I'm a big fan of The LIst.
Things That Are Awesome:
-Turned in all my Israel paperwork, so unless something goes amiss, I'M HEADED TO JERUSALEM! My itinerary looks like this:
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Saturday Oct 17 ````Travel Day
6:00 pm Flight from New York JFK
Sunday Oct 18 Arrival
7:10 a.m. Arrive Madrid at 0710
9:50 a.m. Depart Madrid on Iberia 3754 at 1005
2:40 p.m. Arrive Tel Aviv at 1440. Transfer to Jerusalem.
Meet your driver, Transfer to your hotel
6:30 p.m. Orientation in the lobby. Enjoy the view from the JIY tower.
8 p.m. Dinner and Welcome in the JIY board room. Overnight at the JIY
Monday, Oct 19 The Many Faces of Jerusalem
8 a.m. Breakfast.
9:00 a.m. Meet your guide
9:45 a.m. Visit the charming village of Ein Karem, birthplace of John the Baptist.
11:30 Depart for Yad Vashem, the memorial to the murdered Six Million.
Light lunch at Cafeteria
3:30 p.m. Visit the Israel Museum:
Shrine of the Book - Hundreds of ancient scrolls written on parchment were
found in the mountain caves of Qumran. These scrolls, some of which are the
earliest known texts from the Hebrew Bible, are housed in this shrine.
Model of first century Jerusalem
7:30 p.m. Dinner at Nafoura restaurant in Jerusalem.
Guest speaker: Dr. Bernard Sabella, Director of Department Service for Palestinian
refugees
Overnight at JIY
Tuesday, Oct 20
8 a.m. Breakfast
8:30 a.m. Tour of the Jerusalem International YMCA building.
. Meet JIY Program Staff
10:00 a.m Depart for the Mount of Olives and view of Jerusalem.
All day walking tour of the four quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem, including:
the Wailing Wall, Via Dolorosa , the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. ( Dome of the
Rock is off limits currently after Gaza War)
Lunch in the Old City
4 p.m. Return to the JIY
5:30 - 7 p.m. Center for Inter-religious Encounter with Israel at the Inter-religious Coordinating Council
in Israel (ICCI). Two Peoples, Two Stories, One Land, by Ophir Yarden,
veteran tour guide and educator for inter-religious groups
Wednesday, Oct 21
7 a.m. Breakfast
7:30 a.m. Depart for the Galilee.
Drive via the Coastal Road and visit the remains of Herod's ancient Roman city of
Caesarea.
1 p.m. Visit Nazareth village, a reconstructed farm and Galilean village, as it was 2,000 years
ago. Lunch at Nazareth village, in the atmosphere of first century hospitality!
Visit Church of the Annunciation and see the grotto built in the third century.
4:30 p.m. Arrive at Peniel for check-in.
7:30 p.m. Barbecue Dinner
Overnight at YMCA Peniel-by-Galilee
Thursday, Oct 22 The Galilee, a land of Miracles
7:30 a.m. Breakfast
8 a.m. Making Good on the Promise of the Promised Land with Rabbi Marc Rosenstein,
Director of the Shorashim Seminar Center for Coexistence and Values Education
9:45 a.m. Visit sights relating to the Ministry of Jesus around the Sea of Galilee
Mount of Beatitudes a Franciscan church built in 1938, higher up on the hill
from the Sermon on the Mount
Tabgha -- Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes, the site of
the Sermon on the Mount
Capernaum archeological remains from "the town of Jesus" and in some way
the cradle of Christianity
Lunch en route
Visit the Baptismal site at the point at which the Jordan River flows out of the Sea of
Galilee.
Overnight at Paniel in Tiberias
Friday, Oct 23
8 a.m. After Breakfast return to Jerusalem via the Jordan River Valley to the Dead Sea and
view Qumran caves, site of discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran was the home
of a Jewish sect, commonly thought to be the Essenes, from approximately 134 BC until
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD
Stop at the Sea shore for a dip in the Water and a short swim
Lunch en-route.
6:30 p.m. Jewish Sabbath worship (optional) at Kol Haneshama, a Reform synagogue in the
neighborhood of Baka
Overnight at JIY
Saturday, Oct 24
7:30 a.m. Early Breakfast
9:30 a.m. Depart to visit the East Jerusalem YMCA.
Visit their program departments --
Vocational training center in Jericho the city of Jericho is believed to be one of
the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world
Beit Sahour Visit Shepherds Field, where the Angel pronounced the birth of
Jesus to the shepherds. Including Lunch(
Bethlehem - Tour the Church of the Nativity, the oldest church in the Holy Land
still in use, commemorating the birthplace of Jesus
7:30 p.m. Dinner at Azzahra Hotel, with by East Jerusalem YMCA. (or Home visits and dinner with
East Jerusalem Y members)
Sunday, Oct 25 YMCA Programs East and West
09-11:00 Masses at different Churches with local congregations
Free afternoon for shopping in the Old City
Dinner with SPEAKER: Mr. Mustafa Abu Sway, Associate Professor of
Philosophy and Islamic Studies and Director of the Islamic Research Center at Al-Quds
University in Jerusalem
7:30 p.m. Concluding dinner, in the JIY board room
Monday, Oct 26 Travel day
Leave hotel at 02:15 . Departure flight at 0615
AWESOME. I'm going to see so much badass stuff. My M.A. has an emphasis in Medieval and Renaissance literature, and Jerusalem was the center of the medieval world, what with the crusades and such, so I'm looking into how I can use this trip in my research or a paper or something cool.
-Graduation! My little school's graduation is next week. I graduated 31 kids in 8 months (and that number might actually be 33: two of the final scores haven't posted yet!). Last graduation (when I was not the teacher) was 29 kids in 13 months. WIN! We're going into hell week, and some things that should have been ordered 2 weeks ago just got ordered on Friday, so we're going to be a little bit frantic until Fridayl After graduation, we're having a little school dance, and then I'm going to get sloshed with my co-workers. 
-I lost the last few lbs I had put on a few weeks ago, so I'm back down to my low weight. Keep moving forward!
And the infamous To Do List:
-Clean living room
-Put dishes away/tidy kitchen
-Tidy bathrooms
-Clean bedroom
-Laundry
-Dye hair!
-Wii Fit!
Light lunch at Cafeteria
This is the best follow up ever!