Once again, I feel as if I need to apologize for waiting so long to post again. I have definitely had a couple of very exciting days. This past Wedneday, I visited Youngstown's sister city called Akko. I was given a tour of some very cool attractions in the area by a woman named Heidi who is connected to the Jewish Federation in Youngstown. We visited a small Holocaust museam that was up north near where I'm staying, which was absolutely amazing. There was a seperate children's museum in which I was completely blown away with the design of the exhibits. I have never seen something so thought provoking and unique in my life. When I told the director of my program about this she told me she will take the whole group there soon so everyone will have a chance to see it.

We also went to many other fun and exciting places in which the Youngstown Jewish Federation is lucky to be a part of. We went to a small store in the old city of Akko in which people with disabilites work in order to help them learn their way around a business. (I may have made a few purchases here as well). Also, we went to an all Arab high school in which the coolest project ever is has been taking place for the past 5 years. This project is call the Tri-Wizard Project (this is after Harry Potter, in which excited me more than it should have). This involves a group of hand chosen Israeli Arab students, Israel Jewish students, and a group of students in the U.S. that are of all religions. These students meet (the American students do this over the internet) and they discuss what is going on in Israel between the Arabs and Jews and how although they have differences, the bottom line is that they are all human. We were able to speak with some of the students and they had such amazing things to say about the program and eachother.

We also were taken to a place where people with disabilites learn how to live on their own (called Wings), this is also affiliated with the store that I mentioned above. We then ended the tour with a place that is available to the youth in Akko as a place to come after school. This was an amazing building and furnished in a way that was so fun and colorful. I loved it.

All in all, this was an amazing day that I will not be forgetting while here in Israel.

This is me and a couple of Youngstowners as we pointed at the Youngstown Federation name on the plaque outside the youth center in Akko.

This sign was hung in the Children's section of the Holocaust museum and it tells about the Book Sharing Project that happened between Israeli and American students. Notice W.S. Guy...that would be my middle school!

This past weekend was also very fun too. We kept ourselves busy in the nearby city of Nahariya and at the local kibbtuz pub. A few friends and I went out to dinner on Saturday night to get out and enjoy some good food. We had plans to get Chinese food but since it was Shabbot, we completely forgot that most of the restaurants would not be open. We ended up at a place that was a bit pricey but very delicious that was open instead.

This is Dan and me. We make fun of Dan a lot because he looks quite a bit like Harry Potter. That's my second reference to Harry Potter in this post....probably not so good for an almost 23 year old. Oh well...

So last night after volunteering at the high school, a few of us got on a coach bus and went to Jerusalem for a MASA event concert. MASA is the Israeli program that provides the money for the programs here in Israel. Besides the fact that the bus ride each way was about 3 hours, the concert was quite enjoyable. It was an Israeli band that had a fusion of other languages too. It was definitely interesting because I had never heard the music before, let alone even begin to understand what was being sung. It was cool though because the concert hall that this took place in held over 3,000 people, and every single seat was filled. There were Jewish people my age there from all over the world. Pretty insane actually.

The group of us from Yehiam that went to Jerusalem!

So yea, that's pretty much it for now. I'm still loving evey bit of this experience and am still so in awe that I'm actually here. I promise I will try and update the blog more often.

Much love.