"We heard that Bush was coming and we all really wanted to meet with him. One of the archeologists that we work with- Ori Berger said that he would speak with Eitan Campell (manager of Masada) to set it up and get clearance for us to be in the mountain that day. That day they told us that they would tell Bush that they had three American kids working on the mountain and they said that they hoped that he would call us over. We were told to stand in a strategic place and we saw Bush and Olmert walking by.

Then, Bush motioned us to come overand he met us half way. He said " Hey guys, what's going on?" and he asked us what we were doing there. We told him that we were on Young Judaea Year Course and we were living here for a year. We told him that for the last three months of the program we are volunteering on Masada., that we had lived in Holon and Jerusalem. Bush introduced us to Laura and Olmert into us to his wife. I thought that he was really nice and personable. We were all looking forward to possibly meeting him for a month and afterwards when the reporters were interviewing us we were completely speechless. Bush seemed very appreciative that we were so excited to meet him. We told him what an amazing experience this was for us that this was one of the highlights of our year here- and he kept saying thank you. It is an ironic thing, to come to Israel and work on Masada and meet the President of the United States. It was interesting to see how Olmert and Bush interacted with each other. Ori Berger told Olmert that he had lived in the same building as his son, and Olmert told Bush-see what a small country we live in."