Greetings from Haifa!

I'm happy to report that we are all here with all baggage.... which is a great thing. We arrived on time to the airport in Tel Aviv and were met by a Puzzle Israel representative named Tamar. She took us to our touring bus, helped us load the bags, introduced us to our driver Tzachi, and we got on the road to go to Haifa.  Because we arrived at the afternoon rush hour, it took us about 2 hours to get to Haifa. But no worries, Tamar brought plenty of special Israeli snacks for us including dates, halvah, fresh fruit and even pastry.  Most people fell asleep on the bus except for Jessica and Eva who sang most of the way from Tel Aviv to Haifa!

We arrived at the Alliance School, and were welcomed by our friends who were waiting outside for us despite the rain. It is great to be here! Immediately, everyone began hugging, catching up, laughing, giggling and having a great time. They had a nice spread for us when we arrived which inlcuded fruits and veggies, Israeli snack foods, bourekas (delicious puff pastry/filo dough filled with cheese or potatoes and baked!), juices, cakes,and more.

After spending some time together and noshing, the Israeli students treated us to a fabulous "welcome ceremony" as only creative Israeli high school students can do! They led us in a really fun, online, custom-made trivia game, they showed us videos that they had put together with pictures of our New York and Boston experiences, they had a beautiful Hebrew poem for us to look at together, and a very, very clever interpretive video to go with it, and they sang for us. We even had a special welcome and introduction from participants from the 2013-2014 school year who were part of this exchange....  it was great to see so many of them there to welcome our new group to Israel!  Everyone is tired but happy.  Parents came to pick up students and their luggage. Our Haifa partners gave each student a welcome gift of goodies.
 

Tomorrow, we meet at the Alliance School for a couple of hours of planning and activities and then, together with our Haifa partners, we will visit some of the wonderful sites in and around Haifa. After, we will rest for a bit and get ready for Shabbat!

Hope all is well back home.  Our timing for this trip is great.  We are not sad we are missing another blizzard!  We wish you all the best from Haifa as you weather another storm.

Best,

Rabbi Lisa Eiduson