End of Week One and First Day of Classes

So Wednesday last week we left the hostel at 7 AM to take a three hour bus ride to the Galilee, the northern bit of Israel. On the way there the girl to the left of me started vomiting due to motion sickness and then the girl on the right of me totally fainted on top of me. It was crazy. We finally arrived and enjoyed a great 5 hour hike through the southern Galilee. Afterwards we set up our sleeping bags under the stars and the tour guides made us dinner and we schmoozed and went to sleep. We woke up the next morning to see more sights and do more stuff. It was all very great. I'm going to add some of the better pictures from the hike onto this blog so check them out! After I got home from the hike it was about 7 PM the next day and I wasn't feeling well so I took a shower and went to bed and slept from 8 PM till 10 AM. Ii wasn't the best sleep, but it was long and that was good. I woke up the next morning to go to the doctor's and they gave me an IV with antibiotics. It made me feel better and I went to the Kotel to pray Kabbalat Shabbat. For the less informed readers I'll explain that the Kotel, the wailing wall, is the most holy place in the world for a Jew and Kabbalat Shabbat is Friday night services. My group was so spirited that we had army guys, chasids, and some secular Jews tell us how amazing we are. It was pretty cool. The Kotel was an amazing experience. To stand next to a wall that was part of a building destroyed 2000 years ago was such a testament of the longevity and strength of the Jewish faith. It was a great service and I'm very happy about it all. The rest of Shabbat was great and I'm really liking it here.

Classes started today. First I had Hebrew class, then Zionism, and finally a class on King David. All my classes thus far look amazing and the teachers are very passionate. I'll update more regarding my classes after I've been in them longer.

Shalom!
Kevin