One of my favorite things to do in Jerusalem is just walk around and explore new places. Sometimes I walk in the same space and notice something that I've never noticed before. Sometimes there's a street that I've never seen before that I turn down to see what's at the other end. We actually have a class that does this called Siyurim which translates to touring. Every Monday from around 2-4 we take class trips walking around Jerusalem and learning about historical sites. Our two teachers who come with us, Rav Shames and Rav Sussman, are like two of the three stooges. They always have some sort of funny shtick to go with the story that they're telling about some old building or some guy who died to make it more interesting for us. It's also just interesting to take some time to get to know one of the most important cities in Israel or even in the world.
Every Monday night we have the night off from 7:00. My friend Adeena and I decided that every once in a while we would go on a walk together. We've walked together quite a few times now. Adeena walks pretty fast and I used to have a hard time keeping up with her but after I did Yam L' Yam, I realized that I could push myself even further than I thought and this week, I made her have to keep up with me. We always try to find a new area to walk which is hard sometimes because we don't like walking more than a half hour out. We somehow manage to find some back street that we've never seen before but we always end up walking in circles because we try to avoid the busier, more popular areas.
I also want to start exploring all of the parks near me that I've never really gone in to. On Friday mornings I take my bike out and I just go. I used to bike up the same street every time but bikes are really great for getting to new places faster and then I just cruise along and check out the sites. I once went into a park and found a group of actors rehearsing a Shakespeare play. I stopped for a few minutes to watch and I found it so interesting and entertaining.
Exploring the place that you've lived in for so long can help you learn so much more about the place. It also renews your love and appreciation for the place. Go, get off the computer, and check out your own neighborhood! Shalom V'lehitraot!
Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Shabbat with Amy
This Shabbat, I went with my friend Amy to Ma'ale Adumim. Her sister, Jill lives in Israel and she and her fiance, Ilan just bought a car so they said that they would be able to give us a ride since they were also going there for Shabbat. We had to wait for a little bit for her sister to come so we decided to go shopping on Yaffo St. I just looked around, but Amy got a really nice blue summer dress. Then, Jill picked us up and drove us to the family that we were staying at. I was in Ma'ale Adumim once during Succot so I remembered my way around a little bit. http://sarasisraelexperience.blogspot.com/2011/10/succot-in-maale-adumim.html
The family we were staying at had two kids, Matan and Eliana, and they just moved to Israel four years ago. After we got settled in, we watched Anastasia with the kids and then we went off to our room to hang out. Both Amy and I fell asleep until Shabbat began. We woke up just in time for dinner. They made really good food. I especially like the carrot kugel and the chocolate-chip cake. We talked with the family for a little bit after the meal about where they work and things that we've been doing this year and our plans for next year and then we decided to go to bed because we were exhausted.
We woke up the next morning at about 8:30, ate some more cake, and then went to shul. The shul that we went to is known as the happy shul because they love singing. It was one of the longer davenings that I've been to in Israel but it was really nice too. As we were walking down the road, I noticed how green everything was outside. I was really happy because when I came in the beginning of the year, everything was all brown and desert-like. For lunch, we went to their friends' house. We started off with salad, moved onto the main course, and of course there was a cake for dessert because it was one of their friend's, Annie's, birthday. She actually used to live in Brooklyn and she went to Flatbush. We talked for quite a while about all sorts of random things like flying in airplanes. By the time it was 3:00, Amy and I were kinda bored so we decided to go back to our hosts' house. We read for a little bit and then we took a nap. We woke up right before Shabbat was over and we watched the kids play chess together.
Amy's sister and fiance were able to drive us back to Jerusalem too. First Ilan dropped Jill off at her class and then started to take us back home. We kinda got lost in Jerusalem and ended up getting stuck multiple times at dead end streets, but in the end he agreed to use the GPS to get us back to where we needed to be. It was a very relaxing Shabbat and I'm really glad to have met that family. Shalom V'lehitraot!
The family we were staying at had two kids, Matan and Eliana, and they just moved to Israel four years ago. After we got settled in, we watched Anastasia with the kids and then we went off to our room to hang out. Both Amy and I fell asleep until Shabbat began. We woke up just in time for dinner. They made really good food. I especially like the carrot kugel and the chocolate-chip cake. We talked with the family for a little bit after the meal about where they work and things that we've been doing this year and our plans for next year and then we decided to go to bed because we were exhausted.
We woke up the next morning at about 8:30, ate some more cake, and then went to shul. The shul that we went to is known as the happy shul because they love singing. It was one of the longer davenings that I've been to in Israel but it was really nice too. As we were walking down the road, I noticed how green everything was outside. I was really happy because when I came in the beginning of the year, everything was all brown and desert-like. For lunch, we went to their friends' house. We started off with salad, moved onto the main course, and of course there was a cake for dessert because it was one of their friend's, Annie's, birthday. She actually used to live in Brooklyn and she went to Flatbush. We talked for quite a while about all sorts of random things like flying in airplanes. By the time it was 3:00, Amy and I were kinda bored so we decided to go back to our hosts' house. We read for a little bit and then we took a nap. We woke up right before Shabbat was over and we watched the kids play chess together.
Amy's sister and fiance were able to drive us back to Jerusalem too. First Ilan dropped Jill off at her class and then started to take us back home. We kinda got lost in Jerusalem and ended up getting stuck multiple times at dead end streets, but in the end he agreed to use the GPS to get us back to where we needed to be. It was a very relaxing Shabbat and I'm really glad to have met that family. Shalom V'lehitraot!
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut
In Israel, two of the most special holidays are Memorial Day and Independence Day which come one right after the other. The first is a very sad day while the second is very happy and joyous. On these days it is customary to wear blue and white representing the Israeli flag.
Tuesday Afternoon
Our programing started the day before Yom Hazikaron. Right after lunch we had our first speaker, Cheryl Mandel who had lost her son during his military service. She spoke about hearing the news that he child had been killed. She spoke about how it affected her life and how she deals with this loss every day. She showed us a video made up of pictures of him and then afterwards, she shared some stories with us about her son. She spoke really well and it was a very emotional speech.
Our next speaker was Rivkah Moriah, the mother of one of the students killed at the Mercaz HaRav Massacre. She told us step by step, every detail of what happened that night culminating with her finding out that her son had been killed by a terrorist who had gone into the building shooting him and eight other boys in cold blood. Quite a few people were really affected by her story because they somehow knew one of the boys who were killed in this massacre.
Yom Hazikaron- Tuesday Night
After these two speakers we ate dinner and then went down to the kotel. The wall was empty. Not a single person stood beside it in prayer. You could even see the stones darker at the bottom because the sun never shines on it because of the people who come every single day. I have never seen it like that. Right in front of the kotel, soldiers were standing at attention while waiting to begin one of the biggest memorial ceremonies in Israel that night. At exactly 8:00, a siren went off for one minute. Every single person stopped talking, stopped moving, and lowered their heads to remember those who had fallen in battle and those killed in terrorist attacks. For those 60 seconds, we all stood together as a nation. The ceremony began with lighting a giant memorial candle. Then, the president, Shimon Peres, spoke. There were another couple of speakers that I didn't catch because the ceremony was conducted in rapid and more complicated Hebrew than I could really understand. Lastly, the Chief Rabbi of the army said a prayer for the fallen soldiers.
Once we all got back, the Israelis at our school prepared an amazing program for us. They told us famous stories of fallen soldiers through videos, songs and acting them out. There was one story about two men who had the same name and their parents had the same names. One of them died and they went to tell the parents but it turned out that they accidentally told the wrong parents. They apologized for the mistake and went to tell the correct parents, but in that time the second man with that same name was killed too. Their program really helped us understand how the people in Israel relate to memorial day because almost everybody knows of someone who was killed in the army.
Yom Hazikaron- Wednesday
The first thing we did that morning was listen to a story by Uri who is the head of all the technical things at our school. He told us an amazing story of how he was the assistant Rabbi in the Second Lebanon War. His main task was working in the morgue. He spoke to us about the horrors that he saw and about he had to mentally and emotionally cope with it. One of the stories that he told us was about how he had to hitchhike to Jerusalem. On the way out of the north, he was sitting on the side of the road with some soldiers who were just talking and playing backgammon. He eventually caught a ride down to Jerusalem and in the middle of the drive, he heard the news announce that a group of soldiers was hit by a rocket in the exact place that he had just been a couple of hours before. He immediately got out of the car and hitchhiked back because he knew that they needed him.
Afterwards, we got on buses to go to Har Hertzl, Israel's military cemetery. We were put in groups of three where each group got the biography of a fallen soldier. Talia, Dalia, and I learned about the life of Chaim Buskila. He was born in Morocco in 1952 and his family moved to Israel four years later. He was first in the "Golani" part of the army which is up north, but then later he began training for the Air Force. He was killed in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 three days after the war started. He was 21 and left behind parents, three brothers and four sisters. When we got to Har Hertzl, it was filled with people. There, soldiers giving out water bottles and stickers. The grave that we were looking for was in Section E, Plot 2, Row 3, Grave 14. Eventually we found it and at the grave we met his younger sister. She told us how amazed she was that people who come from outside of Israel care about the fallen soldiers and not only that, but she was so appreciative that someone cared enough about her brother to come visit his grave. I asked her to tell us a little bit about him and she told us that he was very smart and he wanted to be a doctor after he got out of the army. She told us that she remembered her last moment with him. It was the Shabbat right before Succot and she remembered that he told her to go decorate the succah. At that moment, he picked up his bag and left, and that was the last time she saw him.
At exactly 11:00, a siren went off for two minutes just like the night before. Everything stopped and we all stood in silence to remember the fallen soldiers. The prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu got up to speak. He spoke about how he lost his brother, Yoni Netanyahu, and he understood how the people felt. He said that he misses him every single day but he knew that he fell serving the country. After Bibi Netanyahu spoke, we had to make our way back to the buses which took a very long time because of the huge crowds that were at the cemetery.
A group of about 12 of us had to go on the mini-bus to set up for the party that was happening that night. We started out by setting up all the tables and chairs in three long rows. This didn't happen very quickly and was accompanied by much waiting around for our lunch. Finally, they brought us lunch and it was worth the wait because they brought us pizza from Pizza Hut. I was so hungry, I ate five slices. Then we brought in all of the food and after that was done we began to set the tables and decorate. We put blue and white table clothes on the table and plates, napkins, and cutlery. We blew up balloons and hung streamers all over the room. We finished after a few hours but they didn't get us a mini-bus for the way back so we had to take the train. In the time that we were setting up, we missed a movie about a soldier named Michael Levine. I had already seen this movie, but for the girls who hadn't, it can be found online. The movie is about the story of a young man from Philadelphia who wanted to be in the Israeli Army so badly, but when they finally sent him to fight in Lebanon, he was killed in the battle. Lastly, Rav Yonatan spoke to us about the transition between Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut. He spoke about how one cannot go without the other because in order for there to be an independent state, people have to fight for it.
Yom Haatzmaut- Wednesday Night
After a beautiful davening led by Sarah and Jane, we all got on the buses to go to the party that we set up before. When we first got there everyone was either taking pictures or dancing or singing and we were all having a great time. The Israeli program also came to join in the party. Then, we ate dinner and Rav Milston, the head of our school came in waving the Israeli flag high over his head. The head of the Israeli program spoke first and then Rav Milston gave his famous Aliyah Speech. We ended the night with more singing and dancing. By the end of the night everyone was going crazy and having so much fun. We got back from the party at about 1:30 last night and despite the music blasting outside my window, I fell asleep in under ten minutes.
Yom Haatzmaut- Thursday
We woke up early in the morning to start off our day. We davened, ate breakfast, and got on the buses to go to our hike. It was a nice and easy two hour hike right outside of Jerusalem. Along the way, our guide told us stories from the War of Independence in 1948. When we were on the top of a mountain, we were able to see Route 1, the main road from Jerusalem to Tel-Aviv. Our guide told us about how the Arabs blocked off that road so the people in Jerusalem didn't have any water and she told us about how they suffered and how they dealt with it.
After the hike, we went to a picnic area where we were split up into six groups. Each group was given a grill, charcoal, matches, raw meat, and vegetables and were told to make lunch. We were group #4 and it took us quite a long time to figure out how to get the coals on fire to stay on fire. At least we didn't get help from other picnic goers like a couple of the other groups did. Hadassa and Meira were the main cooks. First they cooked the hot dogs and hamburgers and then they cooked the chicken after we rubbed spices all over it. The chicken tasted so good! We also cut up some peppers, cucumbers, and onions. We were all full by the end and we even had some left-overs.
These past few days were absolutely amazing and so meaningful to the people in Israel and even to those of us who don't permanently live here. It was a great experience that I have tried to describe, but you can't truly understand it unless you are here. Shalom V'lehitraot!
Tuesday Afternoon
Our programing started the day before Yom Hazikaron. Right after lunch we had our first speaker, Cheryl Mandel who had lost her son during his military service. She spoke about hearing the news that he child had been killed. She spoke about how it affected her life and how she deals with this loss every day. She showed us a video made up of pictures of him and then afterwards, she shared some stories with us about her son. She spoke really well and it was a very emotional speech.
Our next speaker was Rivkah Moriah, the mother of one of the students killed at the Mercaz HaRav Massacre. She told us step by step, every detail of what happened that night culminating with her finding out that her son had been killed by a terrorist who had gone into the building shooting him and eight other boys in cold blood. Quite a few people were really affected by her story because they somehow knew one of the boys who were killed in this massacre.
Yom Hazikaron- Tuesday Night
After these two speakers we ate dinner and then went down to the kotel. The wall was empty. Not a single person stood beside it in prayer. You could even see the stones darker at the bottom because the sun never shines on it because of the people who come every single day. I have never seen it like that. Right in front of the kotel, soldiers were standing at attention while waiting to begin one of the biggest memorial ceremonies in Israel that night. At exactly 8:00, a siren went off for one minute. Every single person stopped talking, stopped moving, and lowered their heads to remember those who had fallen in battle and those killed in terrorist attacks. For those 60 seconds, we all stood together as a nation. The ceremony began with lighting a giant memorial candle. Then, the president, Shimon Peres, spoke. There were another couple of speakers that I didn't catch because the ceremony was conducted in rapid and more complicated Hebrew than I could really understand. Lastly, the Chief Rabbi of the army said a prayer for the fallen soldiers.
Once we all got back, the Israelis at our school prepared an amazing program for us. They told us famous stories of fallen soldiers through videos, songs and acting them out. There was one story about two men who had the same name and their parents had the same names. One of them died and they went to tell the parents but it turned out that they accidentally told the wrong parents. They apologized for the mistake and went to tell the correct parents, but in that time the second man with that same name was killed too. Their program really helped us understand how the people in Israel relate to memorial day because almost everybody knows of someone who was killed in the army.
Yom Hazikaron- Wednesday
The first thing we did that morning was listen to a story by Uri who is the head of all the technical things at our school. He told us an amazing story of how he was the assistant Rabbi in the Second Lebanon War. His main task was working in the morgue. He spoke to us about the horrors that he saw and about he had to mentally and emotionally cope with it. One of the stories that he told us was about how he had to hitchhike to Jerusalem. On the way out of the north, he was sitting on the side of the road with some soldiers who were just talking and playing backgammon. He eventually caught a ride down to Jerusalem and in the middle of the drive, he heard the news announce that a group of soldiers was hit by a rocket in the exact place that he had just been a couple of hours before. He immediately got out of the car and hitchhiked back because he knew that they needed him.
Afterwards, we got on buses to go to Har Hertzl, Israel's military cemetery. We were put in groups of three where each group got the biography of a fallen soldier. Talia, Dalia, and I learned about the life of Chaim Buskila. He was born in Morocco in 1952 and his family moved to Israel four years later. He was first in the "Golani" part of the army which is up north, but then later he began training for the Air Force. He was killed in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 three days after the war started. He was 21 and left behind parents, three brothers and four sisters. When we got to Har Hertzl, it was filled with people. There, soldiers giving out water bottles and stickers. The grave that we were looking for was in Section E, Plot 2, Row 3, Grave 14. Eventually we found it and at the grave we met his younger sister. She told us how amazed she was that people who come from outside of Israel care about the fallen soldiers and not only that, but she was so appreciative that someone cared enough about her brother to come visit his grave. I asked her to tell us a little bit about him and she told us that he was very smart and he wanted to be a doctor after he got out of the army. She told us that she remembered her last moment with him. It was the Shabbat right before Succot and she remembered that he told her to go decorate the succah. At that moment, he picked up his bag and left, and that was the last time she saw him.
At exactly 11:00, a siren went off for two minutes just like the night before. Everything stopped and we all stood in silence to remember the fallen soldiers. The prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu got up to speak. He spoke about how he lost his brother, Yoni Netanyahu, and he understood how the people felt. He said that he misses him every single day but he knew that he fell serving the country. After Bibi Netanyahu spoke, we had to make our way back to the buses which took a very long time because of the huge crowds that were at the cemetery.
A group of about 12 of us had to go on the mini-bus to set up for the party that was happening that night. We started out by setting up all the tables and chairs in three long rows. This didn't happen very quickly and was accompanied by much waiting around for our lunch. Finally, they brought us lunch and it was worth the wait because they brought us pizza from Pizza Hut. I was so hungry, I ate five slices. Then we brought in all of the food and after that was done we began to set the tables and decorate. We put blue and white table clothes on the table and plates, napkins, and cutlery. We blew up balloons and hung streamers all over the room. We finished after a few hours but they didn't get us a mini-bus for the way back so we had to take the train. In the time that we were setting up, we missed a movie about a soldier named Michael Levine. I had already seen this movie, but for the girls who hadn't, it can be found online. The movie is about the story of a young man from Philadelphia who wanted to be in the Israeli Army so badly, but when they finally sent him to fight in Lebanon, he was killed in the battle. Lastly, Rav Yonatan spoke to us about the transition between Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut. He spoke about how one cannot go without the other because in order for there to be an independent state, people have to fight for it.
Yom Haatzmaut- Wednesday Night
After a beautiful davening led by Sarah and Jane, we all got on the buses to go to the party that we set up before. When we first got there everyone was either taking pictures or dancing or singing and we were all having a great time. The Israeli program also came to join in the party. Then, we ate dinner and Rav Milston, the head of our school came in waving the Israeli flag high over his head. The head of the Israeli program spoke first and then Rav Milston gave his famous Aliyah Speech. We ended the night with more singing and dancing. By the end of the night everyone was going crazy and having so much fun. We got back from the party at about 1:30 last night and despite the music blasting outside my window, I fell asleep in under ten minutes.
Yom Haatzmaut- Thursday
We woke up early in the morning to start off our day. We davened, ate breakfast, and got on the buses to go to our hike. It was a nice and easy two hour hike right outside of Jerusalem. Along the way, our guide told us stories from the War of Independence in 1948. When we were on the top of a mountain, we were able to see Route 1, the main road from Jerusalem to Tel-Aviv. Our guide told us about how the Arabs blocked off that road so the people in Jerusalem didn't have any water and she told us about how they suffered and how they dealt with it.
After the hike, we went to a picnic area where we were split up into six groups. Each group was given a grill, charcoal, matches, raw meat, and vegetables and were told to make lunch. We were group #4 and it took us quite a long time to figure out how to get the coals on fire to stay on fire. At least we didn't get help from other picnic goers like a couple of the other groups did. Hadassa and Meira were the main cooks. First they cooked the hot dogs and hamburgers and then they cooked the chicken after we rubbed spices all over it. The chicken tasted so good! We also cut up some peppers, cucumbers, and onions. We were all full by the end and we even had some left-overs.
These past few days were absolutely amazing and so meaningful to the people in Israel and even to those of us who don't permanently live here. It was a great experience that I have tried to describe, but you can't truly understand it unless you are here. Shalom V'lehitraot!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Post- Pesach Tiyul
After Pesach, those of us who stayed in Israel went on a trip all the way up North.
The night before, the person in charge of all the technical stuff in the buildings, Uri, opened up the kitchen to us and he said that we could make whatever we wanted for dinner. Hadassa and Aliza started off by making grilled vegetables. Sarah and I made pizzas, Adi and Arney made pancakes, and quite a few people helped out making the cookies. We set up the tables really nicely in a circle and we all had a really great dinner while we talked about the trip for the next day.
The next day, we woke up nice and early to drive the four hours to the Golan Heights. We stopped after two hours at the usual rest stop for breakfast and then got back on the bus to drive the rest of the way. We basically went as far north as you could go in Israel, even past Mount Hermon. Our first hike of the day was a gorgeous waterfall hike. It wasn't a very hard hike and it was pretty short but we all stopped many times to look at all the pretty waterfalls and the other great scenery sights on the hike. Afterwards we went to Metsudat Choach, a memorial for 28 soldiers that fell trying to defend the land. We ate lunch there overlooking the Valley of Afulah. After lunch we went biking around a lake. The lake was originally part of a large amount of marsh land but they dried it up because all of the mosquitoes that lived there had malaria. The lake is a nature reserve where hundreds of birds stop during their migratory seasons. We got to see quite a few birds and learn all about them. One of the times that our tour guide was talking, I happened to look to my right and I saw a bird flying off with a snake in its mouth! The bike ride was really nice because we had great weather and it was a really nice lake. One of the times we stopped was under this beautiful dock right on the edge of the water and so we all decided to sit down and play Duck, Duck, Goose! It was so much fun!
That night, they took us out for dinner at a really nice meat restaurant. I had a really yummy chicken sandwich. Afterwards, we walked around on the boardwalk look at all the clothes and jewelry. Four of my friends decided to get their ears pierced so they went to this random jewelry stand on the boardwalk and got new earrings! That night we were sleeping at the same hotel that we slept at during the Zionist seminar in Tiberias. All of the people in my room were already there when I got there. When I walked in, they were all staring at me. Melissa told me to look down and I saw blood on the floor. I was so confused. Then I looked at Daniella and I saw that her foot was bandaged. I asked them what happened and they tried to give me this made up story about a strange man coming into the room and knocking her over, but really she just slipped and hit her foot on the edge of the bathtub.
The next day we were going on a much longer hike along a river. It was a slower pace than Yam L' Yam which was nice because we could look at the scenery, but at the same time you still had to be careful and watch your step because at times there were a lot of rocks and it was very slippery. About 1/3 of the way into the hike, we stopped at another waterfall. Eliana and I decided to go swimming. It was so much fun but the water was freezing! It felt really good afterwards when we were walking under the hot sun. We finished our hike pretty quickly after only a few hours of walking and then went to eat lunch. Our bus driver, Nissim, had to go buy food for us at a local supermarket because we didn't really have anything to eat except for bread and cookies. That was pretty much the end of our day except for a pit stop that we made where they bought ices for us. I got a passion fruit flavor and it tasted so good!
We got back to our dorms just in time for a great pizza dinner. We also got to see so many people coming back from vacation which was really cool because we haven't seen some of them for weeks! I'm so excited for the upcoming events of the rest of the year! Shalom V'lehitraot!
The night before, the person in charge of all the technical stuff in the buildings, Uri, opened up the kitchen to us and he said that we could make whatever we wanted for dinner. Hadassa and Aliza started off by making grilled vegetables. Sarah and I made pizzas, Adi and Arney made pancakes, and quite a few people helped out making the cookies. We set up the tables really nicely in a circle and we all had a really great dinner while we talked about the trip for the next day.
The next day, we woke up nice and early to drive the four hours to the Golan Heights. We stopped after two hours at the usual rest stop for breakfast and then got back on the bus to drive the rest of the way. We basically went as far north as you could go in Israel, even past Mount Hermon. Our first hike of the day was a gorgeous waterfall hike. It wasn't a very hard hike and it was pretty short but we all stopped many times to look at all the pretty waterfalls and the other great scenery sights on the hike. Afterwards we went to Metsudat Choach, a memorial for 28 soldiers that fell trying to defend the land. We ate lunch there overlooking the Valley of Afulah. After lunch we went biking around a lake. The lake was originally part of a large amount of marsh land but they dried it up because all of the mosquitoes that lived there had malaria. The lake is a nature reserve where hundreds of birds stop during their migratory seasons. We got to see quite a few birds and learn all about them. One of the times that our tour guide was talking, I happened to look to my right and I saw a bird flying off with a snake in its mouth! The bike ride was really nice because we had great weather and it was a really nice lake. One of the times we stopped was under this beautiful dock right on the edge of the water and so we all decided to sit down and play Duck, Duck, Goose! It was so much fun!
That night, they took us out for dinner at a really nice meat restaurant. I had a really yummy chicken sandwich. Afterwards, we walked around on the boardwalk look at all the clothes and jewelry. Four of my friends decided to get their ears pierced so they went to this random jewelry stand on the boardwalk and got new earrings! That night we were sleeping at the same hotel that we slept at during the Zionist seminar in Tiberias. All of the people in my room were already there when I got there. When I walked in, they were all staring at me. Melissa told me to look down and I saw blood on the floor. I was so confused. Then I looked at Daniella and I saw that her foot was bandaged. I asked them what happened and they tried to give me this made up story about a strange man coming into the room and knocking her over, but really she just slipped and hit her foot on the edge of the bathtub.
The next day we were going on a much longer hike along a river. It was a slower pace than Yam L' Yam which was nice because we could look at the scenery, but at the same time you still had to be careful and watch your step because at times there were a lot of rocks and it was very slippery. About 1/3 of the way into the hike, we stopped at another waterfall. Eliana and I decided to go swimming. It was so much fun but the water was freezing! It felt really good afterwards when we were walking under the hot sun. We finished our hike pretty quickly after only a few hours of walking and then went to eat lunch. Our bus driver, Nissim, had to go buy food for us at a local supermarket because we didn't really have anything to eat except for bread and cookies. That was pretty much the end of our day except for a pit stop that we made where they bought ices for us. I got a passion fruit flavor and it tasted so good!
We got back to our dorms just in time for a great pizza dinner. We also got to see so many people coming back from vacation which was really cool because we haven't seen some of them for weeks! I'm so excited for the upcoming events of the rest of the year! Shalom V'lehitraot!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Yam L' Yam!
It's been a long time since I've posted and I know I've been a little bit lazy this past month but this post is so amazing that it's going to make up for anything lacking in this past month. This past weekend, I completed the cross-country hike known as Yam L' Yam, literally translated as sea to sea. This is a 3 day hike of 75 km/46 miles from the west side of Israel, the Mediterranean Sea, to the east side of Israel, the Sea of Galilee. Hadassa, Raquel, Aliza, Eve, Shevi Adi, Belle, and I did this hike from Sunday to Tuesday. This was one of the most physically challenging and mentally demanding things I have ever done.
Thursday night and Friday we spent packing for the trip. We had huge bags in which we packed sleeping bags, some extra clothes, toiletries, three bottles of water and some other personal things. We also each had to leave room for food and other supplies that we had to take with us that everybody would use. The kitchen at school was really nice and they really helped us out by giving us a lot of food that we needed that they were getting rid of anyway because of Pesach. We took fruits and vegetables, bread and spreads to go on it, a pot and a burner and quite a few other things. I carried the onions and potatoes that would be for dinner, plastic bowls and plates, and a loaf of bread. Our bags weighed about 30 pounds! The first time we picked tried to pick up our bags, we had such a hard time getting them on our backs and then moving our feet but we eventually got the hang of it and eventually we didn't even think about it. We all made sure our shoulder straps were well adjusted but it was still hard to carry. I then figured out how to use the waist strap which takes a good percentage of the weight off your shoulder and back and transfers it to your hips.
Raquel and I spent Shabbat in Herzliya at my Israeli Chavruta's house. She had a gorgeous house and they fed us so much food. It was really great to have a nice relaxing Shabbat before our hike started. They also helped us out quite a bit. They let us put our deli meat in their freezer until we left and they gave us goodie bags filled with candy. It was a bit awkward when we asked them if we could use their nail clippers to cut our toenails but they let us do that too.
Day #1
We woke up the next morning at 5:00. We got dressed and ate breakfast and called a cab to take us to the train station. We got on a 6:15 train to Nahariya where we would be meeting the rest of the crew. Our train arrived at 8:00 and we met everybody else including our guide Yotam and his friend Oz who was coming along with us for the day. We started our hike at 9:00 and we were supposed to go 24 km on the first day. We started out following the green trail which goes along the Kziv River. About 15 minutes into the hike we come to a river that we have to cross. Yotam and Oz hop across the river on some rocks. Next, Aliza goes and as she was going she slipped a little bit and one of her shoes got soaking wet. Next, I went and as I was stepping on the rocks to get across, I lost my balance just a little bit because I wasn't used to having an extra 30 lbs on my back, and I completely fell into the river. I stood up soaking wet but unhurt because my huge bag broke my fall. Everyone else, also not wanting to fall in, took off their shoes and socks and walked across in the water. After they crossed, they looked up and saw another river just a few feet away. They hopped along bare foot and walked through the next river. We spent a few minutes after that drying off and then continued walking. A few minutes later we came to another river. At this point, nobody really cares and we all just walked through the river with our shoes and socks on. About an hour into the hike, we stopped for a water break. As we were standing around cooling off, I noticed that there was a massive bee with a huge stinger on the end on my shirt. I freaked out for a few seconds and then I realized that it might sting me so I stopped moving. Yotam ran over and tried to get it off with a stick but it kept crawling up my shirt and then went into my shirt. I almost took my shirt off but then the bee flew away. We continued walking and then we came to another river that everyone just walked through. Aliza was the last one and as we're all walking away we heard a huge splash. Aliza was the next one to fall in the water. She wasn't as lucky as I was and she got a huge bruise on her thigh. Through out the day we took so many bathroom breaks because we were drinking so much water. I think I went to the bathroom at least six times that first day. At one of our bathroom stops, Raquel pulls out the lemons that she was carrying and we all put some in our hair to see if we would get highlights from the sun. It didn't really work out too well.
We stopped for lunch at around 12:30 by a really pretty spot along the river. We took one of the tuna cans someone was carrying and smoked the tuna by putting a piece of paper towel on top of it and lighting it on fire. Unfortunately, we only brought one small container of chocolate spread which wasn't really enough and we brought two huge jars of peanut butter which we wouldn't even come close to finishing. Oz had a tiny little burner where he made tea with some nana leaves that he picked from the side of the road. We started walking again after about an hour break. We walked through such a beautiful part of Israel. Every few minutes somebody else would say, "Wow, this is so beautiful!" We eventually got to this big open space where lots of Bnei Akiva kids were sitting eating their lunch. There was a deep river with rushing water there so we tried to cross on the rocks. Shevi and Hadassa made it across the river first. The rest of us were having trouble so Shevi came back to try to help us. On her way back to help us, she slipped and fell in the water. 3 down 5 to go! As Shevi was getting up, we all look to our right because Eve tried to go a different way and she slipped and fell. 4 down 4 to go! She tried getting up and fell back down again and because the current was so strong, she kind of got carried along for a couple of feet. All of the Bnei Akiva kids were kinda just staring at us as we basically swam through this river with our huge backpacks on our backs. We continued walking until we got to a road. This was the hardest part of the day because we have to walk uphill for about 15 minutes. This might not sound like a lot but with 30 lbs on your back it felt like we were walking for an hour and a half and when we finished muscles in our leg that we didn't even know existed hurt like crazy! After the huge hill we sat under a tree for quite a while resting. Up on a hill nearby, Yotam and Oz found a shopping cart that they brought down to us. Half of us put our bags in the shopping cart and we pushed it down the road. We eventually got to a gas station where we were able to go to the bathroom in a toilet for the first time since the morning. We refilled our water bottles and went on to our campsite.
We camped in a random forest off the side of the road. We wanted to make a bonfire and set up the burner. We put all our stuff down and we began to collect firewood. Hadassa and Adi went to go set up the burner. As we were picking up branches off the floor, we hear a scream. I turned around and I saw the burner blow up. The whole thing was on fire and Yotam came running over to save the day again. He quickly put out the fire and thankfully Hadassa and Adi were okay. We continued collecting firewood as Hadassa and Adi recovered. I was searching for bigger pieces instead of just little branches and I saw a small dead tree a little bit taller than me. I basically just pulled an entire tree out of the ground. We had to break it up into smaller pieces to put on the bonfire. We put onions and potatoes in the fire and we made noodles on Oz's little burner. We also had the deli meat that by this time had defrosted. We also bought marshmallows that we roasted on sticks. We sat around the bonfire for quite a while, massaging each other's backs and playing games and suddenly we feel drops of rain. We quickly run to get our stuff and run under a bunch of trees. Thankfully it stopped raining after a few minutes and we all just went to sleep. It was pretty cold outside and we were sleeping on the floor of a forest so we all didn't get such a good night's sleep.
Day #2
We woke up at 6:45, ate breakfast, packed our stuff up, and got ready to go. Oz was leaving us and we were all sad to go because he was such a cool guy. With Yotam in the lead, we began hiking. Day 2 is the hardest day because we had to go 26 km and it was the day with the roughest terrain. Today we were going to climb and then descend Mount Meron, the second highest mountain in Israel. We started the day off with another one of those steep uphills. We didn't stop until we got to the top of this section when we were all panting and wondering how we were going to get through the rest of the day. We walked mostly uphill for hours. This was the hardest part of the whole trip. Not only did it take a tremendous amount of physical power, it also took so much mental effort to make yourself keep going. Towards the end of the morning, Belle started complaining that her feet were hurting. Now, we had an amazing group of girls who didn't really complain and always supported each other if one was hurt. Belle wouldn't complain unless she was in a huge amount of pain so we knew it was bad. Belle had these really interesting spider shoes that had amazing grips on the bottom for mountain climbing but they had absolutely no support so she was able to feel every single rock that she stepped on.
We stopped for lunch at a picnic ground and we all took off our shoes. Belle took off her shoes and her feet were covered in blisters. We ate the same lunch that we had the day before and then we all rested. Raquel and Shevi also had a lot of blisters so they decided to pop them. They sterilized safety pins with fire and then began to pop their blisters. I was sitting next to Belle as she silently cried while popping her blisters. Thankfully, Yotam had an extra pair of sandals that he said Belle could wear. Right after lunch we were about to climb the last bit of Mount Meron. We all put our shoes back on and our bags back on and got ready to do the climb. As we were walking up the mountain we saw another huge group of kids coming down the mountain. It was really annoying having to pass by all of them because they were standing in the middle of the road but it was a great distraction. At one point they were blocking the entire path so we kinda had to walk on the sideways part of the road and as I'm about to pass someone, I slipped and fell. I was totally fine and got right back up again. We hiked up this mountain for almost an hour straight without a break until we made it to the top. It was a beautiful view at the top and you were able to see Mount Hermon with it's snow- capped summits in the distance. We began our descent and we knew that as soon as we got to the bottom we would reach our campsite. It took a few hours and we were all super exhausted but we finally made it to the campgrounds.
Our campsite was at the very top of a steep hill so for the last time that day we basically ran for five minutes up the hill to our camp site and we all just dropped our stuff and sat down because we were too exhausted to do anything else. We weren't allowed to make a fire on the camp grounds so we just used the burner to make soup with noodles and rice. Yotam's friends Noam, Miriam and Tamar joined us for the night and the next day. We all attempted to get some sleep but it was even colder than the night before. I don't get cold too easily and I was shivering under all of my layers of clothing. Our campgrounds were on the edge of the graves of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son. In the middle of the night Belle and Shevi were so cold that they decided to go inside the building where their memorials were and sleep there. They woke up at 6:30 in the morning surrounded by women praying. As quietly as possible, they picked up their sleeping bags and walked out back to the campsite.
Day #3
I woke up not too long after than, changed my shirt for the first time and ate breakfast. Miriam and Tamar bought us some candy and chocolate milk which made us all so happy. They also drove here so they offered to take anything that we didn't need in their car with them. We were so happy because this made our bags at least ten pounds lighter, plus we had eaten most of the food that we brought with us. This was thankfully the easiest day. We were going 24 km and our bags felt super light after we had been carrying 30 lbs. for the past two days. The first part of the day was walking basically on the side of a mountain following the Amud River. Once again we met up with hundreds of scouts that were walking along the same trail as us. The sentence of the day was," Excuse me, can we pass?" I must've said this sentence in Hebrew a hundred times. Our group got split up as we did a couple of times before but it was always fine because the path was clearly marked. Belle and I were walking with Noam and we thought that we were the last ones. We were walking really fast, about 4 km/hr to catch up with everyone. We spotted them off the road sitting in a cluster of trees, the only shade around. We were happy to find out that we weren't the last ones and we got to rest while waiting for the others. We were in our cluster of trees and we looked to our left and we saw a cow and it's calf staring at us from less than five feet away. They weren't doing anything except standing there. We felt like we were the ones in a cage in the zoo and they were looking at us from the outside. The rest of our group finally arrived. They told us that they had taken a wrong turn and they had to walk on a very dangerous and narrow cliff edge to get back on the path.
We ate lunch there in our little cluster of trees with the cow watching us. We had the same lunch that we had the past two days but we didn't really care because we were just hungry. We wanted to get moving quickly so we could finish before sunset. Just as we started up again, we saw a small group of boys from one of the other yeshivas in Israel who were also hiking yam l' yam. They told us that they didn't think they could make it before sunset and we basically said that they were crazy and we were going to do it. They asked if they could join our group because they didn't really have a guide and were just following a map that they had. There was four of them and they told us that three of their friends had dropped out. They were also really impressed that none of us dropped out. The last bit of walking was hard terrain but we didn't care anymore. We walked for about an hour on a very narrow path with prickly thorns on both sides. Then we walked on a path that crossed back and forth between walking on a normal path and walking on huge boulders. The last hour was great because we had the adrenaline rush to finish and it was basically flat land. The four yeshiva boys left us to go their own way at the end. The last 15 minutes we were able to see the Sea of Galilee and we knew that we were really close. When we finally got there, we dropped our bags and touched the water to say that we made it.
We took a cab to the nearby city Tiberius where we caught a bus back to Jerusalem. We all slept on the bus and when we got off we could barely move. Adi was the worst. She could only take the tiniest steps and it took us a half hour to walk what we would walk in ten minutes. When we got back to our dorms we were all so happy, but anybody in the dorms wasn't. We smelled so bad. We put our bags down in the hallway and you couldn't even go out of your room because it smelled so bad. We all took nice long showers because we did shower in three days. Then at one in the morning we had a blister popping party. It sounds gross and it was pretty gross. We sterilized some needles with alcohol and then began to pop our blisters. I won't go into much detail because it was quite disgusting and painful too.
We all woke up the next day quite achy but alive and well. We were all so happy that we accomplished this crazy hike. We were so happy and thankful to be with the people we were with and to have had Yotam as our amazing guide. Yam L' Yam was an amazing experience even though it was actually crazy and painful at times but we pulled through, helped each other and we were all so happy we did it. Comment and tell me what you think of our crazy adventure if you actually got to the bottom of reading all of this! Shalom V'lehitraot!
Thursday night and Friday we spent packing for the trip. We had huge bags in which we packed sleeping bags, some extra clothes, toiletries, three bottles of water and some other personal things. We also each had to leave room for food and other supplies that we had to take with us that everybody would use. The kitchen at school was really nice and they really helped us out by giving us a lot of food that we needed that they were getting rid of anyway because of Pesach. We took fruits and vegetables, bread and spreads to go on it, a pot and a burner and quite a few other things. I carried the onions and potatoes that would be for dinner, plastic bowls and plates, and a loaf of bread. Our bags weighed about 30 pounds! The first time we picked tried to pick up our bags, we had such a hard time getting them on our backs and then moving our feet but we eventually got the hang of it and eventually we didn't even think about it. We all made sure our shoulder straps were well adjusted but it was still hard to carry. I then figured out how to use the waist strap which takes a good percentage of the weight off your shoulder and back and transfers it to your hips.
Raquel and I spent Shabbat in Herzliya at my Israeli Chavruta's house. She had a gorgeous house and they fed us so much food. It was really great to have a nice relaxing Shabbat before our hike started. They also helped us out quite a bit. They let us put our deli meat in their freezer until we left and they gave us goodie bags filled with candy. It was a bit awkward when we asked them if we could use their nail clippers to cut our toenails but they let us do that too.
Day #1
We woke up the next morning at 5:00. We got dressed and ate breakfast and called a cab to take us to the train station. We got on a 6:15 train to Nahariya where we would be meeting the rest of the crew. Our train arrived at 8:00 and we met everybody else including our guide Yotam and his friend Oz who was coming along with us for the day. We started our hike at 9:00 and we were supposed to go 24 km on the first day. We started out following the green trail which goes along the Kziv River. About 15 minutes into the hike we come to a river that we have to cross. Yotam and Oz hop across the river on some rocks. Next, Aliza goes and as she was going she slipped a little bit and one of her shoes got soaking wet. Next, I went and as I was stepping on the rocks to get across, I lost my balance just a little bit because I wasn't used to having an extra 30 lbs on my back, and I completely fell into the river. I stood up soaking wet but unhurt because my huge bag broke my fall. Everyone else, also not wanting to fall in, took off their shoes and socks and walked across in the water. After they crossed, they looked up and saw another river just a few feet away. They hopped along bare foot and walked through the next river. We spent a few minutes after that drying off and then continued walking. A few minutes later we came to another river. At this point, nobody really cares and we all just walked through the river with our shoes and socks on. About an hour into the hike, we stopped for a water break. As we were standing around cooling off, I noticed that there was a massive bee with a huge stinger on the end on my shirt. I freaked out for a few seconds and then I realized that it might sting me so I stopped moving. Yotam ran over and tried to get it off with a stick but it kept crawling up my shirt and then went into my shirt. I almost took my shirt off but then the bee flew away. We continued walking and then we came to another river that everyone just walked through. Aliza was the last one and as we're all walking away we heard a huge splash. Aliza was the next one to fall in the water. She wasn't as lucky as I was and she got a huge bruise on her thigh. Through out the day we took so many bathroom breaks because we were drinking so much water. I think I went to the bathroom at least six times that first day. At one of our bathroom stops, Raquel pulls out the lemons that she was carrying and we all put some in our hair to see if we would get highlights from the sun. It didn't really work out too well.
We stopped for lunch at around 12:30 by a really pretty spot along the river. We took one of the tuna cans someone was carrying and smoked the tuna by putting a piece of paper towel on top of it and lighting it on fire. Unfortunately, we only brought one small container of chocolate spread which wasn't really enough and we brought two huge jars of peanut butter which we wouldn't even come close to finishing. Oz had a tiny little burner where he made tea with some nana leaves that he picked from the side of the road. We started walking again after about an hour break. We walked through such a beautiful part of Israel. Every few minutes somebody else would say, "Wow, this is so beautiful!" We eventually got to this big open space where lots of Bnei Akiva kids were sitting eating their lunch. There was a deep river with rushing water there so we tried to cross on the rocks. Shevi and Hadassa made it across the river first. The rest of us were having trouble so Shevi came back to try to help us. On her way back to help us, she slipped and fell in the water. 3 down 5 to go! As Shevi was getting up, we all look to our right because Eve tried to go a different way and she slipped and fell. 4 down 4 to go! She tried getting up and fell back down again and because the current was so strong, she kind of got carried along for a couple of feet. All of the Bnei Akiva kids were kinda just staring at us as we basically swam through this river with our huge backpacks on our backs. We continued walking until we got to a road. This was the hardest part of the day because we have to walk uphill for about 15 minutes. This might not sound like a lot but with 30 lbs on your back it felt like we were walking for an hour and a half and when we finished muscles in our leg that we didn't even know existed hurt like crazy! After the huge hill we sat under a tree for quite a while resting. Up on a hill nearby, Yotam and Oz found a shopping cart that they brought down to us. Half of us put our bags in the shopping cart and we pushed it down the road. We eventually got to a gas station where we were able to go to the bathroom in a toilet for the first time since the morning. We refilled our water bottles and went on to our campsite.
We camped in a random forest off the side of the road. We wanted to make a bonfire and set up the burner. We put all our stuff down and we began to collect firewood. Hadassa and Adi went to go set up the burner. As we were picking up branches off the floor, we hear a scream. I turned around and I saw the burner blow up. The whole thing was on fire and Yotam came running over to save the day again. He quickly put out the fire and thankfully Hadassa and Adi were okay. We continued collecting firewood as Hadassa and Adi recovered. I was searching for bigger pieces instead of just little branches and I saw a small dead tree a little bit taller than me. I basically just pulled an entire tree out of the ground. We had to break it up into smaller pieces to put on the bonfire. We put onions and potatoes in the fire and we made noodles on Oz's little burner. We also had the deli meat that by this time had defrosted. We also bought marshmallows that we roasted on sticks. We sat around the bonfire for quite a while, massaging each other's backs and playing games and suddenly we feel drops of rain. We quickly run to get our stuff and run under a bunch of trees. Thankfully it stopped raining after a few minutes and we all just went to sleep. It was pretty cold outside and we were sleeping on the floor of a forest so we all didn't get such a good night's sleep.
Day #2
We woke up at 6:45, ate breakfast, packed our stuff up, and got ready to go. Oz was leaving us and we were all sad to go because he was such a cool guy. With Yotam in the lead, we began hiking. Day 2 is the hardest day because we had to go 26 km and it was the day with the roughest terrain. Today we were going to climb and then descend Mount Meron, the second highest mountain in Israel. We started the day off with another one of those steep uphills. We didn't stop until we got to the top of this section when we were all panting and wondering how we were going to get through the rest of the day. We walked mostly uphill for hours. This was the hardest part of the whole trip. Not only did it take a tremendous amount of physical power, it also took so much mental effort to make yourself keep going. Towards the end of the morning, Belle started complaining that her feet were hurting. Now, we had an amazing group of girls who didn't really complain and always supported each other if one was hurt. Belle wouldn't complain unless she was in a huge amount of pain so we knew it was bad. Belle had these really interesting spider shoes that had amazing grips on the bottom for mountain climbing but they had absolutely no support so she was able to feel every single rock that she stepped on.
We stopped for lunch at a picnic ground and we all took off our shoes. Belle took off her shoes and her feet were covered in blisters. We ate the same lunch that we had the day before and then we all rested. Raquel and Shevi also had a lot of blisters so they decided to pop them. They sterilized safety pins with fire and then began to pop their blisters. I was sitting next to Belle as she silently cried while popping her blisters. Thankfully, Yotam had an extra pair of sandals that he said Belle could wear. Right after lunch we were about to climb the last bit of Mount Meron. We all put our shoes back on and our bags back on and got ready to do the climb. As we were walking up the mountain we saw another huge group of kids coming down the mountain. It was really annoying having to pass by all of them because they were standing in the middle of the road but it was a great distraction. At one point they were blocking the entire path so we kinda had to walk on the sideways part of the road and as I'm about to pass someone, I slipped and fell. I was totally fine and got right back up again. We hiked up this mountain for almost an hour straight without a break until we made it to the top. It was a beautiful view at the top and you were able to see Mount Hermon with it's snow- capped summits in the distance. We began our descent and we knew that as soon as we got to the bottom we would reach our campsite. It took a few hours and we were all super exhausted but we finally made it to the campgrounds.
Our campsite was at the very top of a steep hill so for the last time that day we basically ran for five minutes up the hill to our camp site and we all just dropped our stuff and sat down because we were too exhausted to do anything else. We weren't allowed to make a fire on the camp grounds so we just used the burner to make soup with noodles and rice. Yotam's friends Noam, Miriam and Tamar joined us for the night and the next day. We all attempted to get some sleep but it was even colder than the night before. I don't get cold too easily and I was shivering under all of my layers of clothing. Our campgrounds were on the edge of the graves of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son. In the middle of the night Belle and Shevi were so cold that they decided to go inside the building where their memorials were and sleep there. They woke up at 6:30 in the morning surrounded by women praying. As quietly as possible, they picked up their sleeping bags and walked out back to the campsite.
Day #3
I woke up not too long after than, changed my shirt for the first time and ate breakfast. Miriam and Tamar bought us some candy and chocolate milk which made us all so happy. They also drove here so they offered to take anything that we didn't need in their car with them. We were so happy because this made our bags at least ten pounds lighter, plus we had eaten most of the food that we brought with us. This was thankfully the easiest day. We were going 24 km and our bags felt super light after we had been carrying 30 lbs. for the past two days. The first part of the day was walking basically on the side of a mountain following the Amud River. Once again we met up with hundreds of scouts that were walking along the same trail as us. The sentence of the day was," Excuse me, can we pass?" I must've said this sentence in Hebrew a hundred times. Our group got split up as we did a couple of times before but it was always fine because the path was clearly marked. Belle and I were walking with Noam and we thought that we were the last ones. We were walking really fast, about 4 km/hr to catch up with everyone. We spotted them off the road sitting in a cluster of trees, the only shade around. We were happy to find out that we weren't the last ones and we got to rest while waiting for the others. We were in our cluster of trees and we looked to our left and we saw a cow and it's calf staring at us from less than five feet away. They weren't doing anything except standing there. We felt like we were the ones in a cage in the zoo and they were looking at us from the outside. The rest of our group finally arrived. They told us that they had taken a wrong turn and they had to walk on a very dangerous and narrow cliff edge to get back on the path.
We ate lunch there in our little cluster of trees with the cow watching us. We had the same lunch that we had the past two days but we didn't really care because we were just hungry. We wanted to get moving quickly so we could finish before sunset. Just as we started up again, we saw a small group of boys from one of the other yeshivas in Israel who were also hiking yam l' yam. They told us that they didn't think they could make it before sunset and we basically said that they were crazy and we were going to do it. They asked if they could join our group because they didn't really have a guide and were just following a map that they had. There was four of them and they told us that three of their friends had dropped out. They were also really impressed that none of us dropped out. The last bit of walking was hard terrain but we didn't care anymore. We walked for about an hour on a very narrow path with prickly thorns on both sides. Then we walked on a path that crossed back and forth between walking on a normal path and walking on huge boulders. The last hour was great because we had the adrenaline rush to finish and it was basically flat land. The four yeshiva boys left us to go their own way at the end. The last 15 minutes we were able to see the Sea of Galilee and we knew that we were really close. When we finally got there, we dropped our bags and touched the water to say that we made it.
We took a cab to the nearby city Tiberius where we caught a bus back to Jerusalem. We all slept on the bus and when we got off we could barely move. Adi was the worst. She could only take the tiniest steps and it took us a half hour to walk what we would walk in ten minutes. When we got back to our dorms we were all so happy, but anybody in the dorms wasn't. We smelled so bad. We put our bags down in the hallway and you couldn't even go out of your room because it smelled so bad. We all took nice long showers because we did shower in three days. Then at one in the morning we had a blister popping party. It sounds gross and it was pretty gross. We sterilized some needles with alcohol and then began to pop our blisters. I won't go into much detail because it was quite disgusting and painful too.
We all woke up the next day quite achy but alive and well. We were all so happy that we accomplished this crazy hike. We were so happy and thankful to be with the people we were with and to have had Yotam as our amazing guide. Yam L' Yam was an amazing experience even though it was actually crazy and painful at times but we pulled through, helped each other and we were all so happy we did it. Comment and tell me what you think of our crazy adventure if you actually got to the bottom of reading all of this! Shalom V'lehitraot!
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