matzah matzah matzaaaaaaaah

dear abba-you just bugged me for a week straight to update this thing, so to make you happy, i shall..here goes!!


My friend Mari and I headed up to Tivon, which is outside of Haifa, for the seder. It was my first experience with the train system in Israel, and I have nothing to say about the experience except the fact that I severely hate trains and the novelty of riding one in Israel didn't make much of a dent on my not-so-good mood. One good thing though, was the fact that in all the train stations there were kosher l'pesach french fry (fiiiiiine, CHIPS, for all of you Israelis) vending machines. The machine dropped frozen fries into oil and then into your cup in less than 50 seconds, as well as gave you a cute little box with ketchup, salt, and a wooden french fry fork, all for 8 shekels.

After dealing with Haifa buses, we finally got to Tivon, which is this cute little picturesque town up high in the mountains. The family we stayed with was half American, half Israeli. The mom was actually from Columbus and grew up in the house that a USY friend of mine lives in now. One of the daughters worked at Ramah Wisconsin and so we played some good Jewish Geography. Another daughter's roommate was my friend's Pilgrimage rosh. Wow.

Anyways, the seder was relatively short, not too crowded (only 17 people, haha), and YUMMY! We really enjoyed the family and the town..so it was a bit sad to leave Wednesday morning.

Mari and I met up with our friends Debbie and Joe at the central bus station in Jerusalem, and Joe and I spontaneously bought 89-shekel tents at the camping store there. I then saw some friends from home and some camp friends! We took a bus to the Dead Sea and spent a few hours covering ourselves in the thick, dark, mineral-rich mud there, and floating in the saltiest sea on earth, also the lowest spot on the planet-417 meters below sea level, I believe.

That night we camped at a nearby beach with our new tents! We made a fire and became friends with our neighbors, who gave us some of their food...we pretty much only had matzah.

okay dinner time..ill finish this soon