Ben's morning update from Thursday August 2, 2012

In accordance with today’s theme (Israel: Past, Present, and Future), we began with a recounting of Israel’s declaration of independence. In honor of the young people who danced in the street to celebrate their new state, we woke up through a 90 minute lesson in Hora theory and practice. Our instructor, a fortysomething virile-gray type, seemed like one of those aquatic aerobics instructors who works for country club communities in Boca but was so overjoyed to be dealing with reasonably spry pupils sans-arthritis that he completely overrode any sort of dance-instructor protocols and had us execute several highly involved and creative maneuvers that forged lasting and often gymnastic connections between ourselves and our partners from Ashkelon.