Woke up at 7am this morning; and we were on the bus and checked out of the hotel by 8am. Driving out this morning was the last we'll see of Nahariya - and of the Galil (as far as I know) - for the rest of this trip.
Our morning destination was Haifa, where we drove to the Baha'i gardens in the centre of the city. On the way, Nim made Avi drive past a café where a suicide bomber killed 21 people. The gardens are on the side of a steep hill, with stairs going down (only Baha'is can go up them!), and a really beautiful temple at the bottom.
Haifa Baha'i gardensThis place is the 2nd holiest to the Baha'i faith - the Baha'ullah lived and was buried in Akko, while his predecessor (the "Bub"!) and his son are buried in Haifa - but it's by far the more beautiful of the two. From the top of the hill, we could see the gardens stretching down below us, and the lovely Haifa harbour and the Galil coast beyond.
Unfortunately, the weather was really crap: it was cloudy as hell, and the rain was spitting down lightly now and then. Because of the rain, we didn't bother to walk down through the gardens: we just took some photos at the top, and then got back on the bus and left. After, we paid a quick visit to a 1000-year-old Catholic church, which was no big deal - just another church.
The rest of the day was spent at the youth shelter of Ramat Hadassa. This is a home for teenage kids who come from troubled families, and who are "problem kids" in regular schools. At Ramat Hadassa, they are given a 'last chance', and are given heaps of help to get back on their feet, and get educated before their childhood expires.
We got to this place in the pouring rain, and had a really early lunch in the auditorium. The pack lunch was a serious treat: mushroom pasta, rather than the usual crappy bread rolls. I was meant to eat Napolitana, but I swapped it with Ari like a good angel should when asked. Unfortunately, when I openly accused Ben Stern of being a 'devil', Ari immediately suspected that I was his angel, and became convinced that I was his angel for some time.
After lunch, we visited the animal centre at Ramat Hadassa. They have some really cool birds that sit on your fingers or on your shoulder: I let one of them sit on my finger for a little. There were also some rabbits, but I didn't hold them: rabbits ain't really my thing. In another room they had an aquarium, with heaps of tanks full of fish.
We split up into groups, and were introduced (just a small group of us) to a bunch of Ramat Hadassa kids in their rooms. The kids showed us their dorms, and we sat and watched MTV in the living room for a while. Asher talked to one of the kids in Hebrew, but seeing that most of us spoke only English, and that none of the Ramat Hadassa kids spoke passable English, we didn't talk to them much.
Ramat Hadassa soccer fieldThe most fun thing we did at Ramat Hadassa was the soccer game. About 20 of us (only 7 or 8 on at any one time) versed about 8 of them, and both teams played extremely well and scored lots of goals.
It was spitting down a bit while we played, but that didn't stop the game going on. Nimrod and Ariel, the madrichim, were both loving it; and Ben Stern, Jonno Rybeck, and Ari all played really well on our team.
After the soccer game, we said goodbye to the kids, and got on the bus for Tel Aviv. We had a very rushed check-in at our Hotel in Tel Aviv, as well as an express dinner. I went rather ecstatic at dinner, because there was an unlimited buffet of Napolitana pasta, of which I have recently been mortally deprived. On top of the other stuff, I also ate 1 and a half plates just of pasta.
After dinner, we got the bus to Academy 1's hotel, where we had the night activity. Tonight's activity was basically a whole lot of people trying to convince us to make aliyah, by encouraging us to do various programs. There were representatives from internships; Magen David Adom; the universities; Marva; and Ulpan programs.
Most of the speakers were pretty boring, or weren't talking about programs that interested me. However, the girl who talked about her internship (Melbourne girl), being a photo journalist, and going into the OPT to photograph rallies and protests (she's a real adrenaline junkie!), was interesting. The guy from MDA was really funny: he was talking all about birthing babies, and rescuing victims from terrorist attacks, and did it all with a funny Canadian accent.
Once our "aliyah advertisement" night was over, we got the bus back to our hotel. I held up the whole of Academy 2, because I went to take a crap just before we left. Sorry!
When we got back, we all gathered together for the official end of the 'angel' game. Some really funny stories came out when we all revealed whose angels we were. Some people were really happy with their angels, and others were pissed off. Ari was just totally confused, after all the devilish treatment he'd been through! In the end, Raffy (Lani's angel) was voted best angel; and Deutsch (Yoni's angel) - who gave half eaten fruit, and single olives - was voted worst angel.
We also did a little party for Lisa Roth, whose birthday it is today. How many times we sang "Lisa, it's your birthday" today, I really don't know.