First day! | Shorashim - Israel with Israelis

First day!

By Sam Heitzer

Today was our first full day in beautiful Israel and Shorashim wasted no time amazing us. 

We had breakfast at the Kibbutz Gadot, where we are staying, and the piled onto the bus for a quick drive to the Golan Heights. We then climbed down the the rocky terrain of the Jilaboon for about an hour and saw the most amazing waterfall and pond, which we happily jumped into and cooled off.

After, we hiked back up to the bus and went to an Israeli shopping center for an authentic lunch of falafel served by the most enthusiastic Israeli man ever. Following this, we went to an olive oil refinerary, which was famous for revolutionizing the olive oil production process by using the environmentall harmful olive residue for cosmetic products instead of harming the Earth, which is what has traditionally happened.

After an education tour and sampling opportunity, we headed to a dormant volcano, Har Bental, which has served as a strategic military bunker during multiple Israeli conflicts. After a very eye-opening history lesson, we drove back to our kibbutz for some much needed down time and dinner followed by an evening ice breaker activity.