Day 2 - Yaffo and more

What a fun day!

We gave students the option of sleeping in. Most took us up on it. We met together at 9am for a wonderful Israeli breakfast. For those who have never eaten breakfast in Israel its a lot of fresh cheese, ripe vegis, and tasty breads.

Then we set off. We began the day with services on the beach. Deborah led and Marc taught a little about this week's Torah portion, the famous story of the Golden Calf. It was wonderful to pray on the sand and only made certain prayers dealing with nature all the more poignant.

From there we headed on a walking tour of Yaffo. For those who don't know, Yaffo is the "old city" of Tel Aviv. Our students not only saw the culture but learned how Yaffo is a microcosm for the diversity of cultures and historical landscapes in Israel. Zvi, our tour guide, played a game with the students. He would stop at an area of interest and ask them to guess what it was, why it was there, and what it added to the surroundings. Students came alive at each stop. Look below for a number of pictures from Yaffo.

From there students came back for lunch and bit of rest time. Following that, and because it was raining, we chose to do some group building exercises indoors. Our teens, who have already been bonding, are only growing closer with each passing day. It's wonderful to watch them open up to us and to one another.

We then joined together for an interactive and engaging program on the history of the Middle East conflict and learned about the problems surrounding drawing borders in Israel. This is perhaps the most serious program of the trip (beside maybe Yad V'shem and Har Hetzel later in the trip). We were impressed by their knowledge and their engagement with the material.

Following this we walked over to Rothchild Blvd, Tel Aviv's upscale promenade filled with every kind of restaurant and gave students free time to explore and eat. About half chose a very tasty brunch place (that served breakfast all day). The other half chose to go to a salad and sandwich shop. It was amazing to see how empowered they felt by ordering food in real Israeli restaurants, and mingling with real Israelis on a warm Saturday evening!

Walking home, our teens stopped and raided a local bodega (in Israel they call it Kiosk), buying and sampling all kinds of Israeli chocolates and junk food.  We bought, and they especially liked, the chocolate filled with pop rocks.

They are now all in bed (hopefully asleep) because we have a BIG day tomorrow. Update coming soon.

Check out the pictures below from our day in Yaffo.