Israel. Summer 2022. Day 4. Welcome Home.
I slept great last night.
I woke up around 7:40. I spoke to Tzvi before he went to sleep, then checked some emails, and finally got out of bed around 9:15. I went down for breakfast which was nice, except I’m pretty sure I gave them the wrong room number. I keep saying 658 instead of 628. Breakfast was nice, typical Israeli fare, but they had mini boxes of the crunch cereal I like! Never seen that before.
I hung around breakfast for a little and then went to the gym. The gym here is really cool. It has a ton a machines, free weights, mats, yoga blocks, bouncy balls, medicine balls, a workout studio and even a boxing ring! There’s also a very nice locker room. It was pretty crowded when I got there but not so much when I left.
I changed and went to sit by the pool for an hour and a half. It’s an interesting mix here, religious and non, all enjoying the rooftop pool.
My checkout was at 2, so around 1 I went back down, showered, packed and got dressed. I left my suitcase in a side room and went across the street to get Aroma for lunch. I got a tuna salad and an Iced Aroma. Delicious.
Then I went back and got a taxi to campus. The AMHSI campus is in Hod Hasharon, about 20 minutes from my hotel. I met Jen and we hung around the AMHSI offices. I got to say hi to some people I only see on Zoom and then Orit, the COO, took us on a little walking tour to see the updates on campus. It was actually pretty impressive. Jen and I also had to hang Israeli flag decorations in the main room which was something. It involved a large ladder which I avoided but spotted Jen. Then we had to change. The reason I came to campus is because there is this big event tonight being paid for by a big donor from Arizona.
The event was from 6-9. Basically this family was having a family reunion/muss alumni reunion/bar mitzvah celebration at Muss, and was bringing 80 people and then providing dinner for the other 200 students now on campus. It was very nice. It started with appetizers outside. The best thing was focaccia. Then there was a program where the people spoke. They announced that they were giving a multi-year gift to the new Zionist Village JNF is building in Be’er Sheva, and then announced that they were donating money to United Hatzalah and forming a partnership with AMHSI and Hatzalah. Now every AMHSI kids will get trained in CPR and visit the United Hatzalah headquarters in Jerusalem. It’s pretty cool. Then they brought out the main dinner. The kids got BBQ and the adults inside had Israeli salad, some meat, some burger patties and some chicken. I had some of the burger which I now regret because it wasn’t good and now I’m meat. For dessert they had a donut wall and some other apple thing. It was OK. Then the DJ started and the kids were dancing. I’d say having a DJed party on your second night of your summer program is pretty good. The problem was the DJ wasn’t playing music they knew. The HIS staff kept telling him to play American music because he was playing European House Music but the DJ was like “No, this is what people like, I was just in Belgium and its huge!” and she was like “ok…but these kids are American.” Anyway, it was still fun.
At 9 I got in a cab to Jerusalem! The trip was under an hour. We pulled up to the Orient and it felt like home. Fadi checked me in, the same guy who helped us get out of that horrendous side house over Pesach. I told him I remembered him because he helped me on Pesach. My room is great. It’s a corner on the 5th floor with a wraparound balcony and a view of the Old City.
I took a short walk to the Tachanah Rishonah, but I’m meat so I couldn’t get ice cream or anything. I did stumble on a large book fair though, which was nice, and I bought 3 kids books.
After that I came back here to write on the balcony while eating snacks I had in my bag. What a lovely night.