Activities (May 10-11)

Saturday night we went to Tiberias, a city of 50,000 in the northern Israel on the Sea of Galilee. It has a very beautiful shoreline and many tourist shops along the piers. I did the same boat ride last time, but it was till fun. People danced, drank, and sang for about an hour. We then had a pretty good dinner at a beachside restaurant which has beautiful waitresses and solid food. After dinner we walked around the small tourist area for a little before heading back. I saw a couple friends from MSU who are on Mayanot. The we had to stop at a hospital to pick up a student who has migraines, and by the time we got back it was around 2 30 AM, and we had to be on the bus 9 AM the next morning. Not a pleasant experience.

On Sunday we went to a winery in the Golan Heights, which I also went to in the winter. It is still pretty cool to see it again, and taste a couple of wines. We went jeeping in the Hula Valley, land conquered by Israel in the 1967 6 day war. Saw some old bunkers and battle sights, but there were these annoying bugs like I have never witnessed before. Literally hundreds of bugs were on or near me the entire time. I actually wanted to hear the guide’s talking about the battles but could not as a result of the bugs.

After this we went kayaking/tubing on the Jordan, something I had also done exactly, this time a year ago on birthright. I noticed some interesting things this time. First of all, most of the people on this little trip are Israeli Arabs, and the rest are tourists. There are almost no Jewish Israelis on the river or near the river on the beaches. When on my tube there were 2 dads with their children, obviously Arab, and the dad tells the kids to say hi to us. I thought this was very cool. We hear so much about the hatred towards Israel, Jews, and America, but this dad wanted his little boy to say “hi,” not shalom, or salem alekem, etc… I just found this interesting. But to counter this, when the girls in our trip were on their tube, an Arab in his underwear on one of the beaches along the river flashed them his penis. Obviously, this is interesting in another way, probably just a teenager being a boy, but still disrespectful. I do not know anyone personally who flash random women their penis.

We went back to Jerusalem, about a 4 hour drive, after this long day. I had to use the trees on the way to excrete my waste, since there was no bathroom anywhere near where we were. Definitely more in touch with nature now. We are staying at a very nice hotel, the Olive Tree, located between Me’ah Shearim (religious Jewish area) and East Jerusalem (Arab area). You can notice a lot of tension in the area, but nothing too serious.