Artevelde University College Ghent in Israel

DAY 3 – HAÏFA

Today was a very exciting day for all of us! We would finally meet our host family. We began our day with a nice breakfast at 8 a.m. There were tomatoes, cucumber, honey, cake, .. and of course the delicious bread we all became a fan off. Before we said goodbye to the sister, she told us we could go up on the roof and get an amazing view of Nazareth. And she wasn’t lying, the view was beautiful! After enjoying the view, our taxi-driver was waiting to take us to Haïfa. We were all very excited and a little bit nervous to finally see the school and meet the students. Laura and Ashton enjoyed themselves during the ride by spotting yellow cars and hitting each other when they saw one.

Around 10u50 the driver stopped. We were all getting really anxious because we thought we had arrived at the school. But we were mistaking. The taxi driver first took us to one of the highest places in Haïfa so we could enjoy the view there as well. He dropped us at the Bahaï temple. A religious place for the Bahaï with beautiful gardens. Then he really took us to the school. We we’re very curious to meet everyone. First we met Taha, the president, he welcomed us on the school and in Haïfa. Then we also met the vice president and a biology teacher. With the vice president we had a small talk about our colleges. Afterwards Taha showed us the school and the schoolwebsite. After the tour we had lunch. And what a lunch it was! Everyone was ooo’ing and aaaa’ing every time something new appeared on the table. There were so many different dishes on the table. We got some bread and then we could start tasting! It was delicious! We all became big fans of the Arab food!

Then, the moment we were all waiting for… We met the other students! We started by shaking hands and saying our names. Everyone was very nervous. Then we sat around the table en introduced ourselves. After this the students took us around the school and we started relaxing and got to know each other some more. And then an even more exciting moment.. We got to know which student would take us back to her family! This happened by the hand off faith. Al our names were written on a paper and then Taha took one out en we were assigned to a student. We got a few minutes to talk and then we were set off to our new homes for the next weeks!

Mieke