May 30 - Benjie S., Matt G., Davin A., Ben R.

This morning we woke  up early, had breakfast, and went to visit a Shabbat service at Kol HaRina Synagogue, after which we returned to the hotel and had a leisurely walk through Jerusalem. Because today was Shabbat, the streets were almost completely empty and we could walk on the rails of the train as none of the trains were operating. Our walk ended up at the Israel Museum where we took a wonderful group picture at the famous Ahavah statue (included) and then were allowed to wander and see the many exhibits. There were many statues and beautiful art from many different artists from different nationalities and periods in artistic history, but the most interesting was the exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Aleppo Codex, which is considered to be the most accurate version of the Bible and is over 1200 years old. After the museum we walked back to the hotel, had a leisurely lunch and some down time to socialize. Before dinner we had a group gathering where we shared personal stories about the Holocaust in preparation of Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Musem, tomorrow. After dinner we had a speaker come to talk to us about Middle East Geopolitics, giving a surprisingly unbiased view, followed by a healthy discussion and then some much-needed sleep.

Go Blackhawks!

Benjie Matt Davin and Ben

Friday May 29 - Mikey D., Aaron M., Ben K.

On Wednesday, the Israel Outdoors Birthright trip kicked off, and we couldn't be more excited! Before we could get to know everyone and jump into the trip, we had to get there first. The journey got off to a bit of a rocky start. Brussels airlines was having a few "minor valve configuration errors" resulting in a delayed flight. After a two hour wait we boarded and were off to Israel.  The silver lining was we got extra opportunities to get to know everyone! 

We are so lucky to have Rachel and Andy as our group leaders! Our tour guide is Irad, who knows tons of cool facts about the sites and has been sharing the ins and outs of the country. The three of them have been really helpful already. We kicked things off by visiting the Hass Prominade, which overlooks the city of Jerusalem. Irad led us in the Shehechiyanu to commemorate our journey, and we got in some great photo ops. After the bus rides and a delicious Israeli dinner, we did some icebreakers to get to know everyone and got ready for the rest of the trip!

The next day, we opened things up by meeting our Israeli peers. For the first week of the trip, they're joining us during our travel and helping us get acclimated to the culture. It's such a great experience seeing the country through their eyes and hearing about their lives. (Also, Israelis are all beautiful.) We started things off with an underground hike through the tunnels of the City of David. Afterward, we explored the rest of the Old City and made our way to the Kotel--the Western Wall. It was an enriching experience, as everyone got to connect with their spiritual side. 

By this time, the group was ravenous, so we headed off to Machaneh Yehuda for some much needed schwarma and retail therapy. The only way to get through the market however was to shove people, so it was also a great way to release some aggression. Kidding! After the market, we walked back to the hotel to prepare for our first of two shabbats in Israel. It was a lovely walk to the kotel from our hotel (notice the rhyming, really worked hard on that one). The scene was majestic with thousands of Jews all praying and jumping and singing together. After another breathtaking visit to the kotel, we took another leisurely 45-minute stroll back to the hotel to fall asleep and dream of the adventures that were yet to come. Boiler up!

Your friendly Purdue grads,

Mikey, Aaron, and Ben

Thursday May 28 - Madrichim (Staff)

Hi everyone! Rachel and Andy here.  We set this blog up to keep everyone updated on how our trip is going.  We will be adding a new blog post every day, and every post will be written by a different three-participant writing team from our group.  Each participant will be contributing to at least one post.

We hope you enjoy!