June 15th Departure - Hasbara Israel - Day 1

Greetings and Salutations from the holy land! The Hasbara Fellowships group has arrived and the trip is going great. Our long flight was well worth the wait as we arrived into Tel Aviv at 8 am Monday, the beginning of the week in foreign territory. The feeling as we got off the plane was of welcome and excitement. As a tired group met with our Madrichim, we all started learning each other’s names and schools and majors. We learned that the students from this trip came from as far and near as West coast Canada and the States and covered all the way to East coast. Even though we were all from very different places in North America (even as far as Texas) we all shared at least one thing in common, our love for the Holy Land. And we had all made it here together.

After we all got our rental phones and figured out T9, (thank god for T9) we began our journey to Jerusalem. The bus ride was all yawns and smiles, and when we finally made it into Jerusalem we were glued to the windows. We were in awe of the scenery, the buildings and the trees. The homes and the shops, the synagogues and the churches all seemed so unreal. As we made it into the Jewish quarter we were greeted by a large group of IDF soldiers. We ate a beautiful breakfast and played some ice breaker games to get to know each other better.

After a lot of laughing and learning some rather interesting facts about the group we did a short bus tour of the old city. Our trip leader gave us a brief rendition of the history of the borders of Jerusalem how they came to be how they are now. The history of the walls that Jerusalem has always had and the new walls that are being built were explained.

A very Jet-lagged group parted ways with our guide and the Men and Women parted ways and we checked into our hotels. We all took a much needed nap before we met at a local bar called Zolly’s. We shared stories and laughs.

Thus was the end of day one.
Your Israeli correspondent,
Amy

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