We're in Israel!! Our first day in the Golan Heights | Shorashim - Israel with Israelis

We're in Israel!! Our first day in the Golan Heights

Day one

We arrived yesterday, after an 11 hour flight from Philadelphia, to be greeted by a group of singing, smiling, and jumping soldiers in uniform. This would set the mood for the next 24 hours: strange and absolutely amazing. We drove to the Kibbutz where we would stay, chatting away with our new Israeli friends about being in the army, eating falafels, and dancing zumba. The more curious ones among us learned some crucial Hebrew vocabulary: chamud is cute and sababa is cool. We plan to make use of our new words to charm the locals during our Saturday night out in Tiberius.

This morning we had breakfast at 7 am (mind you, that is 12 am Eastern Standard Time) and hopped on the bus into the Golan Heights under the rain. We were cold, wet, and sleepy, but we quickly perked up as arrived at an old fortification from the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Our guide Yoni told us the amazing story of the lone Israeli soldier who faked the existence of an entire brigade to keep the Syrians at bay. And right on cue, yet another miracle occured in the Holy Land: it began to snow. Our Israeli brothers and sisters, who were from Haifa, yelled for Hani (our bus driver) to stop the bus and they ran out into the road. They had never seen snow falling from the sky before in the their lives. A snowfight obviously ensued and 15 minutes later, Israelis and Americans alike came back on the bus, freezing and wet and giggling hysterically.

This would have been the highlight of our day, but then we stopped for lunch. We ate, hands down, the most delicious falafel of our lives - moist, and spicy, and served by a hilarious Israeli man who yelled "Americans! Americans! Best falafel in Israel, 25 shekels! Okay, 17. Okay, 18!"

It has been a super fun and tiring day, but the fun doesn't stop here: now it's time to nap, shower, and get dressed up for our first Israeli Shabbat :)

Lots of ahava,

Sarah Grossman