June 27

Dear Mom and Dad,

I hope you miss me as much as I miss you, but don’t worry I am having a great time. I made some great new friends and ate some really awesome Israeli food.  I just wanted to let you know what I did today and introduce you to our tour guide- Garviel. He is really awesome and fun, he actually grew up right here in Israel, loves to meditate, likes to drive motorcycles and has been involved with informal and formal education.

Well my morning started really early. After a great night sleep I woke up and 4:30 am ready to start my day and quickly went back to sleep. Around 8ish I headed to breakfast ready for some cereal and milk but to my surprise there was a huge buffet I ate Shakshuka for breakfast!!

Our first trip of the day was to Tel Dan, a beautiful nature hike on the boarder of Lebanon. When we got there I saw this cute little kitten and wanted to take him home as a souvenir, but I learned that the cats in Israel are like squirrels in the US and don’t make healthy pets. Oh so about our tour guide, we started the hike and then took a break and learned all about the location in Israel. The coolest part was Gavriel used a human map- Chris to show us where we were. The hike was at the top of our heads. We then continued on the rocks headed towards the ancient alter and learned about the splitting of the kingdoms, we also learned about the water supply here and the importance of using it wisely. And this part is really cool; Gavriel told us how G-d communicates with Israel. Did you know it’s by rain, when there is tons of rain it means we are doing what we should be doing but when there is little rain…. Well it’s a good thing that the water level this year has been above averageJ

At the end of the hike I was starving and ready for lunch, and walla a yummy pizza lunch was waiting for us. We also visited the gift shop, and bought some souvenirs I can’t wait to show you what I bought.

By then I was ready to call it a day but this is a packed trip with tons to do and see. But the next stop was pretty relaxing. We went JEEPING!!! In the Golan! We drove through the area that we won after the war in ’67, did you know that there are abandoned bunkers there? They looked like large piles of rocks. It was really cool because at the top of the mountain you could see for miles and miles around. On our way down the bumpy mountain we took a break and ate water melon near the Jordan River. Oh man you wont believe this. So they had this rope thing that you could grab on and swing into the Jordan. A few of the staff jumped in including our tour guide!! It looked like fun but I was NOT going to do that. We also learned a song taught by one of our Israeli staff- Tal.  We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner out on the town.

We ate dinner at Cherry a dairy restaurant in Teveria, and then the BEST THING EVER!!!!! We went on a dancing boat and had a HUGE dance party!!!!! It was out of control!! I learned how to use a darbuka- a drum and some amazing new dance moves. But the best part was dancing with my news friends and letting loose while singing along to my favorite songs! I wish it could go longer it really was my favorite part of the day- or at that point night. Well I’m going to watch the soccer game with my new friends- but I really wanted to let you know all that I did today and introduce you to our tour-guide.

I love you and miss you and having tons of fun I wish I could stay here forever!!

Lots of love and warm regards from Teveria, the Golan Heights and Tel Dan

Your favorite kid

Ps- I learned a new Hebrew word today- “kef” it means fun, and we had lots of it J