Our first days in the North!

We landed in Israel yesterday around 3pm. The flight was soooo long, but most of us were able to get some sleep. I was able to watch Crazy, Stupid, Love which was a good movie. We drove to the kibbutz in Afik, and there are three of us per room on this nice little farm. We are able to see the Sea of Gallilee (Kineret). We took time to reflect on how we were feeling about starting our journey here in Israel. My word was priviledged because I am so lucky to be able to come over to the homeland and have this experience with all of these wonderful Jewish people from around the world. Everyone is very comfortable with each other, and we already feel like we have a special bond. We were finally able to sleep, which we all needed very badly. Then, today we went hiking in Jilaboon, and that was quite an adventure. We were walking in all types of terrains which I had never done before. My family would be very proud of me because I am definitely not a nature girl, and I was very successful in the hiking. We ate at Katzerin. Most of the group ate falafels, but I am boring and just ate a hamburger. We went to two lookout points also today, Mount Bental and Gadot Viewpoint. They were beautiful. The scenery is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It is very rural, actually way more than I thought it would be. We have wonderful staff that is teaching us all of the history and culture as we go to all of the destinations. I have taken many pictures of all of the beautiful landscape. It is also awesome that we could see Syria. I am so excited that our journey has just begun, and we are all pumped to go to Tzfat to go shopping!!!

Erin