Today is my last day in Israel and looking back, I can say that this has been one of the most amazing years of my life and I'm so happy that I got to share it with all of you! I have learned so much not only knowledge but also life skills. I remember first coming to Israel and wondering what was in store for me this year. I had no idea how much I would learn, how many places I would travel to, and how many new friends I would make. The people here at Harova are so amazing in each of their own different ways and I love them all for that. We are all going our own separate ways and living all around the world, but we will always be united by the year we spent together in Midreshet Harova. I love everything about this place. I love my friends, the teachers, my classes, the old city of Jerusalem, and everything else that made this an amazing year. I hope to take the things that I've learned with me for the rest of my life.
'Where did the time go?' my friends ask me. I reply that it went to hours of learning, a whole bunch of fun trips, and time to just hang out together. I have done so much this year and I've come so far. I really tried to take this year day by day.
I was re-reading some of my blog posts (which you should do too) and I just wanted to share with you a couple of my favorites.
My Schedule!
http://sarasisraelexperience.blogspot.co.il/2011/09/my-schedule.html
Kedma Medical Clowns!
http://sarasisraelexperience.blogspot.co.il/2011/11/kedma-medical-clowns.html
Eilat!
http://sarasisraelexperience.blogspot.co.il/2012/01/eilat.html
Yam L'Yam!
http://sarasisraelexperience.blogspot.co.il/2012/04/yam-l-yam.html
Yom Yerushalayim!
http://sarasisraelexperience.blogspot.co.il/2012/05/yom-yerushalayim.html
I would really love to hear from all of my readers what you thought of my blog. I know there are lots of you out there because Blogger tells me how many people look at my blog so please just send me an e-mail. My email address is saraej67550@gmail.com. I want to know, did my blog change your views on Israel, would you consider coming to visit, what do you think about taking a gap year before college?
Thank you once again to my parents for sending me to Israel. Thank you to all of my friends who made this year as amazing as it was. Thank you to my teachers and Rabbis for giving me so much knowledge and for always being there to help. Thank you to all of my readers for giving me the strength to write this blog and for always keeping me encouraged to continue writing even if it was late at night or if I had very little time because I was always so busy. Although this is my last blog post on this blog, it will hopefully not be the last of my experiences in Israel. Shalom!
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Last Tiyul and Last Shabbat
Here I am in my last few days in Israel, trying to make every moment count. After we finished classes, Harova took us on our last trip up North to the Galil. I sat next to Belle as we drove up for three hours until we got to Mount Meron, which we were on during Yam L' Yam. They took us to the most beautiful lookout point where you could see everything from Mount Hermon to Tzfat and many other places. Then we started out on a small hike that we actually hiked as part of Yam L' Yam and we reminisced about that crazy time that we hiked 75 km in 3 days. After the hike, they took us kayaking! We all organized rafts of six- eight people. We put on our life jackets, two people from each raft grabbed two paddles, and we were off. I took one of the paddles and sat at the back so I could steer down the narrow river. About 2 minutes in, there was a photographer who took pictures of us for us to see at the end. Right afterwards, everybody started jumping in to the river. Thoes who didn't jump in were 'helped' in with a little push from behind. Soon there were only two of us left controlling the raft. After a few minutes, someone switched with me so I could go in the water. I had such an amazing time just swimming in the river with everybody. I was splashing people and pulling them into the water from the rafts and overall we just had a great time. That night, after dinner, we went to the famous hot springs of Tiberias. There were three pools: two hot salt pools and one cold chlorine pool. I hung out in the hot pools for a while but then Hadassa and I decided to go into the cold pool. It was a really big pool and it was pretty empty because most people were in the hot pools so we started doing laps. Its been so long since I did laps in a pool and I found it very relaxing. Afterwards we went back to the hotel we were staying at and went to sleep.
The next morning, we woke up and started the day off with a hike. We went to the Banias national park which is one of the prettiest parks in Israel. There are beautiful waterfalls everywhere and if you're lucky, you'll get to see a destroyed Syrian tank. Then we went swimming in the Kineret Sea. It was so much fun to just hang out with everybody and be in the water. It was a long drive back to Jerusalem. Once we got back we had dinner and then some time to chill. Later that night, we had mishmar with Rav Milston and then the mishmar heads, Adi, Amy, Shira, and Tali spoke about what it means to have mishmar. They spoke about how important it is to always keep learning Torah and they ended the night off really nicely.
Our last Shabbat in Israel was similar to many other Shabbats because there was the usual singing, praying, and hanging out with friends, but this time it was also accompanied with a lot of crying. Rav Milston was with us for Shabbat just like he was with us for our first one. He spoke about how he watched us throughout the year and he has seen what we've done and how we progressed. Many girls also spoke about how they felt the year had gone and they spoke about many things that they learned. These last few days are precious. It is a time for finishing up things that I need to do, reflecting on things that I did this year, and spending time with the friends I made this year. Shalom V'lehitraot!
The next morning, we woke up and started the day off with a hike. We went to the Banias national park which is one of the prettiest parks in Israel. There are beautiful waterfalls everywhere and if you're lucky, you'll get to see a destroyed Syrian tank. Then we went swimming in the Kineret Sea. It was so much fun to just hang out with everybody and be in the water. It was a long drive back to Jerusalem. Once we got back we had dinner and then some time to chill. Later that night, we had mishmar with Rav Milston and then the mishmar heads, Adi, Amy, Shira, and Tali spoke about what it means to have mishmar. They spoke about how important it is to always keep learning Torah and they ended the night off really nicely.
Our last Shabbat in Israel was similar to many other Shabbats because there was the usual singing, praying, and hanging out with friends, but this time it was also accompanied with a lot of crying. Rav Milston was with us for Shabbat just like he was with us for our first one. He spoke about how he watched us throughout the year and he has seen what we've done and how we progressed. Many girls also spoke about how they felt the year had gone and they spoke about many things that they learned. These last few days are precious. It is a time for finishing up things that I need to do, reflecting on things that I did this year, and spending time with the friends I made this year. Shalom V'lehitraot!
Monday, June 4, 2012
Last day of classes :(
Remember all of those 'firsts' in the beginning of the year? Unfortunately, it's coming time for all the 'lasts.'
I've come a really long way since then. http://sarasisraelexperience.blogspot.co.il/2011/09/first-day-of-classes.html
Last night we had a party for Rav Yonatan, one of the teachers that we were closest with. We bought him a salmon fillet for dinner from Cafe Rimon because on Sundays and Thursdays he always eats dinner with us and he always tells us that he hopes there will be "steak and chips." He also told us that his favorite food was salmon so once we asked him which he liked better, steak or salmon, and he said salmon, so that's why we got him salmon and French fries. Our Chumash BeIyun class were the ones closest to him because we had a three hour class with him twice a week and we all had at least one other class with him. We set up a nice table and then laid out the food so it would look all pretty. When he came in, he was so surprised and so happy! We reminisced about memories that we had and people who came and left the class. The survivors of the class were me, Amy, Sharona, Adi, Esther, Eliana, and Rinat.Today was our last class with him. We learned for a little bit and then he gave us lemon squares that he baked which were really yummy. We then talked about things that we enjoyed learning and what we got out of the class and things that he might be able to do that would be better for next year.
During lunch, Jane made an announcement that at 1:30 we would all meet in the main square where we would be doing a flash mob to one of our favorite Harova songs that we all knew that words and movements to. At 1:30, we were all standing around with our Israeli flags waiting to start but nothing was happening. I found out that they were frantically looking for a place to plug in the speakers and eventually they found a place. The flash mob started but it wasn't very well organized so our entrances didn't work out so well and then our flash mob was crashed by a group of random Asians! Anyway, it was still a lot of fun.
Tonight, a whole bunch of us went to a party at Chani's house. We started off the night with a talk from Chani's dad who is really cool. Then came the food because what's a party without the food! We had really yummy crepes with lots of different toppings. Then we just talked about funny memories that we had from this year.
I'm writing this just as I came back from cleaning out the school building from all of my books, notebooks, papers, and other stuff. It was really sad to see it emptying out and carrying all of my stuff to be packed away. I also took out my suitcases and am going to start packing tomorrow. Don't worry, I've still got a little bit more to write. Shalom V'lehitraot!
I've come a really long way since then. http://sarasisraelexperience.blogspot.co.il/2011/09/first-day-of-classes.html
Last night we had a party for Rav Yonatan, one of the teachers that we were closest with. We bought him a salmon fillet for dinner from Cafe Rimon because on Sundays and Thursdays he always eats dinner with us and he always tells us that he hopes there will be "steak and chips." He also told us that his favorite food was salmon so once we asked him which he liked better, steak or salmon, and he said salmon, so that's why we got him salmon and French fries. Our Chumash BeIyun class were the ones closest to him because we had a three hour class with him twice a week and we all had at least one other class with him. We set up a nice table and then laid out the food so it would look all pretty. When he came in, he was so surprised and so happy! We reminisced about memories that we had and people who came and left the class. The survivors of the class were me, Amy, Sharona, Adi, Esther, Eliana, and Rinat.Today was our last class with him. We learned for a little bit and then he gave us lemon squares that he baked which were really yummy. We then talked about things that we enjoyed learning and what we got out of the class and things that he might be able to do that would be better for next year.
During lunch, Jane made an announcement that at 1:30 we would all meet in the main square where we would be doing a flash mob to one of our favorite Harova songs that we all knew that words and movements to. At 1:30, we were all standing around with our Israeli flags waiting to start but nothing was happening. I found out that they were frantically looking for a place to plug in the speakers and eventually they found a place. The flash mob started but it wasn't very well organized so our entrances didn't work out so well and then our flash mob was crashed by a group of random Asians! Anyway, it was still a lot of fun.
Tonight, a whole bunch of us went to a party at Chani's house. We started off the night with a talk from Chani's dad who is really cool. Then came the food because what's a party without the food! We had really yummy crepes with lots of different toppings. Then we just talked about funny memories that we had from this year.
I'm writing this just as I came back from cleaning out the school building from all of my books, notebooks, papers, and other stuff. It was really sad to see it emptying out and carrying all of my stuff to be packed away. I also took out my suitcases and am going to start packing tomorrow. Don't worry, I've still got a little bit more to write. Shalom V'lehitraot!
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