Kibbutzing, hiking and snorkelling

View of the whole kibbutz from the top of the mountain

We got to Kibbutz Ketura on Thursday after a 4 hour drive. Kibbutz Ketura is located 30 minutes north of Eilat. It was founded in November, 1973 (at the end of the Yom Kippur war), by a small group of North Americans who had just finished their gap year program through Young Judaea.  Most of the Kibbutz members made Aliyah from North America, although there are people from South America, 

The whole experience on the kibbutz was amazing!! They first gave us a tour of the Kibbutz, from the Dairy farms, to the solar fields.  Then we went to one of the only factories in the world where an algae that slows cancer down is produced. 

The cows on the kibbutz

After the tour, we climbed a mountain behind the Kibbutz where they have 7 barrels they light on fire which they use as a menorah for Hanukkah. 

Mountain that we climbed up behind the kibbutz

View of Kibbutz ketura from the mountain that we climbed

Me and Zmira on a mountain behind kibbutz ketura

Me and Eytan on a mountain behind kibbutz ketura

On Friday we went on a hike in Eilat, to a mountain (Har Tzfachot), where you can see four different countries. It was a two hour hike, and when we came down we went to the red sea and went snorkeling in a coral reef. It was my first time going snorkelling, I saw so many fish, sea horses.  We then had time to get ready for Shabbat, and walk around the Kibbutz. 

On Har Tzfachot (Jordie,me and Annalise)

Me and Carly on Har Tzfachot 

The view of the Red Sea from Har Tzfachot 

Panorama of the mountains

 Getting ready to go snorkelling

On Saturday we woke up, prayed, and then we had more activities teaching us about the Kibbutz.  That night, we had free time on the Board Walk of Eilat and had the best ice cream ever!! 

When you go to Eilat you have to try this ice cream place!!

Amazing flavours too

The next day we went on a biking trip to the Yotvata Choco factory! Yotvata has a great restaurant on the beach in Tel Aviv that I love!!  After biking, we took a bus to Timna Park where the Egyptians mined. It was a great tour and a really great place. Too bad we didn't spend much time there though. We went to the kasui sand dunes after, although it was raining.  We were supposed to be making pita and hummus, except that it was still raining when we got back so we just had pizza in the chadar.  After dinner it stopped raining, and we had a Bon fire. 

 It was a pretty busy day, and a lot of fun!!

Me and Kayla on our bikes

The 'path' we rode on

Yotvata 

Timna park

Timna park

Alina, me and Emily in park timna (all matching)

Timna park

The Kasui sand dunes

On Monday we all had a choice between a bunch of 'artsy' desert activities. The choices were between candle making, film, decompauge, and hiking. I chose to do decompauge, which is basically gluing funky napkins to a pot. 

This is the pot that I decompauged

 We were all really sad to be going back to the Chava.  It meant that we had to go back to the usual routine of school and food. On the bright side, Purim is in a week and a half, and so is Gadna, we have a lot to looking forward to in the upcoming few weeks!!

Kotel tunnels

Inside the Kotel Tunnels

Yesterday, we had our first ICC test and boy was it full of a lot of information and dates. So far in the ICC course we have learned about almost two thousand years of Jewish history. You can now imagine how much content was included in the test. Overall the test went well!  

After the test, we went to the 'Kotel Tunnels'. The Kotel Tunnel tour started off with an explanation of the Temple Mount, we then passed through some prayers places (which were probably the holiest places you can pray in). We also watched a short film on ancient construction in the Kotel context. There is a high tech model that whines, groans and shows how the area developed over the generations. In several places you walk over plate glass that give insights into even lower levels of history.  It was a great end to our first ICC unit. 

Our next unit is Christianity and Islam, which should be interesting to learn about.  We are visiting Christian and Islamic sites next week during ICC. 

I've decided to volunteer for 2-3 hours every Wednesday at Sharee Tzedek Hospital. Since I'm not taking many classes in Israel I have a lot of free time compared to others. Today, I went to volunteer after my first 2 classes. It was a great experience to see how the hospital works (although they didn't have much for me to do).  They gave me tasks, but I didn't get into the action. I was mostly assigned to take trays from patients rooms, deliver notes to doctors, and to bring the dirty (bloody) hospital coats to the laundry area and other non-action tasks. Next week, I will hopefully get into more of the 'action'.  I even got an official 'Sharee Tzedek' t-shirt and name tag. Overall, it was a great experience and I look forward to volunteering again next Wednesday. 

Mezuza in the cardiology unit that I was volunteering in (notice the heart for cardiology)

My name tag for volunteering at Sharee Tzedek

Official volunteer t-shirt 

It worked out that my cousin Hannah Ephraim volunteers with her program at Sharee Tzedek on Wednesdays as well. We planned to go for lunch after we were done volunteering, we went to 'Cafe Hillel'. It was a good break from the food back at the Chava (our campus).  It was so nice seeing Hannah today!!

                    Me and Hannah

(This is for my Dad who told me to mention this!)

Of course my computer had to give me problems just as I got to Israel. I brought it to the repair store today and it has to do with the overheating. I don't really understand the causes, but hopefully it will be fine. 

Tomorrow we are waking up bright and early to make our way down south to Kibbutz Ketura (near Eilat) for 5 days. Funnily enough, our family has actually stayed there before. It is a beautiful kibbutz with one spectacular view. We are going to be participating in regular kibbutz activities, bike, hike and swim. 

Second Host Shabbat

This past Shabbat I stayed at my family's house in Savyon (about 20 minutes outside of Tel Aviv). My cousin Liora picked me up from the Eretz Israel museum in Tel Aviv and brought me to her house. There she showed us where we were staying for the two nights. One by one her family got to the house. Lioras mother Stella was also there. Eventually everyone came, we started dinner at 7:30.  For dinner we had schnitzel, lasagna, eggplant and salad. I then went back to my room to watch some tv and to rest after an exciting, but exhausting week. 

Taken from Daffys WhatsApp. I couldn't get a good picture of both of them because Tal was sleeping while I got a picture of Yuval below. 

Yuval (Daffys daughter, Shmulik and Lioras granddaughter). 

Cute sculptures in their backyard 

The next morning, we went with Liora into Tel Aviv to the area of Neve Tzedek. We were in luck with the weather. It was 25 degrees outside. Neve Tzedek is a beautiful area with narrow streets and a ton of history in particular with the buildings.many of the buildings are originals and were just redecorated.  There are also many shops around the area. We had lunch on Rothschild Blvd where there were many people cycling, walking, and strolling along the middle of the street.

 We also went to the newly redone 'Jaffa train station'. They turned the old Jaffa-Jerusalem train station into a nice area with shops, and daily performances. While we were there, a circus was performing. We watched them for a few minutes. 

Re-stored building in Neve Tzedek

Art done by the founders of NeveTzedek 

Sculpture in Neve Tzedek

Information on the re-done previous Jaffa-Jerusalem railway station

Circus performers

Railway station attraction

Old buildings that used to be in use in the railway station

Across the street from the railway station was the beach closest to Yaffo. We went there just to take a look and to take pictures. 

Me and my friend Michele who came along

Me and Liora

By the time we got back to their house we were all exhausted. Never the less, I decided to walk around the beautiful area of Savyon and thoroughly enjoyed the weather. That night we walked to Kiryat Ono mall. On the way there I decided to stop in at Stella's apartment ( Liora's mother). I didn't get to talk to her much at Liora's since there were so many people at the dinner. I had such a nice time talking to her and seeing and listening how happy she was to talk to me and my Nanni (on the phone). I could tell that it made her day!  

Me and Stella in her apartment

After visiting with Stella we made our way to the mall. We got some great pictures of the candy (that is sold everywhere in the mall). 

Tons of candy sold in the mall

Sunday morning was an early start to the day. We had to make it back to Jerusalem by 9:00. We made arrangements to take the 'Egged' bus from close to the airport all the way to the Jerusalem bus station and to take a taxi back to the Chava. Remind me to NEVER take Israeli transit again (horrible experience) and so crowded. Other then that, I had an amazing time this weekend!!

Mi Sha Nichnas Adar (Purim's coming up soon!)