Good Bye and Thank You

 My sister Halleli had a dance performance
http://youtu.be/jEY277fpOVg
I'm sad to say it but this is my last blog. I'm going back home tomorrow and I don't think much will happen from now to then. But before I leave just want to say thank you to all those who have been reading my blog...!                               http://youtu.be/a9NIZOvfKpc

                               

Ayalon Institute

The Ayalon Institute was a bullet factory when the British occupied Israel. it was a secret and most people on the Kibbutz next to it didn't even know.  There was a laundry service above it that covered all the noise of making bullets. One of the people who worked in the laundry service used to work in the bullet factory and then she got pregnant so she couldn't. When the people in the bullet factory had to leave the woman that used to work in the bullet factory would tell the other woman it was time to hang up the laundry outside.  And they would go outside and hang the laundry would come out of their secret hole in the ground and come out the back door.

This is the hole

         No accidents  happend                           

Tel Aviv May 29

The first thing we did in Tel Aviv was go to the "shuk" in Jaffa.  The shuk is a bunch of little stores selling all kinds of things, like necklaces, bracelets, clothing,dishes and souvenirs.

    In the evening  we went to a dance performance.

This was not the performance.

                                                                 
                               

May 16 2011 Hai Bar

Just before passover when we were down South, we decided to go to the Hai Bar.  The Hai Bar is a place where a lot of animals that were in the Torah live.  The people who work there told us not to get out of our car.
 The first thing we saw was the White Oryx.

                                          

          We  also saw Ostriches eating from silver feeders...

...And just walking around

                   Then we heard a tapping sound I looked out the window and saw...

                                                     
We think its because our car is the same color as the feeders.
             We saw donkeys

                          we saw a baby  Addax ...

                                                  
               ...Get up for the first time.

             Then we went to the predators part we saw a leopard. It was sleeping.

                                              
                                         snore!!!

April 11 Dead Sea

One of the first things I noticed was that the Dead Sea has a line of sand almost all the way across. The Dead Sea has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller. And when you walk/take a tram to the beach of the Dead Sea you can see signs that say "The sea went up to here in 2003" or" Up to here in 1999". It was cool and a little sad to see how much smaller it had gotten. 
  When we got there, we saw the sand was not sand but little pieces of salt!  We got in our bathing suits, and walked in.  The water was a lot colder than we thought it'd be.  Finally when we got into a place in the water where we could float, we did!  It was a little hard to get floating, but once I did it, it was easy.

                                                   

Mar.19-21 Purim-Tzfat

                                                    Purim
 I went to Eshar for a purim celebration.  The Tzofim had built different climbing structures and different games.  One of them was a game where there was a thin pole raised like a balance beam, and two people had to walk on it with big styrofoam clubs, and try to hit the other person off.  The one who hit the other person off first won.  I did it with my dad -- and he won.

      After the carnival, we drove to Rosh Pinah.  We slept in a little hotel and in the morning we took a long hike to Tzfat.  My dad and Halleli drove to Tzfat, and my mom and I walked.  During our walk, we saw lots of cool things. We saw these strange caterpillars in nests made out of spider-webby stuff.  We also saw gazelles, but only their heads, because they were on the other side of the hill.  It was a very hilly walk.

                                                   

               
After the walk, we went to Tzfat, and saw that in Tzfat people celebrate Purim one day after they do in the rest of Israel, except in Jerusalem -- called "Shushan Purim." 

      In Tzfat there are a lot of amazing artists and huge art galleries.  We went into the shop of one guy. He let us paint the floor of the stage he was painting. 

     We also saw a sofer -- a person who writes the Torah.  He gave me a little piece of paper and he wrote my name on it in Hebrew.  When we saw him, he was writing the Song of Songs, Shir haShirim.

                                         
     We also saw three old synagogues that were still being used.

                                        

 I had a lot of fun the whole time. 

   P.S. I took this picture.
                                                 
                                          

March 3 2011 Hike in Arbel

Today I went to Arbel with my dad to hike.The hike was on a really steep cliffs.

                                                                                      
On the way up we saw an about 2000 year  old synagogue. I learned how to take a video so here's one of those.

                                      

During the hike, we saw a tour guide telling stories in English so we stopped to listen. He was showing a little group the Kinneret which you could see from the top of the mountain.  He said that a few years before the Kinneret had been so low that they saw something sticking out, and a bunch of archeologists took it out of the water and found a wooden boat preserved by mud that was 2000 years old. The boat is now in some museum.

After the hike, we went to Tiberias to get lunch.  After lunch, we went to a little outdoor museum with a hot hot spring. The spring was so hot you were only supposed to put your feet and hands in.

                                      
    In the outdoor museum, there is also an old synagogue with really pretty mosaics.  There was one that was almost full, of a menorah, and other Jewish symbols.

                                       
There was also a mosaic of the zodiac.

Then, we went to the Golan, and saw a movie on a 180-degree screen about the senses of the Golan.  While we were watching a windy part of the movie, we suddenly felt wind!  I looked around and saw fans.  While we were watching a rainy part of the movie, it started to rain mist inside the theater!  Then, after the show, we went to a huge model of the Golan Heights.

                                     
Then, we went to see some waterfalls.

                                          
It was a very fun hike!

                                         

Feb. 21 2011 Caesaria Trip

Today, my two friends Anna, Ronit ,I and our moms went to Caesaria. In Caesaria there are huge ruins from around 2000 years ago.

First we walked on a little path with old stone structures we could walk on.

   Then we continued walking on the path, and we came to an old bath house. Here's me washing my hair.

   The bath house also had really pretty mosaic floors.

             We even saw people recovering more of the bath house.

                      Then we saw the beach, the waves were so big !

         After that we saw were the chariot races had taken place. We saw that it was all flooded, so we didn't go in.

 

Then we went to the

Then we went to the Amphitheater. Here is a picture from the bottom of me and Anna at the top of the seets it is very tall!

                                                                            

               The theater is still used in the summer time.

              On the way back we saw some building with some ancient writing on it.              

                               It was pretty fun!!            

                                                                                                                

Feb. 14 2011 tiyul

Today, instead of school, I went on a tiyul with my family.
First, we went to this bee place. First our tour guide showed us how honey bees help flowers get married(the bee rubs in the pollen of one flower then gos to another flower, the other flower makes it's fruit, in the fruit there are  seeds...) Then he showed us how when he gets the honey comb he takes the honey out and cleans it. He gave us a little cup of fresh honey to taste.

     He also showed us that honey from different kinds of flowers looks different.

               
He put on his special clothes and then he showed us the bees.

 Then he talked a little bit about silk worms.  He told us that silk worms are like caterpillars, just when they make the cocoon it is made out of silk, and when they turn to butterflies, you boil the used cocoon and then they can pull it apart, put it on a machine that spun it and make silk.
                                                    Before being boiled...

                                                       And after.

   

    When we were about to leave we saw a beautiful peacock.

                        

  After the tour, we went on a beautiful hike on Mount Tabor. When we were driving up the mountain, we pulled over on the side of the winding road to look at the view.

                             
When we got to the top, we decided to take a hike around the top of the mountain.  During the walk, we saw some pretty cool caves.

  Close to the end of the walk we saw what we think was a crytp. I took some pictures thru a window.

                            
                                        It was a pretty cool hike!          
                                        
                 At the top of the hill there was a huge church. At the end of the hike we went in.

 Here's a picture of the ceiling: