Shalom and Bonjour!
I know it has been a while since I left, but I had to wait until I had free internet access in order to start :)
I've kept a daily journal as I've gone, so we'll start from the beginning...
I've just finished the first part of my trip and oh my gosh, it has been incredible. The ten days I spent in Israel have been unreal - I never thought I could do and see so much in that time! I'm afraid this will be quite a long post because I want to tell you everything!
First off, I arrived in NY at 5 am to meet up with my group later in the day. I made friends with two British boys who had been traveling for the last three months. We talked for a few hours, and I plan to meet up with them when I get to London! My first European friends :) I met up with my Birthright group (about 40 people ages 18-25, mostly from the East Coast) and we went through security for El Al Air, which was pretty intens! They asked us all sorts of questions, which I must have answered wrong because they took all my bags (including carry-ons) to search and told me to come back and get them later haha. So much for my nice packing...
We got to Israel the next morning after an uneventful 10.5 hour flight and drove on a big tour bus (basically our home for the next 10 days) straight to the Sea of Galilee. It was so beautiful, and I had my first (of many) Israeli falafel - delicious! We stayed the next two nights at a Kibbutz right on the sea. One weird thing about most of the Kibbutz's at which we stayedc was that the showers consist of a curtain and drain with a big squeegee, but nothing to keep the water out of the rest of the bathroom, so you just have to sweep all your water into the drain afterward. A bit messy as you can imagine...
The next day we drove up to Safet. We walked around and the two girls I was rooming with and I made friends with a woman who happened to own an art gallery up the street. She had painting and blown glass, and she actually blew glass into a pendant for us! It was really cool. We drove up to the Lebanese border (the state of Israel is about the size of New Jersey, so only a few hours drive up and down). Our guide pointed out places where the Hezbollah hide out and we saw Israeli tanks driving to and from the base on the border. We also went up to the Golan Heights, were we could see Syria and Jordan, and we climbed through bomb shelters. Obviously, Israel is currently at peace in those areas, but it was still strange to be in a place where just a few years ago shells were falling. Although, since the state is so small, there were times when we were within 25 miles of falling shells in Gaza. We got to go kayaking too, where we shared the river with literally 100s of school-aged Arab kids. Needless to say, we got pretty wet, especially when some older kids (drunk maybe?) jumped onto our kayak and professed their love - a little awkward haha. While the Arab kids were certainly interesting, I think Israeli men as a whole are the most attractive I have ever seen.
The next day we had a lecture/discussion about Arab/Israeli relations within Israel. Israel is made up of Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs (Muslims) mostly. There are separate school systems taught in Hebrew or Arabic (although all the Arabs learn Hebrew as well, and everyone learns English). We got to go to a High School and meet a group of 16 and 17 year olds who were preparing for a trip to the US. They actually took us to their houses and we got to talk with them for a while. They were very hospitable!
On our fourth day, we went to Tel Aviv. We went to Independence Hall and Rabin Square where we met up with eight Israeli Soldiers (four girls and four guys) who then spent the next five days with our group. In Israel, all young people are required to serve in the army for 2 or 3 years after high school (so they were our age). Remember the whole attractive Israeli men thing? Well the women are absolutely gorgeous too! We spent the afternoon walking and shopping at Shuck Ha Carmel and then spent the night out dancing in Tel Aviv at clubs on the boardwalk (yessss I'm finally in a place where I am old enough to go out!). Since we were on an official group trip, we could never go out on our own or stay out much past 12, so the parties always continued in the Hotel long after. On this particular night we were at a hotel right on the Mediterranean! However, we weren't actually given time to go to the beach... there was no way I was going to leave Israel without getting in the Mediterranean, so another boy and I snuck out at 3 am and went swimming! The water was so much warmer than the Pacific! Oh, and I forgot to mention, but I think I averaged about three hours of sleep per night and was surprisingly fine with it! It's not like I was in Israel to sleep, as I was frequently reminded ;)
We got up and went to volunteer for a group called Table to Table, which sends people out to harvest crops that will otherwise be wasted and distributes the food to those in need. This particular morning, we were picking celery. It was hot and messy, but because there were so many of us, it went quick. This celery, however, became the bane of our existance, which I will get to in a little bit. After the celery, we drove to some ancient caves that were used to trap Roman soldiers. This was definitely one of my favorite things! We crawled through the caves which were soo small you had to be on your knees or stomach! I found out that I am not claustrophobic... We then drove down to the desert (Nagrev) to a really nice Kibbutz and swam and hung out. Since this was Friday, it was the start of Shabat. We lit candles and had dinner and then went to the bar. Another side note - pretty much everywhere we went there were several other birthright groups. I saw more big tour buses in Israel than I have in my entire life (although Taglist is expecting to talk about 40,000 young adults on the trip this year, so I guess it makes sense).
Saturday was still Shabbat, and it was nice to have a little rest. In the morning, five of our group members had bar/bat mitzvahs. It was pretty informal and kind reminded me of a Las Vegas wedding... Most kids spend months preparing for this ceremony, not three days. But good for them for doing it, because I certainly did not. That night, after Shabbat was over, we went on a night hike out in the desert. I have never seen sooo many stars!! It was so incredible - you could actually see all the stars that you see on a star map, and our guide pointed out a bunch of constellations too. The hike itself was pretty difficult- very hilly and rocky, but totally worth it.
Sunday we continued through the deser to Be'er Sheba, which was hot (even hotter than the rest of Israel), dirty, and as one of the soldiers put it (his words, not mine) the shithole of Israel haha. We visited Ben Gurion University, which was very pretty, but none of us could really enjoy it because we were all quickly coming dow with what became known to us as MUCS: Mysterious Unidentified Celery Syndrome. To various degrees of severity, at least half the group was developing splotchy red spots and lines. Some were blistering as well. So, we took a trip to a clinic where they didn't really know anything and spent three hours cleaning and wrapping our mysterious "chemical burns" (as they thought it might be). The clinic took so long that we missed our camel rides! I was soooo bummed... I really wanted to ride a camel! We spent the night in traditional Bedouin tents (ours, luckily, was right next to the camel pen, so I jumped the fence and petted them at least) We had an amazing dinner and thankfully Gary had bought a guitar that day so we had a campfire and sung. This was another night of less than two hours of sleep, as we got up at 4am to go climb Masada to see the sun rise. We were a little last so we literally ran up the mountain, but it was so worth it. WAtching the sunrise over the Dead Sea among ancient ruins was absolutely unbelievable. After, we took a different, 700 stair, winding, cliff-on-one-side path down. I may not be claustrophobic but I am decently afraid of heights... especially cliffs. Exhausting. It was only 7:30 am when we got to the bottom haha! We had breakfast and then took a short hike up to some waterfalls where we swam and played in the beautiful, clear water. Then we went to the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point on Earth and is soo salty that you just float! You seriously just sit on the water - no treading, just sitting! The bottom was covered in salt crystals which made it very pretty. The high salt content meant that the water burned any cut or opening in your body. Like really burned a lot... so we couldn't stay in very long. We got some of the famous Dead Sea mud and covered ourselves thought, which was very nice but unfortunately did not cure our MUCS. From the Dead Sea, we drove to Jerusalem and said goodbye to our soldiers. Having them with us was so much fuin and they fit in so well with our group. It was very sad to see them go, but it's nice to know that I ill have people to visit when I go back!
We spent our last full day in Israel in Jerusalem's Old City. We walked through the Jewish Quarter and shopped and ate. The vendors are all very pushy which was super frustrating for me, but at least you could bargain with them to get the prices down. We stood in the very center of Jerusalem to see all 4 quarters of the city. Jersalem, like Israel, is surrouned by areas that hate it - it is a haven inside the West Bank. We alos went to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) to leave our own notes in the wall. Mena dn womern have seperate sections of the wall (the women's is much smaller of course). People from all over put so much faith in that wall and even if for only that reason it is so special and emotional. We had our closing dinner and tie-in program and then went out in (the new part of) Jerusalem. Our last night was a lot of fun - just haning out in a square, going to an Irish (yes, Irish haha) pub, and then back to the hotel.
The next morning we went to the cemetary at MT Hertzel and saw, appropriately, Theodore Hertzel's grave. This cemetary was so beautiful and so peaceful - not sad or creepy at all. We went to a big outdoor market and then to the airport. I made a lot of really good friends on this trip and it was so strange and sad to see them all get on the plane together without me. Instead I spent 12 more hours in the airport as my already late evening flight got delayed until the early morning. I flew from Tel Aviv to Belgrade (Serbia), got in at 3:30 am, slept on a metal bench (ugh) and left SErbia at 8:30, finally getting to Paris about 11am!
I'm currently in Paris and I'll update on my Parisian adventures very soon!
