Thursday, July 19, 2012

And We're off!!

It had finally come!  Months of preparation, the hours it took to learn the difference between Jacob and Issac, Tel-Aviv and Haifa, schwarma, and fallafel, we’re to be put into fruition.
 “Are you ready for Israel?” shouted Leah M, our diligent leader.
Of course, our answer was, “yes”.

After we left Whippany we made our way to the airport, where we were surprised by another group Dillers, from Pittsburgh. (We’d previously decided we were the best looking cohort out there, so it was nice to meet the competition.)
The surprises in the airport continued when Julian’s bag was the heaviest overweight and the girls were all less than 50 pounds.
So we made it through the plane ride! The time went by pretty quickly between our seat rotations, movies, music and lots of bonding. We didn’t get too much sleep, but for the most part we adjusted to the time when we landed because it was still the morning of a fun filled action packed day: Our adrenaline was PUMPING!!!
It is officially our first day!!!  We got off the plane tired, yet waiting for the awesome adventure.  We departed out of the airport at 11 and were off to our first activity of the ISS at Neot Kedumim, a biblical forest. Neot Kedumim is a reserve of plants and animal life from the time as a Bible. It came as a surprise when we learned that we would be going to herd sheep and goats.  It was so much fun when we learned how to be Abraham, Moses, and Jacob. And, in terms of leadership, it isn’t taken for granted that God chose shepherds as leaders of the Jewish nation.   After that we did a few team building activities, made some awesomely aromatic Zatar, an Israeli spice and then left to the desert.  We then visited David Ben Gurion’s grave, where we were greeted by the desert dunes that Ben-Gurion himself marveled at, just as we did.   Once there were no more pictures to take, and no one willing to take them, we departed to our living courters for the night eager to dream of the days we had in store.
- Alex Reiss & Harrison Angoff

Our Arrival to Israel - VIDEO



At Ben Gurion's Grave

No comments:

Post a Comment