Shalom from Isreal!

Hi everybody,

 

Sam here, posting from the holy land.  Sorry I haven’t posted sooner, but I’ve been really busy, and I still am, so I will quickly tell you the highlights of my trip so far. 

 

My trip started with me catching up on my movie viewing on the 17-hour plane ride.  Then, for the first 10 days of my trip I met just about every cousin I have in Israel (which is about 70 cousins!).  In between the breakfasts, lunches and dinners with my cousins I also made it to Masada, the Dead Sea, the old city and the Kotel.  I also got to see a synagogue that my great, great grandfather built. 

 

The day I hiked Masada, unfortunately, it was about 42 degrees Celcius, so it was a challenge to keep hydrated.  Floating in the Dead Sea was also fun.  I went to the Kotel with my grandfather.  It was really interesting because he lived in Israel before it was a state, so his perspective was very different then mine.  I learned a lot from my grandpa when he was telling me about the synagogue his grandfather build.  I went and saw it.  It’s small but very nice and still used every day. 

 

After the ten days of intense family, I took a vacation from my vacation and went to Eilat for a week.  Eilat is at the bottom of Israel and is right on the border of Jordan and Egypt.  Just as I were approaching Eilat, I saw anti-missile missiles pointed towards Iran.   Eilat really fun.  The first big thing I did there was shoot a sniper rifle at a shooting range, and my dad shot a glock (pistol).  The next day I went snorkeling, it was really fun and there were some amazing fish.  On the last day I was in Eilat it was 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit)!  I spent most of that day trying not to melt.

 

That brings me to today. Today I went to see the Israel Museum.  It was very cool.  They had a miniature model of the old city during the time just before the second temple was destroyed (66 C.E.).  Then I went to see the Dead Sea scrolls, the exhibit just put on display a scroll found near the Dead Sea, which is from about 120 B.C.E. 

 

That is all the time I have, so bye and good luck on the masterpiece theater.

 

-Sam