Grandpa

Thank you for commenting.
I can't wat to see you when i get back,
yes the sunset as i am sure you have realised was beautiful,
Keep on reading

The Beach Walk

On Wednesday, we went on a beach walk north of Haifa,We were going to do it on Sunday but the weather wasn't nice,Today however the weather was beautiful,The walk started with us climbing over a gate for the toilets
Then the man who owned it came and told us to go away and stop using the toilets because they were locked.Stupid to have locked toilets what is the point.We then started the walk along the beach. It was really fun running along with Naomi, Zoë and Rachel and they were collecting shells. The sea looked amazing!!!We stopped of at some ruins from the Chanukah time of the Greeks, It was a port which when the Romans controlled Israel was no longer used because they built an even better one.We carried on walking until we came to another beachy area. On which we played all sorts of things for half an hour.There was the most amazing sunset ever!!!!!!!!!!!!Amazingamazingamazing.IT was a bright orange sun and it looked like it was sitting on the water with swirls of clouds in different shades of orange all round it.
AMAZING!!!!!
AMAZING!!!!!
AMAZING!!!!!
But I am really annoyed because my camera had run out of battery so I couldn't take a photo.We then carried on our walk back to the bus.It was now dark and we lay down on the sand and we looked up at the stars and kept quiet,hearing the waves was so refreshing!One OF the Most amazing days ever!

Comments

IT is nice that i can now read your comments more easily,
I can't wait to see you Rachel and Mum,

Zichron Ya'akov

Today we went to Zichron Ya'akov,
Is that the place where Jonny lives what is his surname and what are the childrens names.
Someone from liverpool lived there so i want to know if they know them.
We went to the detention center, where the British kept the illigall immegrants who wanted to live in Israel after the war, before it became Israel. we saw were they first went, and where they slept,
it was very interesting.
We then went to the Aaronson house.
It was all about the NILI organisation to help the brittish win the war and take over Pallestine.
We were told how they were caught and what happened to them.
It was very cool when we went into the actuall place where one of them commited suicide.
It was interesting trip and on Wednesday we are going on a beach walk.

Adiel

what does Adiel look like,
big, small,
who does she look like,
what present should i get her.
is a childrens book a good idea
or canyou think of somthing else.
see you soon

It is now easier to look at your comments so i will be replieing them from now on!

Just a Quick Note

Nathan i hope that you will get better soon,
and everyoone keep up to date with my blog.
I am now up to date yeh!!!

Carmel Mountains

On Wednesday we went on a short hike through the Carmel Mountains. We walked along for around ten minutes over rocks and bushes to Sea amazing views of the Mediterranean at the only point in Israel where it is north. We then acted out a story from the Tanach and carried on the walk. At the end we saw an amazing sunset before we got on the coach. We then went to a Druze market where they sold everything from BB guns to swords to Eilat trousers. We were there for about half an hour and did lots of heavy bargaining. Then we went to a tourist place where we learnt about the Druze religion and had an amazing Druze supper of Iraqi pita, kebabs and rice. It was really tasty.However some people have hot a bit of food poisoning.and some have it "really bad".

Acco

On Sunday I went to Acco, a country notrth of Haifa. It is a multi-cultural city with many different religions. We went to an Arab market where we saw different spices and meats. We then went to a mosque. We went in and somebody spoke to us about the Muslim religion, we got to see where they pray and heard the call to prayer. We then went to have lunch. After this we went to the Behai Gardens. They are amazing, beautiful gardens in gardens of the founder of the religion, under two hundred years ago. We had another talk about their religion and found out that they believe that you can be any religion as long as you believe in one god. And you help people.
It was a bit like hippies but not as tipsy.

The Dead Sea

The final stop in the Negev is the Dead Sea. We got there and i wasn't sure weather to go in or not. This was because i had loads of cuts all over my legs. I decided however that it is worth the risk and so i went, to begin with it stung like mad but I soon got used to it. On the floor I saw these salt crystals and they looked really cool. I then put some mud on that Beverley had bought all of us and that killed like mad. So I took it off right away. It was defiantly worth going in however i found that on the bus it killed like crazy and I was burning up.
The Dead Sea is places were you need to have a 10 minute shower to make it not hurt.

Masada

That night wasn't the comfiest night ever because I found myself sleeping on a hill on a huge rock. But it was still fun. We were them woken up at 4' o'clock so that we could get to the top of Massada for sunrise. IT was much harder than I remember it but i was 3rd up which is good considering I only lost to David and Joel. At the top we had 20 mins to spare so we were chering on the rest of our group. At sunrise I was about to take a photo and my battery ran out so i was quickly changing the batteries and it was close. But I got some great photos. I then got the best photo of a lifetime. It was of sunrise with the Israeli flag flying. Beautiful! We then had a tour around the top. And at the end we went to the far side of Massada, which we didn't go to and there we shouted um, yisroel, chai, and because of the positions of the mountains you could hear the echo for another 10 - 15 secs, it was amazing. Finally we wanted to walk back down but we weren't allowed because of time. But the view in the cable car was till good. At the bottom we had lunch and then went of to the Dead Sea...

Ein Gedi

On the last day in Yerucham we packed our bags and left for Ein Gedi. On the way we stopped of at where Lots wife was thought to have turned into salt.We then went down to Ein Gedi stopping of at the hostel for an amazing lunch of schnitzel, chips and like every meal, rice. We then went into Ein Gedi. We didn't have a lot of time and so went to one of the nearest pools. I again was the first to jump in and we got the chance to swim around for about half an hour. One the walk down we saw some more Ibex and also some Hyrax, which look like Rabbits but are most closely related to the elephant. This time going to Ein gedi was not as good as the time we went to Israel, because we only went in one water whole, however, it was good because I was with my friends. We were then told a story about King David. As it was getting dark we had to hurry to reach our campsite at the Bottom of Massada and had to get our tents up really quickly. After this we had an amazing BBQ (the best meal of the whole trip) and made a fire for a campfire. We all roasted marshmallows and then went to bed as we would have to get really early. I was sharing a tent with Jonny, and David and we played Monopoly all night.

Sunday

THe sunday tyal was our last day in Yerucham. The tyal was a hike and then absaling down a cliff. It would have been amazing but unfortunatly i threw up that moring. So i stayed in bed till 1, lukeyly i had jonny with me becuase he couldn't do it just in case of his arm. So shera, jonny and i got one of the best falafels i had ever had and them we went to the tallest playground i had ever seen.
Not as good asthe tyal but it was still alright.

Shabbat in Yerucham

Shabbat was really cool. We were in a youth hostel and we were the only ones there. There was a TABBLE TENNIS TABLE yeh, and a table football which we played non-stop, Friday night some boys did their activity toranut and it was a x factor or should say esser factor. It was very enjoyable and from the second worst score we came second. Sabbat was relaxing and we then had a walk around the town. IT was really nice. There were two huge towers, the symbol of Yerucham and the lady told us their was a slide on it, so we all ran there and it was tiny, a big disappointment. After shabbat went out we had a talent show. I was lights and camera man, many of the acts were very good, either enjoyable, talent or very funny. Then the madrachim did a sketch on all our saying and our stupid ness it was really funny. Shabbat was a very fun day.

Just a quick note

I want to say mazel tov to Rachel,
wow a new cousin,
i cant wait to see you her and of course you rachel.
I hope that you get out of hospital quickly and that everything goes well.

Eilat day 2 - the underwater observatory

Before going back up into the main part of The Negev we went to the Eilat Underwater Observatory. It was just down the road from where we went snorcalling. We were allowed to go around on our own so josh and i went to sea all the different fish, There were shaks and rare fish, it was eally cool because there was a section of fluresent corals and they were beautiful. We then to the underwater part. IT was really nice seeing the fish swimming not in captivity but at the same time we can see them.
We then started our journey back up the negev to Yarucham

Day 1 in Eilat

The Hostel we stayed in, was a very basic bed, cudboard and TV room with very uncofortable beds. The food was also not very good.We started our day by going on a morning hike of the Eilat mountains. We walked along a rough, steep path to reach the top, on the way stopping to talked about where the place originated from. We then walked up to the top to see yet another amazing view. This one looked over to the Red Sea and Jordan as well as being able to see the whole of Eilat and some of the dessert.We then walked down to the bottom of the path and came out by the Coral Reaf snorcalling area. We all got the chance to go snorcalling along with a guide along that area of the protected Reaf. It was really beautiful and we found out that it was one teh sugestions for the new 7 wonders of the world. We saw loads of different fish and the guide pointed some out to us. Some of these included Nemo and Dori.
We then went to the water spots. I went on a paddle boat and a kayak with Bea and Zoe because we didn't want to go on the banana boat. It was really fun though and i swam a bit.
After this we walked back to the Youth Hostel throught the market and got the chance to buy souvanirs. We got back to the hostel and had supper.Then we went to the Mall opposite and got two hours to shop. I got some really cool things

Wednesday - day 2 of the Negev

ON Wednesday we went to Ein Avdat, Ein avdat is on the wasy to eilat, it is in the middle of the dessert and it is quite extrodinary. This is because although it is in the middle of the dessert there is a stream with a beautiful waterfall at the end. All the way along the stream it was really cool because there was the most amazing reflection of the rocks and sky above.
We then walked up the side of the rocks, up a very narrow staircase carved out of the rock. There was then a steep walk up the mountain followed by a ladder. It was very fun going up and there was the most fantastic view from the top.

We them carried on the journey to Eilat where we stoped off at ben gurion's house. We had a tour and it was very interesting to find out about him and his views about the negev. Finally we stopped off at a huge crater but it was made by water and it was very cool.

We got back on the couche for the last time that day and headed for our hostel in Eilat.

Tuesday - the first day of the Negev

ON TUesday we started our journey to the south.
When we arrived at our first destination it was in the middle of nowhere.
We had arrived at bedwin tents.
Bedwins are people who live in the dessert and traditionaly didn't have the most tecnical lifestyle.
HOwever nowadays it is becoming more and more techinical with them having T.V's and having proper houses because they no longer move around. THe bedwins used to travel by camel and so becuase we were having a day at being traditional bewins we got to ride on them. It was realy fun and i rode with JOny. It was very scary getting on and off but it was really fun.
We then had a traditional welcoming and first we got welcomed by a tune, then we had tea. It was really nice and sweet.
We finally had coffee and it was really sour bitter and horrible.
That night it was really fun because we slept in a huge tent on matterases. and we were diving around on them it was the funnest night so far.
And i really enjoyed the whole day from when we got to the bedwin place.

Tzfat

On Sunday we went to Tzfat.
Tzfat is the home of the Kabala.
First of all we went round looking at the different Jewish aspects. Why they wright
nah
nach
nachma
nachman
On all of the walls.
We then saw some art work which was a picture made up by the words of the magila, or Torah and so on.
We then were aloud to go shopping in the market place. To begin with I was just bargaining for the sake of bargaining but then I managed to bargain on a jumper of the Israeli defense force lower than anyone else in my group. I saved 30 shekels and so I bought that. I also bargained down on a few other things.
Finally we had a talk from a man called David Freedman. He is an artist that also studies kabala.
He normally draws to teach Kabala.
The letter aleph and the root words are one of his main ideas.
It was very interesting and his art work was very good.
This tour today wasn't like any of the other hikes because there wasn't much walking.

Bet She'an

On Wednesday we went to Bet She' an, It wasn't a proper hike but it was very hot so just as hard.

When we arrived it looked like an old golf course over grown. However there were ruins from the roman period all over the place.We then looked at a tell, which is a man made mountain where different civilizations have built on top of one another. We then climbed to the top. It was not a long thing but it was very steep and so it was tiring. At the top we talked about King Saul the first king of Israel. The story about the prophet who died, he brought his soul back and he was told that he was going to die, so he killed himself and his son. We then had another bit of a walk and we walked to the edge of the tell and over the edge we could see the most amazing thing ever!!!!!It was a whole Roman center of town. It was amazing, it had been dug up and we then went wandering around and looking at all the buildings. They were all in the position that they were found in and they WERE the originals!It was really cool,

There was one problem however, there were sooooooooooomany mosee's and they were so annoying.It was a very different hike and very good views,well worth wile!
Looking forward to seening Adrian tommorow
more updates soon.

THe Army Base

The army was very cool because we could see write into Syria.
We learnt about the war and about what is happening now. It was very cool walking around the inside and seeing where they slept and ate.

Gamla

On Sunday we went up north to the Golan Heights. It was a hike down a mountain, up another in the middle that is called gamla, this was because it looked like a camel. So we went to the hump on that mountain, back down it and back up the original one again. It was the hardest so far and by the end of it we were all exhausted this was because there was absolutely no shade around for the whole trip. This place was the home of a lot of birds of pray, especially eagles.Unfortunately there has been poison in the rodents that they eat and so they die.This means that the place we went to, keep the birds until they can produce babies so that they don't die.We wanted to go and see them but we weren't allowed because what ever the birds see when they are young they think is their mother.This means that it would be bad for them to see us.
We then went to An army base...

Tel Dan and Hula Valley

This trip is before Mt. Tavor but i was doing the Mt. tavor trip at home and i had already started this one.
On Sunday we went to Tel Dan, and the hula valley. Tel Dan is the river that leads to the main water source of Israel the kineret. Tel Dan joins up with two other small rivers that join to make up the Jordan river which flows into the kineret. We went on a hike that lead us to a part of the Tel Dan where the water flows but they have made a man made water hole for people to walk around in. However it is very cold because it is from melted ice. I went in the water and we tried to jump and take a photo as we landed but it didn't work and it really hurt our feet!
We then dried our selves and walked back.
When we got back to the bus we drove to the only place that still has the original water from the hula valley.
It is now a nature reserve because the rest of the swamp was drained for agriculture and to stop the mosquitoes. There was a really good view and it was a nice short, as Alisa calls it, a "Granny Hike".
Finally we went to the area where they re-put the water. There were loads of mosquitoes and we all got bitten loads. So we sung some songs that we had been learning for the Yitzchak Rabin memorial service to the Keshet staff.
It was a really enjoyable day.

Mt. Tavor

On Sunday we drove up to the top and then hiked down.The view from the top was very good because you could see the difference between the Jewish agriculture and the Arab's agriculture. The jewish agriculture is in big lots because it is more efficient. The Arab's is in lots of different lots owned by single families.I keeped on slipping and zoe kept on laughing at me,
But in a nice way.
The view was good and it was a really enjoyable hike.
We learnt why it is important for the christians and about the story of divora
Mum do you remember
Divora divora i love you divora
and i learnt that it meant bee.
All of the trip was very worth while and i feal that my friendship with some of the liverpudleans is growing.
It was however a shame that jonny could not come but he is getting his cast off
on Sunday!!!!
cant wait to see adrian
please tell him to read the blog.
I have missed out wednesday but i will come back to it.
Miss you all\!!!
And it actually rained for the first time since the day we got here,
WOW! it was sooooooooooooo refreshing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

My Apartment

The apartments are very basic.
The beds are lumpy and small and the duvet covers are square, not usful at all.
In my room is Josh Pelled, David Miron and Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the other room is Joel Kosmin, Adam Driver and Rob cohen.
At nights it is realy fun because we muck about and do work out...
I can now do 150 press ups in blocks of 30.
We all are having a great time.
Our three madrichim are
Elezare, Mirav and Shira.
Elezare is the biggest joker.
He comes in to our roon to tell us off and we end up playing uno.
Mirav is really good fun to be with.
And Shira tries to be hard but she is really soft.
Theyy are really good madrichim.
For all who want to know a good time to call is around 9:00, a bit before or a bit after.

Mt. Arbel

Unfotunatly i have already written about this once but the computer crashed so it will be slightly shorter than it was last time.
It was on Wednesday and we went up Mt. Arbel. It was a mountain about 600 meters tall and we started halfway. From there we went up to the top. Once there there was a beautiful view. One side was the kinneret and on the other were some mountains. On the journey down it was very bumpy and then we came to a very small ledge. There we had to walk along it and then we went down a shear rock face.It was really fun.Once at the bottom we had to wait about 1 hour for the slow scardie cats. But then we had a little bit more of a windey path.We could see holes in the walls and we were told about the story of the Romans and the Jews.
It was really interesting
Please comment
Thanks

Afula

We went to a childrens home on Monday.
There we were each given a child to look after and play with.
All the children there are there because of family problems.
Some live there and others just go after school and get picked up at 8:00.
There they can do school work or get fed if there family hasn't got enough to do so.
I was paired up with a little boy called shalev. He is six years old and speaks no english.
so to begin with it was really strange because i could only understand a few words. But we managed to get through. we each drew a picture with each of our names on it and we swapped them. His was really sweet.
We then played outside and he taught me a few words like swing and slide.
When we had to go it was really sad to see his face but we will be seeing each other every monday.

Nachal Kziv

Our latest tip was on Sunday. Nachal Kziv is a river that flows along the bottom of a valley. So we had to walk, for 1 hour and a half, down to the bottom. Once there it was a small walk to get to a "big puddle" so to speak and we all went swimming. It was really fun. However once at the bottom of the valley there were streams leading to this "big puddle" and so I walk through them and i put water in my hat and put it on my head.
I want to thank you dad for those to words of advice and for all the training I have had from you.
After we had been in the "big puddle" we walked up a much steeper route back to the top. I would have been with the top group but I had to help someone have a drink because she had run out and she was white with no one else with her. Any way I got back up in half and hour and my legs were killing but the view from the top, the scenery down the mountain and the swimming was worth every bit of pain.

Shabbat

Friday night was really good food.
We sang songs and we had really tasty snitzel and chulent.
After we benched we went back home.
Saturday, we davened with the kibbutz and it felt really good that the fact that although we speak different languages we all davened in the same.
We then went to our families that I have talked about before. At the end of Shabbat we did some activities and then made havdala outside!
Not something you can do every day in England.
It was a great experience.

My Family

I meet my kibbutz family on wednesday
they are really nice
I am with Chole rich. And we both think so.
There is are 3 girls and 1 boy. The boy is 5 and so starts school next year, the girls are 3,8 and 10. The little girl is really cute because she was dressing me up in her clothes. We also saw them on saturady for a brunch, (late breackfast) there it was really wied because both the parents had to go out and so we were eating with the granmar. Anway once we had eaten we played piggy in the middle and it was really fun.
As we were walking back the little girl was holding my hand. It was so cute apparently.
Overall i am really pleased with my kibbutz family and i will be posting what we are getting up to.

Trip to see the View of the Galilie

Our second Tiyul was on the 29th we went on a hike near to Lavi first we went to Mitzpe Netofa. It is a religious kibbutz in Galilie. However we didn't go in we just went up a big tower. There we could see the most amazing view. We saw kibbutz Lavi and we also saw other Jewish and Arab settlements. We were told about how you can tell if it is an Arab or a Jewish village because the Arabs built theirs on the bottom third, high enough to see enemies close enough to the water sources. We also saw the Kinneret. However it was far away and so we decided to go closer.
This was when we went to Kibbutz Alomot. Once there we went up another, slightly smaller tower. It was very close to the Kinneret. There we could see some small islands in the middle which showed us that Israel really dose have a drought.

Our first trip
A marzipan factory

The first trip that we went on was to the marzipan factory. It was in Kfar Tavor a small town in the north of Galilie.
We were originally going to plant trees however the weather was not permitting.
The reason that we went to the marzipan factory instead was because to make marzipan you need trees. These trees are almond trees. In marzipan there is sugar, water and almonds all mixed together. We were then shown around and we saw loads of different amazing models made out of marzipan.
Some of the ones were...
1. Elvis Presley,
2. Fruit and vegetables,
3. Fast food,
4. Heads
5. Markets,
6. Biblical stories
7. And many, many more.
To round off an amazing trip we were then given small amounts of different types of marzipan to make whatever we wanted out of them. I made a lollypop, strawberry and many other things. The marzipan has a very weird taste and you don't know if you like it or not.
That was the end of our first trip and it was very enjoyable, even if planting trees would have been very, very fun as well.
Missing you all
cant wait to see you Rachel and Adrian
RAchel
i meet my english teacher today
she says that she is freindly with you
her name is
mrs r something or other
sorry i havent spoken in so long
more updats coming soon
keep reading

i am going tommorow

just 1 day to go
i can't wait
almost all packed
more info
coming soon

2 weeks to go

I am leaving in just 2 weeks
can't wait
please keep cheacking because i will be updating regualy,
about 2 or 3 times a week.
Please comment on all that i write about
happy reading
i will see you soon