And so it begins...moving on in.

We woke up this morning in our tents a little cold and cranky but generally happy to be waking up next to our Haifa friends.  After a quick breakfast we headed out to a desert hike and camel rides (really fun since most of us had never been on a camel before).  From there we headed to the Judean mountains for a 2 hour hike at Sataf. We continued bonding with the Haifa group, which made us all less anxious about our home hospitality stays starting tonight. 

We then got on the bus for our ride to our home for the next week – Haifa!  As we passed the city limits everyone on the bus began to cheer!  After an orientation session about Haifa, led by Haifa fellows, our parents for the week came to pick us up.  Many of us got huge hugs and kisses from or adoptive families which made us considerably less anxious and actually excited about embarking on the home hospitality experience.  The Haifa fellows told us about special food the families made for us and about their plans for us while we were with them.  We felt very taken care of (already) and left Beit Ruttenberg looking forward to the next week.