Much-delayed update...

I know it's been a while since my last post, so I apologize. But I'll try to get you caught up. Tuesday, June 12 We went to Nachal Kziv, a nature reserve and went on a 3-mile, 4-hour hike. We started by going downward and the final stretch would go upward. We would cross several streams in between. Climbing down was really hard on the thighs and the last climb was difficult and slow-going, but on the whole it was a lot of fun. Afterward we had a much-welcome trip to Sokolov Beach. We spent about an hour-and-a-half in warm waters with huge waves. It was great to be able to relax and just not move for a while. Nearby was the Grottos of Rosh Hanikra. These are natural caves created by tremors which opened up pre-existing cracks in the stone. The sea water would erode and open them up further. They offered some really pretty scenery. After the small walk around, we watched a short film about the place and it came with special effects. Any mention of splashing water, we would get droplets of water falling onto us; any mention of wind, the fans turned on; the one explosion was accompanied by bright lights at the back of the room. It was a cheesy movie but funny. Wednesday, June 13 The first stop today was Tzefat, the centre of Jewish mysticism: Kabbalah. We went to a Kabbalah art gallery and listened to a speech by the artist there. His name is Robert (but he goes by Avrahim, his Hebrew name) and he was a really amusing guy. He grew up American but was inspired by a book of Jewish Mysticism and decided to move to Israel to follow his spiritual calling. His art is entirely centred around Kabbalah and its teachings; it was all really pretty, with bright and solid colours. We visited a shop that sold handmade candles and learned a little bit about the various multi-stemmed candles (e.g., 12 candles twisted together represented the 12 tribes of Israel, 18 is Chai, etc.) We could continue to shop there or browse the nearby stalls. We also stopped in at a small synagogue and and then to a seating area to listen to two men play classical Israeli music on unique instruments. Another bus ride later, we went to a place called Misgav Am. It provides a lookout toward southern Lebanon. Our guide Ami spoke about his military experiences there so we were able to learn a little bit about the border there. Thence to the Jordan River for rafting. I was in the boat with Goose (our medic), Sarah, Adam, Brandon and Gary. About five minutes in, the rope on the boat got caught on a tree trunk and we were stuck for a good five minutes more. Two boats passed us before we were able to tug ourselves free. About three minutes after that, we lost one of our two oars! We had to spend the next hour and more without a paddle. It turned out okay in the end, though. There was a lot of bouncing off rocks and riverbanks, many repeated thrashings by low branches and some bumpiness when the river sped up or dipped down. When the boat was more calm, it was a really lovely ride. Overall, it was a fantastic and hilarious time. Thursday, June 14 Another hike! This time in the Jilabun Canyon. Again it was a walk-down, climb-up sort of walk, but this was far less intense than the first hike, being only two-hours long. There were a couple of streams and one member of the group, Guy, kindly got into the water to help people across the trickier parts. There was a group of obnoxious Israeli boys behind us. The adults with them made more effort to keep them in line. They kept crowding us and trying to rush past. We finally let them pass and the walk became much more pleasant. We drove to Mount Bental in the Golan Heights. From the top we could see Mount Hebron, the Valley of Tears (a major battle site in Israel) and Syria. The place we stood in was a former Syrian bunker taken over and closed down by Israel and converted into a tourist attraction. Then we drove to a shopping centre. There we met the eight soldiers for the 'Mifgash' (encounter), which means they would travel with us for five days so we get to experience each others' culture. We split into eight groups and each took one soldier. The activity was to learn information about our soldier and present it to everyone else and the soldier had to do the same for us. My group had Nadav, a 22-year-old man with two months to go in his service. After the activity, we had forty minutes to eat in the food court but the line-ups were so slow that we ended up rushing in our meals. After lunch, we took a seven-minute walk to the Golan Winery. We learned a little bit about the winery itself, winemaking in Israel and saw the storeroom with many hundreds of barrels. This room was kept cold and, it being a very hot day, it was nice to stand in there for a few minutes. Then we had a small wine-tasting where we sampled a riesling, a cabernet sauvignon and a muscat. The riesling was really nice and smooth; the cabernet was pretty heavy but would have been great with a nice steak; and the muscat was a dessert wine so it was sweeter and tasty. We were also taught a little on how to best drink wine and use our senses to make it more enjoyable. That was followed by a three-hour bus ride to Jerusalem. Getting into the actual city was quite the reveal: we were in a long tunnel and when we came out the other side, we were greeted with a fantastic view of the Old City. You couldn't help but become enamoured. We made a short stop at a spot on Mount Scopus near the Hebrew University campus. Ami explained a few of the major landmarks here like the Dome of the Rock. We went to check in at the hotel Leonardo Inn and ate a buffet dinner there that was far better and had more variety than the kibbutz. Many people went to the lobby that night with their newly-purchased wines and hung out there. There was some good conversation and Mike G. played his guitar but I left after a few songs. I'm going to end this here because Shabbat should get its own entry and then there’ll be another for the rest of the trip.