Today I went to the beach with Anna and Molly, it was so relaxing to be there and enjoy water and each others company. In the evening our whole group went on a boat ride around the port of Ashdod, it was nice to be able to spend time together and see great views of the city. At night I went for a walk with Anna to a huge playground in the city. After almost 5 months in it still amazes me the diversity you can see when you walk around this country, young teenage couples, religious women with tons of children, and anything else you could imagine.
I really began to feel the end coming and to think about what it will be like to go home. It will be difficult to express what I have been through here.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
This afternoon we had another advocacy enrichment, teaching us how to represent Isreal when we get home, I am starting to feel as though we are being bambarded with these lectures but it’s almost over. We then had Ulpan and headed to Tel Aviv. Molly, Sarah, Anna and I went out for a nice dinner and drinks, its been wonderful spending time talking with them as we went through this crazy adventure together and I cannot believe its all starting to wind down.
Friday, June 4, 2010
We strolled around Tel Aviv, exploring some new streets today and then headed home for Shabbat. My host family was out of town so I joined Anna with her family. It was a lovely evening, very different from my usual Shabbat. It was a very lively family with 3 daughters, and a friend. We laughed and sang the whole meal together. It was nice to have a new Shabbat experience here and see how everyone makes it special in their own way.
Afterwards we headed to Tel Aviv for the evening, as our time here comes to a close the celebrations begin.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Today I was invited to share the very unique experience of flying over Israel. My friend Aron was got a tour in a private plane from his parents for his birthday and invited Anna and I to join. We met the pilot at his house and headed to Dov airport, a local airport in Tel Aviv. We went through some surprisingly tight security at the deserted airport.
We helped prepare the plane and before long we were up in the air flying over the Tel Aviv coast line. It was a beautiful sight. Its nice that I have been here long enough and experienced enough to recognize much of what I was seeing. We flew a bit south over Rishon LeZion and a few other smaller cities. Before we knew it we had already hit the Judean Mountains, its unreal how quickly the terrain changes. Jerusalem was quite the sight from the sky. We could see Yad Vashem, Har Hertzl, the Knesset, the Old City, Western Wall, temple mount, East Jerusalem and the Jewish settlements. I hope the pictures do it justice.
Afterwards we headed further southeast to the Dead Sea. The colors were incredible. We landed at what they call the Masada airport but it was nothing more than a runway and Bedouin tent. The pilot had a friend in the area who picked us up and took us to the Dead Sea for a quick swim then we headed back to the airport for some delicious labane, hummus and pita. We were supposed to fly back over Be’er Shevah and Ashdod but because of the mess going on with the flotilla and everything the airspace was closed. We headed back the way we came and landed in Hertzellya on the way home.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
This week our program is going to spend on the military base called Hatira in the south. We are doing a program called Sar El where Israelis and non-Israelis alike volunteer with the Israeli army. Hatira is an ammunition base about an hour south of Be’er Shevah. In Ashdod we met one of the officers who would be with us for the week and we headed to the base.
Overall today was a pretty boring and relaxing day, depending on when you ask me. We arrived at the base, had lunch which was not too bad and unpacked in our rooms. We are 18 girls, staying 9 and 9 in to rooms. It feels very much like camp and its nice to be living with people that were in other houses during the program. After we settled in we met up at the building where they keep the uniforms to pick ours up along with sleeping bags and pillows if you were lucky enough to get one. Putting on that uniform was a really interesting experience. It was nice to not think about what to wear and to look the same as everyone but on the other hand you are wearing a uniform that comes with a lot of emotions. People are very passionate about the military and their pride to their country and Israel is obviously nothing different, in actuality there may be even more controversy and emotions when discussing the Israeli army.
We just hung around the rest of the afternoon and went to dinner together. Its amazing how much of a routine exists on the base. After dinner we did some activities as a group, relay races and such. It was a nice day getting to know our group in a new way and I am looking forward to the rest of our time on base.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Today was our first day actually working on base. We were all sent to do different work. Many of us were bussed out of the main area of the base where the soldiers eat and live and we drove for about 10 minutes through the Negev. Many of the roads were lines with manmade hills where on one end there were doors where they stored a lot of the army’s artillery. I went with a few other girls to a lot where they have different containers for storing things. We sorted through containers to see if they sealed well or not. After about just an hour we sat and enjoyed coffee with Aaron, the man who worked there as a civilian, and 2 of the soldiers. It was pretty hot out but we were a bit shocked how quickly we took a break. Just before 12 a shuttle came to pick us up and take us to lunch. Now that we had been there for a day we started to understand how army meals and food work, the same food over and over again, meat lunches, dairy dinners.
We had a break after lunch and then back to the container area. Aaron seemed to be very tired that day and just hung out with us and told us stories. I always thought the country was really relaxed but the army seems to be run in some ways in the same fashion, at least this base is very laid back, I am would imagine that they are each different. We had dinner than a commander of Sar El came to talk to us. It was nice that he took the time to come, he talked to us, as many have before, about how we are the best representatives of Israel and its important we go home and share our experiences to shed a different light on the situation that is here.
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