Yisrael

Hello to all!!
I realize this post is a week in the making, but hey, better late than never...
After our extreme adventures of last Friday, my friends and I had a restful Shabbat morning, and then went out to our first soccer game in Tel Aviv!
Almost 20 students from the International School at Haifa got tickets to the game, which was against Greece, and we all ordered two big taxis to take all of us to the Ramat-Gan Stadium, which is a little over an hour away from the University. Once we arrived, we walked around and bought some Israeli National Team regalia, including scarves, jerseys, and hats, before heading into the stadium. We were surprised to realize that seating was first-come, first-served, so we took full advantage and sat in the sixth row up from the field near one of the goals.
One of the coolest parts of the night occured even before the game started - since we got to our seats early, we were able to experience all of the pre-game action, including an Israeli flag parade. We also got to hear the Israeli team fight song (even though the only words I understood were Israel, blue, and white), and it was amazing to be sitting in a stadium where everyone was cheering for their home country, which is something that you can only imagine happening at the Olympics.
The excitement before the game started was only enhanced when the Israeli team scored their goal; unfortunately, the game ended in a tie, and Greece overcame Israel in their next game later that week.
We got back to Haifa really late, and I had an academic tour for a class early Sunday morning. My Contemporary Israel class goes on two field trips during the semester to various sites that we talk about in class, and Sunday was our first. We visited Mount Shaul, Mount Barkan, the Kinneret Cemetery, Tiberias, and Mount Arbel, which are all in the Northern Galilee area. It was a really beautiful day, and I got to see a lot of historical sites that I had never visited before, and to see the similarities between Israel in the past and Israel today was really empowering, and I decided that the view of the Kinneret Sea from the coast of Tiberias is one of the most beautiful sites I have ever witnessed. Hopefully, I will be able to go back there again during spring break or another weekend soon.
This week wrapped up the first half of the semester, and we are now on spring break until the end of Passover. While a lot of abroad students generally use this time to travel around Europe, I decided to stay in Israel, not only because everyone says it's an amazing experience over Passover, but also because I want to take full advantage of my time here. I have a lot of lame tourist-y days planned, which I am really excited about, so I will for sure have more fun updates soon!
Hope everyone is enjoying the nicer weather... lots of love...