Day 3

The Wednesday started off like the days before and we drank coffee again in the warm sun near the coffee place. We had a little meeting  at the garden in front of the auditorium again and just talked about the experiences we had made yet while we were listening to classic music which was playing outside.

In front of the auditorium

 On our way to the Shalom Tower, some of us rented a city bike so we could drive around the city for the day, which was pretty funny because it was quite complicated to rent those bikes and to ride them because two people had to share one bike, so one of us was driving and the other one sat on the carrier on the back of the bike.

 We walked through the exhibition in the Shalom Tower and went up to the 29th floor where you had a great view over Tel Aviv. 

Shalom Tower

A model of the city

The view from the 29th floor

After that we had some freetime, where some of us went to hang out at the beach again, just like the days before.

Our project mascot "Oscar" with a cat that was walking around at the beach

 In the afternoon the people from the cinema department mainly started shooting the films for their projects or discussed the final details so they were ready to shoot on the next day and the music department rehearsed the whole afternoon. After working on our projects,some of us went to a sushi restaurant and others went to one of the Israeli students home and had dinner there. At night, almost all of us went to the beach and we hung out and met some of the other students from the cinema department that are not participating in the project.

The sunset at the beach

Day 2

We started our second full day in Tel Aviv at the same time we did the day before and we also went to buy coffee again, because all of us were pretty tired. 

At around 9:30 am we met up with the Drama teacher of Ironi Alef, David, who gave us a tour around Tel Aviv and told us about the architecture of the buildings in the city. 

We started at the school where he told us that the school was built in the Bauhaus style. Afterwards we went to the former German village of Tel Aviv where the first European settlers started to build a village and some of the architecture of the houses is still recognizable today. 

A house in the eclectic style

The so called thermometer house, a house where the stairs are in the middle and the flats at the side of the house

After that he showed us some more ancient buildings and houses of different styles on the Rothschild Boulevard. Fun Fact: The trees on the boulevard have some special fruits, which especially bats really like to eat. So they come at night, eat the fruit and spit out whatever they can't digest. That's why all the house walls on the Rothschild Boulevard are full of stains of bat spit.

The Rothschild Boulevard

When we finished the tour, we still had a couple of hours until we had to meet up at the school, so most of us went to the beach again, swam in the sea, tanned and took many pictures. 

The others went out for lunch, shopping or explored the city a little more. At 3:00 pm we met up with the Israelis and all of us got right into continuing on working on our projects. 

When we were done for the day, some of us went home to have dinner or do something with their host families, others went to Jaffa to a Israeli restaurant to eat Shakshuka and hung out in the amphi theater where you have an awesome view on the Tel Aviv skyline, and again others ate at a burger restaurant and spent time in a park in Tel Aviv. 

Team meeting at a vegan restaurant

Again, when we went to bed we could all look back on an exciting day. 

Day 1

On our first day in Israel all of us met up in front of the school at 8:15 am. 

Ironi Alef

When our exchange partners had to go to their classes, we started to explore the city. First, we wanted to buy breakfast at a nearby coffee shop, but realized that we didn't have Israeli money yet, so we went to a small place where you could change the money from euros into shekel. After we had changed about 2000 euros -what a feeling- into shekel, we were ready to start the day. 

Currency exchange office

Then all of us went to a little garden in front of the opera 'Habima' and talked about our arrivals in the host families. We realized that many of us live right in the city near the school or the beach, but some of us live further away in the villages near Tel Aviv. 

The Mann Auditorium

After we had exchanged our first experiences, Mrs. Teschner and Mrs. Menke showed us the Rothschild Boulevard, which is is a big and beautiful street with a lot of trees and older houses and which guides you right down to the beach. 

The Rothschild Boulevard

After a 30 minutes walk through 27 degrees and under a cloudless sky, we arrived at the beach and were stunned by the great view of the Mediterreanien Sea. A few of us couldn't wait and after a few minutes we were already swimming in the acceptable cold water. We spend a few hours tanning on the beach and then went back to be at the school at around 1:00 pm. 

The Beach

After a little welcoming speech of the Israeli teachers, the film people started collecting ideas for the project of the week, while the musicians planned their rehearsals and got right into practicing. At 5:00 pm we were done at school and some of us went home, others had dinner in a restaurant in the city. At 8:00 pm, all the students met up at the beach again and we spend some time together to let the day come to a good and successful end. We all fell asleep very tired, but also really excited for the next day.  

Day of the arrival

Yesterday, on Sunday, November 20th, we started our journey to Israel at the Cologne train station. We took the Intercity- Express to the airport in Frankfurt.There we had to go through security and a special gate for all the people that were travelling to Tel Aviv and after waiting for about 30 minutes we were able to get on the plane. 

After a 4-hour-flight, some turbulences and semi good food, we finally arrived in Tel Aviv. All of us were very excited to meet our exchange partners again and enjoy the warm and sunny weather.
  

Because of the time change, one hour ahead, by the time all of us got home it was already way after midnight, so we went to bed and looked forward to a fresh and exciting start in the morning.