On Wednesday April 18, a group of about 15 8th graders from  Kellman Academy, Cherry Hill,  New Jersey, spent almost the entire day with students about their age  from ORT school in Arad.
 
During the morning hours the pupils were hosted in the students' club in the school and had the most enjoyable time getting to know each other with the help of fun games.

Israeli pupils were astounded about the Hebrew of the Kellman students, and American students, who finally had a change to practice their Hebrew, were amazed how well the ORT students spoke English.
 
At the end of the morning the whole group, Kellman and ORT students walked to the adjacent sports hall and enjoyed a good game of basketball and other ball games.

All the games and sport were lead by sports teacher Batya Egozi, who visited New Jersey herself last December as part of the professionals - teacher/social workers - exchange mission
But the fun wasn't over yet.

After a lunch break and a couple of much needed hours of rest at their hotel and at home, pupils joined again, this time at the Margoa Hotel where the Kelman Academy was staying.

Here Ruthie Borovsky, an English teacher who had also been on the exchange mission joined to tell us more about the area of Arad and the Dead Sea. 

But there is nothing like experiencing the desert than a hike in nature. In Arad the desert is never far away, so out they went, up to the observation point, from which you can see the  Dead Sea and Jordan on the other side, and then, following a desert path, back to the hotel.

The weather was quite cold and windy, but nobody really cared, it was too much fun.

Although not planned by anybody, Israeli pupils joined the Kellman students on their way to the center of town to have supper together, and spend some more time in each others company.

Pupils exchanged e-mail addresses, teachers from both sides were excited to see each other again and everybody agreed that this should definitely be an annual event.