TL-46-906 Update 1

Our group met up at the airport yesterday and was so excited to get to know each other. Little did we know we’d get more time together before the plane than we bargained for when our flight was delayed nearly 3 hours! After 7 hours in the airport we finally set off and had a relatively easy flight with lots of bread rolls. When we arrived in Israel, we took our first PCR tests and breezed through customs. Then we took a long ride to the kibbutz we stayed at for the night and only stopped on the way to take another faster PCR test from Birthright.

We enjoyed a delicious schnitzel and meatball dinner in the dinning hall and played some icebreaker games! We learned everyone’s names and got a nice geographical intro to our itinerary. Finally, we all settled into our 3 person rooms for the night. This morning, we fueled up for ATV driving with chocolate rugelach (and some eggs and knishes!) and then set off by 8:30! Kicking up clouds of dust, we zoomed through the Israeli countryside, admiring citrus trees along the way. We got an introduction to Mount Hermon and some interesting information about the climate history of nearby areas. We were able to continue that discussion with our tour guide Adam (phonetically ah DAM not AH dam) at the site of a Six Day War memorial. After getting to walk through the bunker, we headed to a little outdoor food court where we had lunch (lots of Shawarmas + some other yummy foods)! Finally, we braved the heat for a hike through some Greek ruins and a beautiful water fall.