April 29th & 30th: Miranda and Ben’s Blog

Monday & Tuesday’s bloggers: Miranda and Ben!

We started our journey at 9:30 AM, and said goodbye to our parents. We met up with the students from Gottesman, a school that we’re partnering with on this amazing experience, and took off at 1:10 PM What followed was a 10 hour plane ride filled with everything other than sleep. We landed at Ben Gurion airport at 6 a.m. in Israel, exhausted (a little woozy, if you ate the meatballs on the plane) but above all, excited. The holy land! So after a day of airports and planes, we started our day… again! We headed over to Caesaria, an ancient ruin, where we played games in the great stadium where the Romans used to play their (probably gorier) games. After that we headed over to their theater where a few of us showed off their singing talents, if “talents” they can deserve to be called. We took a bus from Caesaria to Kfar Kedem, where we were transported back 1800 years, to a time of shepherds and farmers. We put on these cool robes and headresses and learned all about the lifestyle of ancient Jews, and how they farmed their crops. Next, we ground wheat and fried up our own pitas, using flavorful za’atar spices and sesame seeds. But what followed was truly surprising. We were brought to the stables, which we smelled before we saw — donkey poop is, well, let’s say it’s a very unique smell — and we rode the donkeys in a big loop around the fields, plodding heavily and taking in the serene landscape before we came back and enjoyed a great feast of rice, chicken, kufta, salad, and pitas, which was fresh and absolutely delicious. We took the bus to our hotel, Karei Deshe, which, among other nice amenities, has a whole flock of birds that circle around and occaisionally dive bomb the premises and its hapless inhabitants.  At 4:20 PM, we were all called into the yard outside the hotel, where we learned the Israeli art of self defense, Krav Maga. Following a full afternoon of pressure points and punches, we were called in for our kibbutz-like dinner, a tasty array of foods that felt really good after all that Krav Maga. After dinner, we all retired to our rooms, Ben’s protected by a suspicious bird named Reginald who will often swoop down on various people entering or exiting the room, which adds a bit of excitement to the whole rooming experience. Anyway, needless to say we all hit the hay hard at 8:30, tired but enlivened by our crazy day and hungry for more of this wonderful country!