We had easy connections and the flight was on time. We were proud to receive compliments from two of the flight attendants about how well behaved our students were on the long flight to Israel!
We arrived and met our guide, Maor , and our counselor, Diklah. They are both young and energetic and they are looking forward to two great weeks with us. We met the Kadimah School students and we had some fun icebreakers to start making new friends. We ate dinner in a pretty Jewish National Fund Forrest, "picnic style" and celebrated Korrine's birthday.
Next we drove to Latrun where around 4,000 people gathered for one of many Memorial Services for Israel's Memorial Day that occurred all over Israel tonight. This particular Memorial Service highlighted "Lone Soldiers", soldiers who leave their families and come on their own to live in Israel, from different countries, and serve in the army. We all stood for a minute of silence when the siren went off at 8:00 and then, interwoven with music and prayers, we heard the stories and saw videos about 6 young soldiers who were killed either in battle or by terrorists in the past ten years. It was very moving and gave us a sense of how the Israeli people support one another through hard times, the pride these young men and women felt being Israeli soldiers and what Yom Hazikaron (Israel's Memorial Day) means to Israelis.
After the service we drove to Tel Aviv. Everyone settled in their room and will, hopefully, get a good night's sleep. Looking forward to tomorrow, our first full day.
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