed to go to a wedding in Tel Aviv on sunday night but now I found out it's not until Aug. 2 and I don't think I can go that night because we have a huge BBQ with the camp staff. Oh well :( The BBQ will be fun and all the teachers want to take us out to the bars which will be hilarious and also very fun. Okay I am going to shower now because I am still full of chocolate fondu and marker.

I'll try to write again this weekend.

sick :(

So the past couple days haven't been too exciting. I've had a bit of a cold, just feeling stuffed up, sore throat, and run down. It sucks but I'll get over it soon. Yesterday I went to camp but felt really crappy so I went to the nurse and she gave me some stuff for my throat and I laid down for the rest of the morning and Keren brought me tea and Anat gave me pizza. The women at camp are the best, they made me lay down and rest and Keren told me I HAD TO GO TO SLEEP. haha. It was nice having some people care for me and make me feel better because I felt so bad that I was missing camp. After camp we had class and then we came back to the dorms and had dinner. Ellie, Becca, and I walked to Spoons (a coffee shop) in Afula. We have gone there two nights in a row, we are obsessed with it. They have really good cappacinos and dessert. After Ellie and I feel better we will go back again, maybe tomorrow or the next night. I'm so happy that I am so close with Ellie and now Becca. We are like a little threesome. Today I went on the field trip with camp but after a couple hours I just felt too awful to stay, it was so hot there and I felt like crap so I went back to the dorms. I took a long nap and then skipped class and got some food with Yoav and laid in bed all day. I'm finally feeling a little bit better, I really needed these past couple days to rest. Tomorrow will be an easy day at camp because we are watching a movie and not going outside because there is a heat warning. Then we are swimming at Yoav's kibbutz and then going to class. Apparently our professor Matt is sleeping over at the dorms tomorrow night and we're going to party it up with him. That should be fun.

The field trip today was at the Marzipan factory and the John Deere factory. Marzipan is gross but it was fun because we got to make our own shapes, I bought some souvenirs.

Last night I skyped with Steve for almost two hours which made me so happy. I'm missing him a lot and can't believe it's only a month until I'm going to Las Vegas.

I'll write more tomorrow or the next day.

Goodnight!

And we're back.

HELLO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry I haven't written in so long, it has been a crazy past few days and I have had literally zero time to get on my computer until now. So I guess I left off on my birthday. My 21st was a lot of fun. We had camp in the morning and Danny, Edna, and the kids were amazing, they threw me a party and decorated the room and gave me cards and a cake. It was so wonderful. After camp we went to class which was okay, typical class. After class we went to a Druze family's home and had a feast. There was SO much food. This family is a very wealthy Druze family and their sons are the highest ranking Druze officers in the IDF. Wednesday we had a field trip with our campers, we went to Ma'alot and went ice skating, swimming, and go-carting. It was fun but exhausting and I got hurt on the go-carts. A kid rear ended me four or five times. On Thursday we went to a regular day of camp and then from camp we left for the south. We stayed in a Bedouin tent tourist site where we rode camels and slept in the big tents. The next day we went on a 3 hour 4x4 off-roading jeep ride in the desert. It was terrible because of how bumpy it was but the scenery was gorgeous. Then we hiked through Ein Gedi and went in the natural pools. Last night we stayed in a youth hostel. It was fine, this morning we woke up at 3:30 and hiked Masada, up the snake path (the hard one). It was so tiring but such a great experience. This was my second time hiking Masada. I then went shopping and got some Ahava, and then we went to the spa and dead sea which was very relaxing. We are finally back at the dorms and I am so happy to be "home". Tomorrow is back to regular week of camp. Sorry I'm not posting pictures in this update, I will put them on facebook soon.

Talented

Today was the second day of camp and we had a lot of fun although it was extremely exhausting. In the morning we played some games with the kids that relate to learning about Kenya. They made masks of animals and then made bows and arrows out of sticks and strings and played a hunting game. Then Danny and I taught the kids a dance to the song "In the Jungle". We performed for the entire camp during breakfast.

It was hilarious. We got the dance moves from a YouTube video that Edna showed us of a hippo and a dog dancing to the song. After breakfast, Danny and I lead the group in a Yoga class that the kids really enjoyed. We did Yoga positions and had the kids say the nam

e of the animal in English that the position represented. Nora and Lori were at camp and they watched and thought it was really great.

After Yoga, a woman brought animals to the class and taught about the different animals and we all got to pet and

hold the guinea pig and baby chicks. After camp we went to tour the city of Akko. It was very cool. The "shuk" (market) smelled terrible because they're famous for their fish. It was seriously making me gag as we walked through. We went to a couple very cool museums, one was of an ancient Turkish bathhou

se, or as us Jews would call it, "shvitz". Tonight we are just hanging out and probably going to bed early because we are all so tired from our long day.

Life Changing

Today was unbelievable. We woke up at 7:30 and left for camp around 8:00. When we got to camp we got introduced to our groups of kids by playing "get to know you" games. We then had breakfast and went on a "treasure hunt" of the kibbutz to teach the kids where the different places are at the kibbutz that they will be going to throughout camp. After the treasure hunt we received our t-shirts and hats and we began the "Around the World" program. Our teacher Edna is teaching about Kenya. We played trivia games and bingo. It was really interesting and fun. The kids in my group are incredible. I'm going to see if I can remember all their names. Okay there is Eden, Baruch, Noa, Vered, Shahara, Asaf, Ofir, Noam, Otzar, Tal, Tali, Katrin, Matan, Alex, Meital, and Avital. WOW I can't believe I just remembered all my kids names haha. They are all about 10 and 11 years old. The girls in the group were all crowded around me for the whole day, they couldn't stop touching
me, playing with my hair, looking at my manicure, say oooh ahhh over my jewelry. It was so sweet, everyone is so amazing. After camp we went to Yoav's kibbutz to go swimming. Then we went back to the dorm to get ready for class. We had class for a few hours and then we had a really nice dinner with Nora Barron (the donor for the trip), Lori, the mayor of the Jezreel Valley, Matt Silver (our professor), and the camp staff. The food was so good and I ate way too much. Tomorrow will be a long day again, we have camp in the morning and then we are touring the city of Akko in the afternoon into the evening.

Shabbat

The trip has been so busy that I didn't have the chance to write last night. Yesterday morning we went on an "archeological dig". Basically we went to an excavation site and just walked around and took a tour of what has been dug up, we didn't get to actually dig ourselves because we left early since it was about 100 degrees. Then we went to the Sea of Galilee and swam and cooled off. We ordered pizza and ate outside. It was really nice. After that we went back to the dorms to get ready and relax. I took a much needed nap and then got ready to get picked up by our host families. Zach and I were paired up to go to the Reuveni's home. Ben, the son, picked us up and took us to his house. His family was great. The mom and dad were so nice and the dad took Zach and I to the top of the mountain that Jesus apparently jumped off of. We also drove through Nazareth and saw the Arab part of the city, the Reuveni's live in Nazarath Illit which is the Jewish part of the city. For dinner we had A TON of food. We had chicken, fish, two kinds of rice, two kinds of potatoes, this dip that I didn't try, hummus, fresh challah, two kinds of melons, chocolate cake, and like 10 kinds of drinks. I'm sure I'm missing something. The Reuveni's have 4 kids, Nirit is 30 and is SO sweet, we got along really well. Ben is 27, Ido is 22, and Eden is 15 and was in Specialty last summer! After dessert we went into the little smoke room where we watched Fight Club and smoked a hookah. Then Ben drove Zach and I to the bar to meet up with the rest of the group. While we were driving Ben mentioned to me that Matan Sageev was going to be there and that apparently he knew me from Tamarack. The name sounded familiar but I couldn't picture him. I was really thinking back only a few years and it just didn't ring a bell. The minute I saw him I remembered him. Matan and I were friends 5 years ago at Tamarack and haven't seen or spoken to each other since. It was an incredible reunion, we freaked out and spent the evening catching up. He is now an officer in the Army and I met him before he had even started the Army. Matan and I were very close friends and I remember crying when we had to say goodbye to each other so long ago. I can't even explain how incredible it was for us to see each other. All the Israeli's that hosted our group are coming to Detroit in September. That will be so fun! Ben's girlfriend Gal was also at the bar, she is so sweet and we had a good time together. Israeli bars don't close until 5:30 in the morning!!!! We didn't get back to our dorms until 4:00 am. I slept until 3 in the afternoon today and then got up and walked to the Afula Country Club. I ate lunch there and swam and laid out, it was fabulous. A great way to spend Shabbat. Tonight we are going to dinner and then we'll probably go to sleep early because we have to get up early for camp tomorrow morning.

Pictures:

1. from left: Hannah, Larry, Lauren, James

2. from left: Ben, Me, Zach, Eden

3. from left: Me, Matan

Day 3!

I am so thrilled that so many people are reading my blog! I hope everyone is enjoying it and keep the comments coming!
Today we woke up and went to our first day of class. We had a much needed history lesson about Islam and Christianity and the Ottoman Empire, etc. All stuff I know a little bit about but things that everyone should be knowledgeable about because it's like pretty basic, important history. That was about 3 hours long. The professor is awesome and really nice and gave us a very long break in the middle of class. After class we went to the kibbutz where we will be having the camp. It is called Kibbutz Sarid. It's very nice and big. We met the teachers that we will be paired up with during the two weeks. Danny and I are paired with Edna, she's pretty cool and speaks English well so the language barrier isn't much of an issue. We helped her decorate her classroom for camp, we are teaching the kids about Michigan and the US and Edna is teaching the kids about Kenya. We were at the kibbutz for about 5 hours today. It was so hot and luckily we got to stay inside most of the time. We painted pictures to decorate the classrooms. The girl in the picture with me painting is Shereena. Stay tuned because I will be posting the website for the camp and each day there will be updated photos so you will all be able to follow what we are doing at the camp and see pictures of us with the kids we are working with. After the kibbutz, we went back to the dorms and got ready and we all went out to dinner. We went to a restaurant for dinner and then to a bar. Abby was SO excited when she got carded and it worked haha. She's only 18 and was just blown away that she could have a drink. She is also one of the funniest people in the world. We have all been peeing our pants because of her. She is definitely the trip goofball. This picture is of Lauren and Abby.

This trip is absolutely incredible. I am having the best time and it is only going to get better! Today Mattan called me from Australia and I was so excited to hear from him except I missed the call but I got a voicemail. Him and Tamar are having a great time in Australia. I also spoke to Shannie today. We are trying to make plans but the only time I have free this week is on Saturday and Afula is so far for her to come to me and busses don't run on Shabbos, plus nothing is open, so we are just going to try to see each other another time. I'll be here for a while anyways. I will probably call Dana tomorrow. Tomorrow our day is going to be great. We are going on an archeological dig and then swimming in the Sea of Galilee. We are then meeting up with our host families and going to their homes for Shabbat dinner. After that they are taking us all to a nightclub at a kibbutz! Apparently they party until like 4 in the morning. Thank goodness Saturday we have a complete free day. We are going to the Afula Country Club to swim and hang out, which will be so nice. I have to get up at 6:30 tomorrow morning so I'm going to sleep. I'll write again tomorrow!
In this picture from left to right is Ellie, Sloane, Me, Larry, and Shereena.

Day 2!!!

Today was a blast, we woke up around 10:00 and got ready and met in the clubhouse where we were greeted with cake and coffee. Moti and Anat are two of the coordinators of the dorms here and helped get things set up for us. They gave us a short tour and then we headed for the Detroit Federation Israel office. So for the camp I will be paired up with Danny and we will have 15 of our own Israeli 5th graders. We will also be teaching them Yoga as one of the activities. There are 150 campers coming and the point of the summer camp is to give the kids more of an informal exposure to English outside of the classroom. After our 5 hour session with the camp staff, we went back and rested, I laid out and it was so nice but flies kept landing on me and making me freak out, so I went back in and had a good talk with Ellie (my roommate). We have a ton in common and she's great. After our little siesta we took about a 15 minute walk into the city of Afula where we walked around and got dinner. I had an amazing falafel sandwich. The girl on the left is Abby and the girl on the right is Lauren. After we walked back from Afula, the whole group got together and sat outside and played the game Mafia. It's a fun camp game that I won't explain because it's a little complicated. So I promised pictures of the room I'm staying in. The girl in the pictures that isn't me is Ellie.

Day 1!!!!

So I'm finally here in Israel and it feels too good to be true. The plane ride was painful. It was 11 hours and it felt like 11 days. I sat next to Sala which was great except that every other seat surrounding me had someone obnoxious in it. Behind me were two Orthodox women who were the biggest gossips I've ever heard and they chatted all night, and it was especially loud while I was trying to sleep. Next to me was a very old lady that smelled so weird and didn't have many teeth. She kept tapping me to tell me to put my seatbelt on every time the notification came on as if I couldn't see, hear, or read. And worst of all was the woman in front of me who actually hit me to wake me up when I accidentally kicked the back of her seat while I was asleep. Although I barely slept and had a miserable time on the flight, I still got tears in my eyes when we landed. I am so thrilled to finally be here!!!!
After we got off the plane we got on our tour bus and went to a river to eat lunch. Then we went on a nice walk to the Mediterranean Sea where we walked along this port and we got some water and some nosh at a bar. We walked past a bridge that was apparently used in a lot of Israeli movies and the tour guide said that there is a lot of history in the area surrounding the bridge. He said the Philistines were settled there and that there was a piece of pottery found with the name Goliath on it which indicated that Philistines were there because it is not in the bible.

After our walk we got back on the bus and headed for the dorms, along the way we stopped for dinner. Our dorms are okay, I will post pictures tomorrow because I forgot to take them before I came down to the lounge to use the internet. The best part is that the shower is literally the entire bathroom. There is no curtain or stall and you just kind of go into the bathroom and shower next to the toilet. It's hilarious. I am exhausted and am going to sleep because it's already midnight here and I have barely slept in the past 48 hours.