Naomi and Jessy blog their first full day in Israel

A few words from Jessy:

Yesterday we did a lot of big and important things. We walked up Mount Carmel and visited the Bahai Gardens which had a beautiful view of Haifa Bay. Then, we bumped into friends from Brooklyn by accident and one whom just so happened to be a Cantor! She then led us in a Shabbat service under a gazebo type structure. After, we hopped into the bus and met up with our Israeli friends. A few of them traveled with us in the car (such as my hostess Golan), and the others rode in separate cars. Once we got to the mountain side us and the Israeli’s did a few icebreakers that consisted on us saying our name and a word that we previously learned in Hebrew. As for our Israeli friends, they said their names and then said a word that they previously learned in English. To follow, we got back into bus with the people whom we traveled with and went to where the fire was. We learned a lot about the fire and it taught me personally how carelessness can really affect you and the people around you. The kids, who made the fire, were playing with it and ended up ruining millions of beautiful trees.  After that, we got back into the bus and went to a yummy restaurant. The food that we ate consisted upon falafel, hummus, pita pizzas, chicken and rice, soft drinks, etc. After the restaurant we went back to the houses and hung out with our host family (mine was Golan). At my house family we met her parents and siblings who were really sweet. Nora, Golan, and I chilled in Golan’s room and went on the computer and watched MTV. Her room and house were similar to apartments in NYC which surprised me very much. We then got ready for the mall (put on our makeup, changed clothes, straightened Nora’s hair, etc). At about 7:30, we hopped into Golan’s mom’s car and went over to the mall in Haifa. The mall was similar to your average American mall. There was H&M, Sephora (or something similar), etc. After a long and tiring day full of adventure and amazing experiences, we went back to Golan’s house and had a wonderful nights rest. This morning, we woke up and went to the Leo Beck educational center and toured around the school. It was similar to a NYC high school although the buildings were half outside. Israel as a whole has been really fun to me, although I miss home, it is an amazing experience to go visit my heritage and tour the land of the Jewish people. Israel is one spectacular place!

And now from Naomi:

I love Israel. Haifa is at once both more like New York than I could have pictured and more foreign than I could have imagined. It is a bustling city, with people walking dogs and listening to iPods and driving cars and talking on cell phones, but they’re talking in Hebrew. There are ads all over, but they’re not in English. There are tired trees lining the highways, but they’re palm trees. There’s a panoramic view of the varied Haifa skyline, like the view of New York from an above-ground subway, but the buildings are made of cream-colored stone, the roofs are red, and there are solar panels heating water tanks on every house. There are dull green road signs, but they’re in Hebrew and Arabic as well as English. It’s just unbelievable. And there are things which are just startling: there are crêpes everywhere, through some fluke of cultural exchange (I had chocolate ones for breakfast, and saw two different stores selling them at the mall); Leo Baeck is almost outdoors, with only the classrooms themselves truly under roofs; and there are ads for American movies with the titles written phonetically in Hebrew. The only word I can use to describe Israel is marvelous.