Tuesday, our second morning in Tel Aviv was amazingly fun. We started the morning with free time on Nachalat Binyamin street, a pedestrian mall where local artists set up tables to sell their art. Many of us bought presents for family and friends and, of course, a little something for ourselves. We also bought a present for the Diller fetus (Haoobar shel Diller), our unofficial group mascot J. Some of us sat at outdoor cafes and ate a hearty Israeli breakfast and people watched. Combined with 72 degree weather, it could not have been a more enjoyable morning.
After eating at a café Erica, Daniel, and Lizi submitted this for the blog:
The best salad and easy too!!!
-lettuce string
-cucumbers
-shredded tomato
-parsley
-onion
-vinegar
- squeezed lemon!!
This salad was consumed by Erica Richmond and Scoop at a café in a Tel Aviv shuk this morning and it was sooooo super good!
Erica was heard to say, “This salad is sooooo awesome!!!! I wish we could have had ten more bowls!!!!”
Daniel responded, “We should remember the ingredients so that we can make this at home. It doesn’t seem that hard to make.”
Erica observantly noted, “You’re intelligent.”
After our morning we headed to the Palmach Museum. It is an interactive educational museum in which you walk through 12 interactive rooms and become part of the rag tag group of Jews fighting for Israel’s independence in the late 40s. We talked a lot about a homeland for the Jewish people, self preservation, and the toll war ultimately takes on a people. It also helped us understand more background to the current Arab/Israeli tension.
We ate a quick lunch and got on the bus heading to Holon to meet our Haifa counterparts. Everyone was so excited and so nervous about the initial meeting. How awkward would it be? Would we be able to communicate well with the Haifa group? What should we say? How should we act? Bus as soon as they got off their bus we began to cheer and clap for them (to the degree that they were confused why a group of Americans was louder than them) and from then it became a piece of cake. We met our friends in person, connecting names to faces, and spent time building our relationships through group games (skillfully run by Halle & Erica & Avital & Ohr). We then went in mixed groups to the Holon children’s’ museum to a special exhibit named Dialogue in the Dark. The exhibit is in pitch black and is designed to challenge visitors to use their 4 remaining senses (PITCH BLACK!!!). We had to navigate crossing the street, going to the beach, and purchasing food at a café without the use of our eyes. The exhibit was a little scary, but ultimately very powerful as we realized how blessed we are not to have to worry about sight and that were also capable of adjusting and compensating when something is not perfect in our lives. We relayed not only on ourselves through this process, but also on the other members of our group to help us get through.
We had a delicious dinner at a shepudiah in Holon, a restaurant that serves shipudim, grilled meat on metal skewers. Some of us had no idea what to do with the skewers until our Israeli friends showed us that we first had to push the food off the skewer and than eat it from our plates. We traveled to Neve Shalom, to our sleeping accommodations and we experienced our first maagal layal (night circle) with all 40 of us (with all of us together it kind of seems like we’re 100). Everyone spoke about what they hoped to learn from each other over the course the next 10 days. Early bedtime tonight (12) and a very full day tomorrow in Neot Kedumim, Jerusalem, and the desert.
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