Last night was the Yom Haatzmaut celebration. It was a blast. There was an Israeli pop star singing at the celebration while other people were spraying each other with foam. A couple of Israelis took the foam a little too seriously but it was fun (especially spraying other people). Before the celebration we went to dinner with a number of students that live in Beit Shean. I, along with others, went to Sagi's house for dinner and free time. His family was very nice and treated us like...family.

Today we went to Arbel's Cliff. It was very exciting and everyone made it fine. We started at the top of the cliff and then went down and around it, then up and around ending up in the same place we started but by going around the cliff. There were a couple steep areas but they weren't that hard. Atop the cliff there were many cows. Some of them were in the path where we were walking but Aya, our travel companion, shushed them away. After we got to the bottom and back, we went back to the hostel to go swimming and the water was freezing cold (one of the reasons I didn't go).

Then we went to a kosher McDonald's at the newest mall in Beit Shean (there are only two) with our Beit Shean buddies. After our little taste of America we went back to the hostel to rest up for the long day ahead of us.

Iyyar 5764 - April 2004