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!
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