Jerusalem Fellowships... Aish HaTorah!

Wow, I have so much to write I don't know where to begin.... im sitting at Cafe Hillel on Emek Rafaim about a 20 minute walk from Uncle Abe and Aunt Rivka's apartment
I'll go day-by-day of my Aish trip since I haven't written on this blog since I arrived in Israel.
Monday... Dec 18
I arrived at Ben Gurion Airport all by myself! Deidra, Dan, and Deidra's cousin where there to greet me. From there we went on a hunt to find the rest of the group. Eventually we found the bus and did some activities at a playground/low ropes course to meet and do icebreakers. When we got back to our hotel, The Jerusalem Gold, we took naps- jetlag will do that! and later we met up with some of the Pitt students who were on the Aish Hasbara trip (Israel activism) for coffee and to relax at Kikar Tzion, near Ben Yehuda Street.
Tuesday Dec 19
Our first day in the Old City. We had our first class with the Rosh HaYeshiva (head of the Aish yeshiva) and then a few more introductory courses. That afternoon we drove to Netanya (about 1 hour away) to go horseback riding on the beach.

What a beautiful sunset and view of the Mediterranean Sea and Tel-Aviv! There was a Chanukkah party for us that night back in the Old City. After we went out to a bar/lounge for wine and hookah called Egged near Ben Yehuda.
Wed Dec 20
We checked out of the hotel at 7am to drive to the north. First was our hike at Gamla, with amazing weather and a spectacular view. Our tour guide Estie was a little hard to handle, so much talking and a loud Brooklyn accent, but she definately knew her info. Our other tour guide was Yaal, a cute young israeli. We had a picnic lunch and then drove to Har Ben Tal, an old fortress with bunkers and all. We could see the Israeli borders from our view. Next we took a trip to the Golan Winery, with the cutest and very old CEO, named Shalom. Wine tasting made me feel like a sophisticated adult, even though we were all so tired and dirty from the long day! That night we checked in to the Kinar Hotel, and relaxed at a bonfire on the Kineret.
Thur Dec 21
Check out at 7am, drive to Tzfat. Upon arrival we learned a little about the very old city and spoke with a woman from the Livnot project, which works to rebuild the north, since much of the area has been bombed out. We assisted in cleaning out a building that will eventually be used as a school. Afterward we took a short walking tour of the city, and saw 2 synagogues. We had a little bit of free time to explore on our own and shop around. After lunch we left to another hike (I forget the name) - but it was fun. That night we had free time in the city of Tiberias, and we saw the Ramban's gravesite. When we returned to Jerusalem and got situated back in our hotel, I went out with the Pitt crew to Old Friend bar for drinks and hookah.
Fri Dec 22
Class all morning with Rabbi Zeldman and Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser. A free afternoon to explore the old city and do some shopping at the Cardo and Arab market. Kabbalat Shabbat with Rabbi Yom Tov and his 8 year old son on drums was fun and a new experience! We had a girls only service (really just a song session) on a terrace overlooking the Kotel, and then I had my first chance to pray at the Western Wall. It was exciting to see all the different kinds of people who come to the wall on Shabbat, I saw every sect of Judaism represented and probably heard about 8 different languages being spoken. After dinner we were all invited to the Cohen's house just outside the old city for oneg Shabbat and shmoozing. That night we stayed in the Sephardic Center in the Old City.
Saturday Dec 23
We were assigned family's to go to for lunch and I was lucky enough to have a meal at the Cleyman's house. They literally have a 4 story castle in the old city with a terrace that overlooks the Kotel. WOW it was a beautiful house with about 50 guests total! I went with dd and 4 others from my trip. One person that spoke was an Israeli soldier serving his 3 years doing undercover work and infiltrating into the Arab communities. He spoke perfect Arabic and was able to keep his cover in order to find out secret info. He also told about his experiences with the Cleyman's and how nice they were to have his unit of the army over for many shabbatons. That night we checked back into the Gold and about 15 kids from my trip took a sharut (shared taxi) to Tel-Aviv for the night. We went to a very posh bar/lounge/club and had a great time bonding and dancing and relaxing.
Sunday Dec 24
Class all morning, learned about Israel, the history of the Jewish people. In the afternoon we took a tour with Yaal of the Southern Wall excavations. After dinner we watched a movie called "Obsession" which is about Islamic extremists and the threat they pose to the Jewish people and the world as a whole. They are brainwashing their children to be suicide bombers and to hate Jews for no reason. The discussion afterwards was intense.
Monday Dec 25
merry Christmas! haha, there was no real feeling of christmas in the old city where we were and the day was just like any other. we had a class on love, dating, and marriage, and learned alot about the Orthodox way of doing the whole relationship thing. In the end, most of the girls agreed that this was not applicable to our lives and wouldn't work with our lifestyle. But its always good to learn... In the afternoon we took a bus to Tel-Aviv to visit Independence Hall and do a Yaffo by night tour.

We had some free time for dinner and relaxing and a few of us went to a cute restaurant called Spaghettim.
Tuesday Dec 26
6am departure for the south. I hiked Massada snake path all the way up and down!

pretty adventurous i guess. Then we had time at the Dead Sea and even though the water was freezing cold I had to go in and experience the freakish floating that is caused by so much salt in the water... it is the lowest place on planet Earth! Then we went to Ein Gedi and did another short hike to see a beautiful waterfall and view of the Dead Sea. We drove to Eretz Beresheit for a 20 second camel ride and dinner in a Bedouin tent.... real bomb food. yummmm

Zolli's that night with friends from my trip
Wed Dec 27
Discovery Seminar all day..... really long and sometimes boring classes, but the one that caught most people's attention was about Bible codes and the way that the Bible supposedly has every event of every person's life encoded somewhere is kind of a hard concept to comprehend. It started to snow at around 6pm so our restaurant dinner was cancelled.

Israeli's don't know how to handle to snow and the city basically just shuts down. We went back to the hotel and a few of the girls just hung out at the Central Bus Station mall next door.
Thursday Dec 28
Class all morning. One was called Why the Jews? We talked about anti-Semitism, the causes and what can be done about it. The afternoon was spent at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. Our tour guide was just the right combination of a good storyteller, and historian. The experience was draining but I definately learned more than I would just sitting in classes or reading books on the Holocaust. Later we had a Holocaust survivor speak to our group about her experiences and how important it is to tell about these tradgedies so that it won't be forgotten over time.

After such a serious day we were ready to have some fun in the city, so we went to a club called Energy and Barnett and I did a great job of avoiding the sleezy Israeli's- who I might add suck at dancing! weird
Friday Dec 29
Class about tzedakah (charity). That afternoon we left for Kibbutz Ein Tzurim in the north close to the Gaza border. There are about 100 families that live there (I think). And about 25 families who moved there because they were kicked out of their settlement and had to find temporary housing. I also saw the many many cows and fields that the kibbutz owns and operates.
Saturday Dec 30
Saturday was a relaxed day we had a good time observing Shabbat. When we returned to Jerusalem, we checked in and then about 7 of the girls met up with some Israeli's that one of the girls knew. We went to a bar/lounge called Leila Bar.
Sunday Dec 31
In the morning, the girls went to Jewel, which is where people from all over the world come to learn and study for 3 week programs. We had a speaker who was a former prince from Swaziland and decided to convert to Judaism and become a rabbi after learning Hebrew. Yes, I promise I'm telling the truth.
We had a free afternoon to go to the old city and do a little shopping and the rain definately got in our way! That night we had a final banquet at a restaurant that Aish rented out for us called Muscat.

They showed a slideshow and everyone was having a good time, but it was bittersweet because no one was ready to leave! From there we went to Ben Yehuda, back to Zolli's to ring in the New Year, or Sylvester as they call it in Israel, I have no idea why! At least 40 kids out of the 60 from my trip showed up and we had an amazing last night in the city.

Monday Jan 1
We woke up to pack and head back to the city for one last discussion and to say our goodbyes. The first group left for the airport around 1pm. I went to Ben Yehuda for the rest of the afternoon with Stromberg, Tal, Barnett, and Cara to relax and shop until they had to leave for their flight. Then I took a taxi to my great uncle and aunt's apt - Abe and Rivka. It ended up being like a 5 minute drive away and when I arrived they were so excited to see me and so was I! I sat and talked, and one of their 4 daughters was also over to chat. Their granddaughter Renana stopped by- she is 23. We talked for a few hours and I learned all about the places that I missed out on in Israel- so I still have a lot of things I would like to do before I leave for Barcelona on Sunday.
What a life-changing trip so far, and I have only been gone for 2 weeks....

Jerusalem Fellowships... Aish HaTorah!

Jerusalem, No Man's Land