I'm here!

The past two days have been totally exhausting, but I have made it to the Holy Land in one piece! My program doesn't begin in Tel Aviv until Wednesday, so until then I am staying with an Aardvark staff member and her family in Yishuv Alon, which is a beautiful little community in the desert between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. The community is made up of about 150 families, 50% religious and 50% secular, but it's unique in that everyone just sort of gets along. We went for a walk today before Shabbat ended, and every person we saw stopped to say hello. Plus, like three of them were from Michigan, which is funny. These Michigander are everywhere! Yishuv Alon is situated on a hill surrounded by a wadi on one side, and desert on the other. It's very windy up here, but incredibly beautiful, and not too hot. I think I could stay here for a lot longer than three days.

Also, a proud moment today: I was in a taxi for an hour and a half with a driver who spoke no English, and we conversed in Hebrew the entire time. I speak no Hebrew (or so I thought). It was a pretty good way to enter the country. :)

Shavua Tov!