highs and lows..... mountains and caves
Hey all!!!!
Things are going great, keeping busy as usual. As for the kids in teh programs, group dynamics are startin to change which is nice - we are all getting a lot closer, or so it feels. It's beginning to feel like im getting to know each and every person. there are many of the school like cliques within our group i'm trying not to get wrapped up in that and aviod the whole situation - keeping myself open.
We've been pretty busy since the last time i wrote... i think. I had a free weekend (not yesterday, but the weekend before) with an amazing lady and her family (along with 5 other kids from m program). I had such a great time...she made me feel like i have a mom in Israel now. It's so welcoming. Since then, she has called just to see how i was doing and say hi. It's great.
Tueday and Wednesday we had a tiyul to ein boqeq which we were given the choice between a hard difficult hike or easy relaxing walk with a slight uphill slope. I chose the harder of the two headed foward. I've never climbed a mountain before and it isnt soemthing i would jump at the opportunity to do in the states, but i can't even begin to describe how amazing it was. At first i thought i couldnt even do it, tears began to form in my eyes andi became so scred i was stiff. It was a long way down and i was climbing around a part of a rock that gave me barely any room to fit one foot on the cliff....then it was a long way up where i was convinced i didn't have enough endurance....BUT I MADE IT. We all sat on a large rock facing out teachers and had one of teh most spirtual moments i've felt so far. We were all given 10 minutes to sit in silence and just think about what we are doing or what was going through our mind. The sun began to set while we were still ontop if the mountain and it was gorgeous, looking far overth dead sea into the mountains of Jordan. We had the long hike down and boarded our bus to our youth hostile.
Wednesday morning we were woken up at 3am....we left before 4 with coffee and cakes in our stomach and set out to climb Massada.... which is wordly known ( and for a piece of history ... it is where the great revolt ended when the jews fled to the top of massada to escape the roman rule taking over Jerusalem, but the Romans attacked Massada and teh Zealots (jews) only to find that the jews, expecting the Romans, had committed mass suicide, instead of being killed or enslved by the romans) as being a historical mountian. We climbed up and reached the top with our bagged breakfasts before sunrise. It was indescribable to see the sun rise over the jordan mountains and the reflection throughout the middle east sky and the reflection over the dead sea gazing on all of us....feeling so close. I was in my own world. I could feel it in my heart - being on top of such a powerful place watching natures most beautiful beginnings. Amazing! We explored the ruins of the zealots and King Herod from around 70 CE/AD. and in the end stod at the very edge of the cliff and shouted Am Yisrael Hai- thepeople of israel live on. We heard our voices echo back to us through the mountian range and it sounded like teh sould of ancient jews, living on.
We went to the Dead sea that afternoon after hiking back down Massada. The dead sea was awesome. I felt like i wason the moon just rolling around from my back to my stomach. We covered ourselves in Dead Sea Mineral Mud which looked beautiful - let me tell you! I had so much fun.... and surprisingly enough - the dead sea didn't hurt me very much at all... i was expecting BADD pain! :) So relaxing and fun. I felt like i could have just layed there effortlessly and gotten the best tan of my life (if we had had more time)... :)We saw USY high and Tri (camp Ramah's program) kids at the dead sea... that was fun!
Friday i had a huge unit test for my core class and then we left to go to Ein Gedi. We stayed in another youth hostile when we got there and we got out of the bus and over looked to one of the most beautiful views i had seen. It was nice to just lay out on the lawn with my friends here and listen to music or play games or play frisbee or just talk. The air was comfortable and the wind was perfect. We had a beautiful small shabbat service singing together and reflecting on our past week - ecah of us could share a story just saying how we felt. It brought us closer together i think, definitly. We hung out on the lawn between the mountins and the ocean until about midnight when they made us all get up.
The next morning we all just hung out and layed around and talked, with frisbee here and there. We left for a small hike in teh Ein Gedi Nature preserves and swam under a water fall along the hike. Due to predicted rain we couldnt go too much further up the mountinan was David's springs were very peaceful. it was like the Niagra Falls of the Judean Desert. Came back to the dorms later that night after yet another, 2. hour bus ride. Ran into NFTY- EIE kids there... talked to one girl for a few minute but their teacher was mean and wouldn't even let them talk to us... i wishi could have talked to them a little bit more. :-\
Sunday we went cave crawlin in caves that were dug for the jews in the Bar Kochba Revolt. Ive nevergone cave crawling! We were slithering around like snakes in some of the corridors between bigger spaces in the caves... wearing head lights with our lothes covered in mudd - you could see how much fun we wre ehaving. We went to some roman amphitheatre that was used for gladiator fighting and has class afterwards... really cool to see the actual ruins. We left there after lunch and headed to our last cave which was a larger cave under the ground but it had more corridors which were much tigtehr to fit trhough and they were ALL over. They brought us in and led unto one of the big rooms within the cave and told us to find our own way out not using the way we got it... out of all the ways you could leave this rooma nd the coices you could make after that inital one...there was only ONE WAY to exit besides the way wecame in ...so liek 45 minutes later we finally got out! One of the coolest thinsg EVER- by far :)
I love it here soooo much! The work load is a lot and very difficult though... i think ihave more homewrkin my one core class here then i have ever put in, in all of high school. I would sya on average i have about 2 hours of homework per night for this one class which on class days (non-trip days) we have 5 hours staright of.... if we are on Tiyul (trips) tehn we have classon the trips but its still soo worth it.
I love it here. I almost want to say i do't want to come home - but i do! i want to come home, but i want hoem to stay in Israel. I'm starting to feel/ make my connection and relationship with it and it's so powerful. I love it with all my heart...im even picking up some small hebrew!!
Anyways, new update in another week!!! :)
sorry about all the typos.. the computers here from back when the dinosaurs were still around and barely run so its good enough that i can get to the internet. The keyboards were made a few millenia ago as well... :)
I miss everyone.
everyone in the states seems to be in uproar over the bombing yesterday... while it's the complete opposite in Israel. well not complete, but pretty close. Its something that has to do with Kiddush Hashem ...dying (just to live for what you believe) without the intent if dying. The people here are living here because it's their land. and just know, that when they get on a bus (for the most part) they arn't scared. sure it goes through their mind but its what they have dealt with growing up in a controversal land.
That's sad to say aswell....soemthing we have to deal with as jews, as our homeland being israel, and our history but it is and thats the truth- and it's worth fighting for! We can't be scared, because the second jews as a people and the occupants start to fear... then they are beginning to overcome us.
My modreich said to me the other day when we asked if he ever gets scared about the bombings "sure it stirs me up for a few minutes, and its a small jab in the heart, but you cant be scared. The second i start to get scared living in Jerusalem...it is no longer MY city and i have to leave.... that won't happen"
Don't be scared fo Israel. We are strong as Am Israel. and as we had to scream off the mountain top last wek... Am Israel Hai (the people of Israel Live on) ...
Things are going great, keeping busy as usual. As for the kids in teh programs, group dynamics are startin to change which is nice - we are all getting a lot closer, or so it feels. It's beginning to feel like im getting to know each and every person. there are many of the school like cliques within our group i'm trying not to get wrapped up in that and aviod the whole situation - keeping myself open.
We've been pretty busy since the last time i wrote... i think. I had a free weekend (not yesterday, but the weekend before) with an amazing lady and her family (along with 5 other kids from m program). I had such a great time...she made me feel like i have a mom in Israel now. It's so welcoming. Since then, she has called just to see how i was doing and say hi. It's great.
Tueday and Wednesday we had a tiyul to ein boqeq which we were given the choice between a hard difficult hike or easy relaxing walk with a slight uphill slope. I chose the harder of the two headed foward. I've never climbed a mountain before and it isnt soemthing i would jump at the opportunity to do in the states, but i can't even begin to describe how amazing it was. At first i thought i couldnt even do it, tears began to form in my eyes andi became so scred i was stiff. It was a long way down and i was climbing around a part of a rock that gave me barely any room to fit one foot on the cliff....then it was a long way up where i was convinced i didn't have enough endurance....BUT I MADE IT. We all sat on a large rock facing out teachers and had one of teh most spirtual moments i've felt so far. We were all given 10 minutes to sit in silence and just think about what we are doing or what was going through our mind. The sun began to set while we were still ontop if the mountain and it was gorgeous, looking far overth dead sea into the mountains of Jordan. We had the long hike down and boarded our bus to our youth hostile.
Wednesday morning we were woken up at 3am....we left before 4 with coffee and cakes in our stomach and set out to climb Massada.... which is wordly known ( and for a piece of history ... it is where the great revolt ended when the jews fled to the top of massada to escape the roman rule taking over Jerusalem, but the Romans attacked Massada and teh Zealots (jews) only to find that the jews, expecting the Romans, had committed mass suicide, instead of being killed or enslved by the romans) as being a historical mountian. We climbed up and reached the top with our bagged breakfasts before sunrise. It was indescribable to see the sun rise over the jordan mountains and the reflection throughout the middle east sky and the reflection over the dead sea gazing on all of us....feeling so close. I was in my own world. I could feel it in my heart - being on top of such a powerful place watching natures most beautiful beginnings. Amazing! We explored the ruins of the zealots and King Herod from around 70 CE/AD. and in the end stod at the very edge of the cliff and shouted Am Yisrael Hai- thepeople of israel live on. We heard our voices echo back to us through the mountian range and it sounded like teh sould of ancient jews, living on.
We went to the Dead sea that afternoon after hiking back down Massada. The dead sea was awesome. I felt like i wason the moon just rolling around from my back to my stomach. We covered ourselves in Dead Sea Mineral Mud which looked beautiful - let me tell you! I had so much fun.... and surprisingly enough - the dead sea didn't hurt me very much at all... i was expecting BADD pain! :) So relaxing and fun. I felt like i could have just layed there effortlessly and gotten the best tan of my life (if we had had more time)... :)We saw USY high and Tri (camp Ramah's program) kids at the dead sea... that was fun!
Friday i had a huge unit test for my core class and then we left to go to Ein Gedi. We stayed in another youth hostile when we got there and we got out of the bus and over looked to one of the most beautiful views i had seen. It was nice to just lay out on the lawn with my friends here and listen to music or play games or play frisbee or just talk. The air was comfortable and the wind was perfect. We had a beautiful small shabbat service singing together and reflecting on our past week - ecah of us could share a story just saying how we felt. It brought us closer together i think, definitly. We hung out on the lawn between the mountins and the ocean until about midnight when they made us all get up.
The next morning we all just hung out and layed around and talked, with frisbee here and there. We left for a small hike in teh Ein Gedi Nature preserves and swam under a water fall along the hike. Due to predicted rain we couldnt go too much further up the mountinan was David's springs were very peaceful. it was like the Niagra Falls of the Judean Desert. Came back to the dorms later that night after yet another, 2. hour bus ride. Ran into NFTY- EIE kids there... talked to one girl for a few minute but their teacher was mean and wouldn't even let them talk to us... i wishi could have talked to them a little bit more. :-\
Sunday we went cave crawlin in caves that were dug for the jews in the Bar Kochba Revolt. Ive nevergone cave crawling! We were slithering around like snakes in some of the corridors between bigger spaces in the caves... wearing head lights with our lothes covered in mudd - you could see how much fun we wre ehaving. We went to some roman amphitheatre that was used for gladiator fighting and has class afterwards... really cool to see the actual ruins. We left there after lunch and headed to our last cave which was a larger cave under the ground but it had more corridors which were much tigtehr to fit trhough and they were ALL over. They brought us in and led unto one of the big rooms within the cave and told us to find our own way out not using the way we got it... out of all the ways you could leave this rooma nd the coices you could make after that inital one...there was only ONE WAY to exit besides the way wecame in ...so liek 45 minutes later we finally got out! One of the coolest thinsg EVER- by far :)
I love it here soooo much! The work load is a lot and very difficult though... i think ihave more homewrkin my one core class here then i have ever put in, in all of high school. I would sya on average i have about 2 hours of homework per night for this one class which on class days (non-trip days) we have 5 hours staright of.... if we are on Tiyul (trips) tehn we have classon the trips but its still soo worth it.
I love it here. I almost want to say i do't want to come home - but i do! i want to come home, but i want hoem to stay in Israel. I'm starting to feel/ make my connection and relationship with it and it's so powerful. I love it with all my heart...im even picking up some small hebrew!!
Anyways, new update in another week!!! :)
sorry about all the typos.. the computers here from back when the dinosaurs were still around and barely run so its good enough that i can get to the internet. The keyboards were made a few millenia ago as well... :)
I miss everyone.
everyone in the states seems to be in uproar over the bombing yesterday... while it's the complete opposite in Israel. well not complete, but pretty close. Its something that has to do with Kiddush Hashem ...dying (just to live for what you believe) without the intent if dying. The people here are living here because it's their land. and just know, that when they get on a bus (for the most part) they arn't scared. sure it goes through their mind but its what they have dealt with growing up in a controversal land.
That's sad to say aswell....soemthing we have to deal with as jews, as our homeland being israel, and our history but it is and thats the truth- and it's worth fighting for! We can't be scared, because the second jews as a people and the occupants start to fear... then they are beginning to overcome us.
My modreich said to me the other day when we asked if he ever gets scared about the bombings "sure it stirs me up for a few minutes, and its a small jab in the heart, but you cant be scared. The second i start to get scared living in Jerusalem...it is no longer MY city and i have to leave.... that won't happen"
Don't be scared fo Israel. We are strong as Am Israel. and as we had to scream off the mountain top last wek... Am Israel Hai (the people of Israel Live on) ...