Today we enjoyed our first morning in the Nofei Gonen Kibbutz. Although we woke up to rain, we were really excited to start the day. Our morning began with a great breakfast selection of eggs, vegetables, pancakes, and plenty of fresh bread. When we walked out of the dining hall, a fleet of large jeeps were waiting for us. We all piled in to the back of the jeeps and met our drivers.  Our driver took us through the Golan Heights to see the sight of the six day war and the borders of Syria and Lebanon.  Our jeep was a lot of fun because our driver was awesome, blasting fun music so we could have a dance party in the back. Shout out to Jenna, Katya, River, Jeremy, and Michael. We also learned that Jenna enjoys Kesha’s “Tik Tok,” a classic tune. We also got some great photo opportunities with the cows that sat in the middle of the road. We made sure that the boys kept the back window open for the entire ride in order to get a full view. The jeeps were probably my (Katie) favorite part of the week. We asked Jenna if we could ditch the bus and use the jeeps for the rest of the week, but she said no :{

After that we took a short hike to the Banyas waterfall.  This hike was fun because it didn’t take long and the waterfall was really pretty.  The water was really dirty because of all the rain which had washed mud into the stream, but we still wanted to go white water rafting in the rapids. Efrat also told us that people do go swimming further down the river where it’s less dangerous. The rain held out long enough for some great group photos.

Then we drove around looking at the Syrian border and stopped for lunch at this food court that was super crowded.  To avoid the lines we went to the grocery store and bought rolls and deli meat, making our own lunch that was nomz-worthy and cheap.  We also got some huge bottles of diet coke and bissli (best snack ever).  Katharine also bought some post cards because they are small and would actually fit in her bag, unlike the super cute stuffed animals that were also being sold.

We continued our journey on the bus because Efrat wanted us to see the Syrian border. Unfortunately it got really rainy and gross outside so when we stopped we got a nice view of Syrian fog.  The journey continued as we had to drive on the bus all the way to the Kibbutz before Shabbat started.  This trip was spent playing Babo Crash, the best game ever invented for the iPad. Katie was awesome, scoring over 2.5 million, while Katharine struggled to get 200,000.  Instead she took a nap with giraffe – the giraffe print neck pillow from her mom that our room fights over. Shout out to Mrs. Ostrow on the clutch purchase. We also wished that the bus had the same music as the Jeep ride so that we could continue jamming.

We had to get back to the Kibbutz to prepare for Shabbat, so we got back around three and showered and napped. Temperature control seems to be a problem for the showers here in Israel. The shower in Jerusalem was scalding and Katharine’s Shabbat shower in the Kibbutz was freezing (We are beginning to think it is just us). Then we had a candle lighting ceremony along with a selection of different services.  We combined with the Penn students, who have the gift of free wifi on their tour bus.  There were three different service options: a reform learning service with Jake, a more traditional conservative service, and a conversation/discussion with Penn staff.  After services we gathered in the dining hall for some wonderful food, including three types of chicken, more delicious bread, and cookies with cute faces on them.  After this we broke up again for three more activities.  These were Ask the Rabbi with Jake, Gender and Sexuality in Judaism with Esther, and a discussion of the week’s Torah portion.  We both chose to go to Jake’s section, which was really interesting and enlightening. Katie enjoyed learning about Reconstructionist Judaism and decided that she’s going to look more into it later. Katharine inquired about Orthodox traditions and certain frumors (fake rumors) about them.

Then all of the UVA kids got together for an Oneg where we got a ton of snacks, like sesame coated peanuts, bamba (gross), cookies, pretzels, Israeli cereal, dried apricots, local fruit, and other treats. We also learned more about our Soldiers with party games. The main game as Two Truths and a Lie, where each soldier shared three stories and the group decided which one was false. We learned some interesting facts about the Israelis including car accidents involving wild boars and bouts of ESP. Once the scheduled events were over, the UVA kids got together for some Shabbat celebrations on our own. It was nice to know that we could have fun and stay up a little late because we had the opportunity to sleep in the next morning. The night went well until we were locked out of our Kibbutz. But don’t worry! We were clever enough to get inside using other methods. We both enjoyed a good night’s sleep after watching some of our favorite Israeli infomercials.

-Katie Rookard and Katharine Ostrow