Israel Days 1-3

July 20, 2011

It has been an eventful 3 (three already?!) days here on my birthright trip. I will do  quick overview of the last few days then go into detail about my favorite parts.

So I showed up to the airport on July 16, a few minutes late – it takes a LONG time to get across NY to JFK! Then I met a few people from my trip and checked in. After through security and a few beers I was making new friends. There are 40 people on my trip, and it is not easy to keep track of their names. We ended up in the waiting area and the loading for the plane was 2 hours late. They made us go back through security again, then finally onto the plane. By this time I was exhausted because I was still on Swiss time and my body was telling me that it was 3:30am. After a lot of sleeping, movie watching, more sleeping, we finally touched down in Israel about 2pm the next day. Somehow, the airlines (Delta! Yuck!) managed not to lose my bags and we all got our stamps to welcome us into Israel. We dropped our things on the bus, exchanged our money, and did a little intro session with an Amazing Israel representative. He told us a little bit about the birthright gift, and it is pretty incredible. Birthright sends 30,000 Jews every year to Israel. It has an alumni base of over 500,000. They are looking to increase funding for next year. Each participant costs around 5K. Where do they get the money, you ask? 1/3 of it is funded by the Israeli government, and every year it is the first piece of funding that is passed by parliament. Another 1/3 comes from generous individual donors around the U.S. and Israel. The final 1/3 comes from local Jewish communities. If you grew up in L.A., they ask the local Jewish community there to donate. It is a pretty big thing. After learning more about birthright, the dos and don’ts of the trip, safety, etc. we were introduced to our personal safety and medic. He is with us at all times with a HUGE first aid kit, and a rifle, just in case. We also have a large air-conditioned bus and bus driver that is always on the bus (to make sure no one wanders in or around it). The rest of the first day was driving up north the Galiee area and the city of Tiberias, checking in, picking rooms, dinner, and then the m&m get to know you game. By this time I knew about 40% of people’s names. It is not easy in such a big group! Finally it was bedtime and my room slept quite soundly.

Morning came early on June 20^th with multiple wake-up calls at 5:45, 5:55, and finally my alarm at 6am. We had breakfast at 6:30 (when I accidentally ate a bowl of cream cheese that looked and tasted a lot like Greek yogurt) then hopped on our bus and headed out. We were off for our big hike, and we needed to get there before the heat wave. The hike was great – we went from the top of a canyon, down, and across the river. Then we passed some of the most beautiful rock formations, waterfalls with rainbows, pools, streams, plants, fish and more. There were several times when you needed both hands to hold onto the metal bars that were handholds in order to make it around a cliff corner. It was definitely an adventure. At one point we put all of our stuff in waterproof bags (that’s me!) or just brought our stuff into the water. We had to jump in by a waterfall and swim through the deep pools to get to the other side. We had even brought our own lifeguard! We felt refreshed after that swim and finished the hike, returning to the cliff side that we had started at. We ended up further down the river but we had gone up as much as we went down. I forgot how much I love hiking!

Next on our itinerary was a trip to see the Syrian border. We learned more about the war in 1978(?), also known as Yom Kippur war because Syria and Egypt attacked Israal on the Jewish holiday, the highest holiday, of Yom Kippur. After that history, they pointed out the border and discussed the fortifications. I still think the DMZ is more fortified, but they claimed differently. Apparently now that I have an Israeli stamp in my passport I can’t go into Syria. Oh, shucks.

Our final stop of the day was the Golan Winery just south of the lookout point to Syria. We got an over view of the winery, a few wine tastings, and one of the most interesting guides ever. His ear hair was longer that my pinky toe and he smelled his wine in the best way. He tut-tut-tutted us whenever he suggested something we shouldn’t do. He was hilarious and I want to take him back with me! We finished the tour and I bought some wine to bring home, and then headed back to our hotel to rest. Next up is dinner and a cultural program.

So you may be wondering – does amazing Israel have an ulterior motive? They have already told us that they want Jews to feel connected to Israel, but they want to make us informed and more knowledgeable about here. They did tell us, however, that this is NOT a vacation. This is an adventure, a journey, a learning experience. We are not spending 10 days on a beach getting drunk. We have jammed-packed adventure filled days, and we need to take advantage of it. After all, it is a free gift. I agree, I am taking advantage of every moment. It is fantastic! And no, I am not fanatically Jewish yet – no one on my trip is. But I make no promises in a few days (just kidding!).