Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Day 7






Today is day 7 of our lovely trip to the holy land.  We began the trip with a delicious breakfast, complete with Kari'ot cereal, which means "pillow".  They happened to be filled with chocolate!  As Brittne said "they are scrumptious in my tum tum!"  After breakfast we jumped in jeeps straight out of a safari movie and started on our journey through the Golan Heights.  Traveling through mud and puddles, while hitting our heads on the roofs of the trucks, we learned about the land surrounding us. We saw cows, gazelles, and abandoned mine fields.  Don't worry! They were blocked off with very sharp barbed wire.  We made our way down the hills and got back on the bus to continue on our excursion.  We then went to the Tel Dan  ("Hi Dan!" says Sarah) Nature Reserve, which houses one of the springs that feeds into the Jordan River.  We learned about ancient flour mills and the history behind the ruins we stood on.  After then we went further up into the mountains to a spot overlooking the Israel-Lebanon, and Israel-Syria Borders.  Although it was mighty windy and super cold, we stuck it out and got a first hand view of the closeness of these countries.  Lunch followed, at Katzrin, the only town in the Golan Heights.  After lunch we went into the Gallilee, and went to a kibbutz-like village called Moshav Shorashim.  There we learned about Arab-Israeli relations, and the conflicts between these two groups.  Following that, we went to a local school gymnasium to see a circus performance put on by local school children, of both Israeli and Israeli-Arab descent.  They were absolutely ADORABLE!  After the performance, they showed us some of their tricks.  Following that, we went back to the Kibbutz for dinner.  After that we had a provocative discussion about Judaism, what it means to be Jewish in America and Israel, and the feelings we are all experiencing on our trip.  This concluded our night, and tomorrow brings another day in the North!  

Rachel Hodes: 2011
Jessica Falk: 2011
Julie Britton: 2011
Maddie Witchel: 2011

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