just a little more of an update
hey all again:
im on my first free weekend in Israel and im with my friednd Teva and some other girls from the program at Teva's dad's best friends house. Her name is Dina and if any of you knwo my mom - you know how awesome this lady is, her and my mom are very similar. Dina has a doughter Noga who is 18 and super fun, we've all been hangingout here sice yesterday afternoon.
Weekends are wierd in israel because they are friday and saturday... it other words- i have class all day tomorrow :( ick! this past week i hiked down a 2 kilometer mountain...yes you heard right. i was dirty and aching but i did it and it felt good. It was mount Gillboa - and for any ofyou who ever studied torah and whatnot, it was the mountain in which King Saul was killed.
we went swimming in the hot springs of sachneh and jumped off cliffs. it was great to go from one climate to another because after the hot springs we all bundled up and headed towards Jerusalem. We had an opening ceremony at a place that looks over the city. I cant even describe how beautiful it was at night with all the lights on to be looking over a place with so much history and that represents a center for millions of people (different religions) throughout the world. it was incredible.
We slept at a youth hostile that night and woke up early for yet, another hike. whle we were having class on the side of the mountan we experienced the first earthquake Israel has had in 70 years. It got rated like a 5 i believe maybe just a bit higher. A few seconds before the erathquake we were climbing in a cave. It was aweosme. The cave was like a long narrow tunnel and we had to climb up into an outcove area, but i cant imagine ifthe earthquake happened while we were in there- MAJOR CHAOS.
we left the mountain and went to lunch at a lookout above jerusalem from the opposite side and learned aboutthe geography of jerusalem compuerd to the developed geography o fit now. Or teacher sang us the "jerusalem rap" which was one of the funniest moments of my life.
Afetr lunch we wentto the old city of david, which 3000 years ago, was the original Jerusalem (now it\s boarders have expanded). We sawthe water channel that King David eentered through to conqure the city when he shut off the wtaer supply and the people of jebus had to surrender. We had class in the top of the city of david and got an introduction to the kotel.
our next stop was the kotel, which i had always refered to as the western wall, which was not exactly as i had expected. I didnt make a spiritual/emotional connection wth the oktel but it did make me thnk about somehings in general. Im glad ihad the opportunity to see it, many orthodox woment were standing with the torahs praying as we walked up. i didnt write a prayer into the wall because i didnt feel as if i had anything to say. i know you are supposed to write a prayer or a dream or something of that nature but i didnt feel write and i didnt have anything to really say. I took it for what it was and really appreciated being there but i just didnt get to fill a hope that i had had inside for wheni got to go there. We go there 2 more times this trip so who knows :)
we havent done much else besides class and a huge unit test of friday. I studied for so lomng , made flashcards for the notes i had and all the review th techer did and even wrote outlines for the essays on the test. There were three essay options if whuch we would have 2 and then one mandatory essay after all that, along with a goo damount of fill in the blank/short answer questions. We were given 4 hours to take the test and it took me about 2 1/2 hours. my hnad hurt so badly aftewards.
just relaxing now. i bought a nakila as a nice thng to get from israel...hehe. dont have too much else to say now :( i will update again as soon as possible
again, please call me its easy if you get a calling card.... the number is 011*972*64*579*494and if i dont answer, leave a voice mail and try again later :) thanks guys!
im on my first free weekend in Israel and im with my friednd Teva and some other girls from the program at Teva's dad's best friends house. Her name is Dina and if any of you knwo my mom - you know how awesome this lady is, her and my mom are very similar. Dina has a doughter Noga who is 18 and super fun, we've all been hangingout here sice yesterday afternoon.
Weekends are wierd in israel because they are friday and saturday... it other words- i have class all day tomorrow :( ick! this past week i hiked down a 2 kilometer mountain...yes you heard right. i was dirty and aching but i did it and it felt good. It was mount Gillboa - and for any ofyou who ever studied torah and whatnot, it was the mountain in which King Saul was killed.
we went swimming in the hot springs of sachneh and jumped off cliffs. it was great to go from one climate to another because after the hot springs we all bundled up and headed towards Jerusalem. We had an opening ceremony at a place that looks over the city. I cant even describe how beautiful it was at night with all the lights on to be looking over a place with so much history and that represents a center for millions of people (different religions) throughout the world. it was incredible.
We slept at a youth hostile that night and woke up early for yet, another hike. whle we were having class on the side of the mountan we experienced the first earthquake Israel has had in 70 years. It got rated like a 5 i believe maybe just a bit higher. A few seconds before the erathquake we were climbing in a cave. It was aweosme. The cave was like a long narrow tunnel and we had to climb up into an outcove area, but i cant imagine ifthe earthquake happened while we were in there- MAJOR CHAOS.
we left the mountain and went to lunch at a lookout above jerusalem from the opposite side and learned aboutthe geography of jerusalem compuerd to the developed geography o fit now. Or teacher sang us the "jerusalem rap" which was one of the funniest moments of my life.
Afetr lunch we wentto the old city of david, which 3000 years ago, was the original Jerusalem (now it\s boarders have expanded). We sawthe water channel that King David eentered through to conqure the city when he shut off the wtaer supply and the people of jebus had to surrender. We had class in the top of the city of david and got an introduction to the kotel.
our next stop was the kotel, which i had always refered to as the western wall, which was not exactly as i had expected. I didnt make a spiritual/emotional connection wth the oktel but it did make me thnk about somehings in general. Im glad ihad the opportunity to see it, many orthodox woment were standing with the torahs praying as we walked up. i didnt write a prayer into the wall because i didnt feel as if i had anything to say. i know you are supposed to write a prayer or a dream or something of that nature but i didnt feel write and i didnt have anything to really say. I took it for what it was and really appreciated being there but i just didnt get to fill a hope that i had had inside for wheni got to go there. We go there 2 more times this trip so who knows :)
we havent done much else besides class and a huge unit test of friday. I studied for so lomng , made flashcards for the notes i had and all the review th techer did and even wrote outlines for the essays on the test. There were three essay options if whuch we would have 2 and then one mandatory essay after all that, along with a goo damount of fill in the blank/short answer questions. We were given 4 hours to take the test and it took me about 2 1/2 hours. my hnad hurt so badly aftewards.
just relaxing now. i bought a nakila as a nice thng to get from israel...hehe. dont have too much else to say now :( i will update again as soon as possible
again, please call me its easy if you get a calling card.... the number is 011*972*64*579*494and if i dont answer, leave a voice mail and try again later :) thanks guys!