Day 3 (end of the north)

Shalom all,

Waking up this morning at 7:15 was great but not enough. We said our goodbyes to the Astoria Hotel and headed back to down town Tiberias where we went to a Naot (Israeli known company of shoes) store. Today's word of the day was "Chick Chack" which means hurry up. However, some of us wanted another word so after much grudging we were told yalla, which also means hurry up.

After the Naot store, we traveled over an hour to trek down/up Mount Carmel in the mud. There our tour guide Shabat showed us more wild asparigus and informed us that picking flowers there has a fine of 400 shekel ($100...oops). Shabat also showed us an exotic branch that if you chew on it it makes your teeth whiter, as well as sweet tangerines. Then we headed to Haifa during the rain storm and saw a beautiful view of the skyline. We also had lunch in Haifa at a mall.

After our final experience in the North, we started our 2.5 hour drive to Israel's capital, Jerusalem. Before heading to dinner at Divon, the head of Sachlav, our tour provider's house, we dropped our luggage off at the Young Judean Guest house we will be staying at for the next 2 nights. Becuase it was raining we were unable to have the event outside so we squooshed into his living room with another Sachlav tour from Boston University. Divon spoke to us about hospitality and opened his speech with a story from Genesis about Abraham and 3 men visiting him while Hashem was in his tent.

Then we got back to the Guest house to have our closing night activity. Because we were all exhausted and sleepy from the ride back Shabat decided to play a game with us to wake us up, where Sam Weiner was totally fooled but entertainment was provided :) However, afterward we had an intense conversation about the Shoah, Holocaust, becuase tomorrow morning we are going to Israel's holocasut museum, located in Jerusalem, called Yad Vashem. There were many stories shared, with tears and heart felt emotions expressed.

Now it is time for bed so stay tuned... lila tov, have a good day!

-Shaina Stiefel 2012, Lenny Haas 2012 (who says hi)