Do We Smile? - 2014 Version

I have to admit the days are longer than I remember on these trips! We start at 8 AM and we're pretty tired when we get to the hotel for the night. Writing a good solid blog entry takes a bit of time and energy, so I'm going to try to get the kids to write as much as possible, but the last two days have been really hectic morning to night, so here is my short update.

Everyone is doing great. The two groups are doing a good job getting to know one-another to the point that they were asking to be in mixed (Edmontonian/Calgarian) hotel rooms. That's a really nice thing if you ask me.

In a walk around Mishkenot She'ananim the kids got to see the big windmill they learned about in their textbook earlier this year. Later, we actually walked from Beit Shmuel to the Israel Museum which is about a 40 minute walk through Jerusalem. There was no complaining and a stop at the gas station on the way back helped that a lot. At the museum, as Ethan put it... 

". One interesting part of the exhibit was a showing of different Tanachs and Haggadahs. They were so cool because of the differences they have in comparison to the ones we have now (why can't ours be three feet wide and have pictures). We also saw recreations of synagogues from different cultures for example there was a recreation of a synagogue in the Caribbean and the synagogues  actually had sand in them. There were multiple explanations and I'm sure you can look it up." 

And finally, Pesach ended. We literally waited at the doors of the restaurants at Mamilla for them to start serving bread. When a shop opened, we asked "are you serving bread?" and when we found one that did, we sat down right away. So that was Monday.

Tuesday, which is ending now, was quite a somber and very long day. Yad Vashem is always very emotional. We had an excellent tour guide who understood their level of knowledge and guided the tour in a way that really deepened their appreciation for Holocaust memorial. At the end of the tour, with Jerusalem at their back and facing the museum, the usual question "do we smile?" arose. Hopefully someone will address that in a bit.

The second part of the day was a walk around Har Herzel. Dafna led the group to various gravesites and there told the stories of the specific soldiers buried at each. We will certainly debrief with the kids how the sites are related and what they mean to their Jewish education, but these experiences will need the night to settle. Right now they are just chilling (shouting) another ten minutes til curfew.

Below you can see some pictures that corroborate my story.