Day 3

Day three of our adventures in Israel!

We were all woken up at five fifteen in the morning as we got ourselves packed up to leave the hotel. We put our luggage on the bus (no easy feat) and headed off to Masada. Although too tired to show emotion of any kind, all of us were undoubtedly excited to take on whatever this day had to offer.

After the nauseating, roller-coaster-like ride to Masada, the class charged up the Roman Ramp. On Masada we saw amazing sights such as where the Romans broke into the fortress and the synagogues that were used. We had a very special tefillah at the fortress, with people coming in and taking pictures.  We literally, as Zach and Kayla put it, “Became a tourist attraction.”  Yaakov, Avi and Julia led tefillah. Torah readers were Julia, Zachary, Jennifer and Rachel. Everyone did a splendid job, and we received a lot of compliments about tefillah from those who had “popped in.” After some more sightseeing we got ready for the long descent down the mountain’s snake path. The tricky part wasn’t getting speed, it was containing it so that you didn’t fall straight down the path. Rachel came down first and promptly did twenty jumping jacks. Hard to know where she gets all that energy. After finishing the trail, the class enjoyed cold popsicles as we waited for the bus, and waited, and waited…

Then we took off for the Dead Sea.  Of course, we had to eat first. Then we got changed and we went into the water.  After making the astonishing discovery that we could float, we had a lot of fun in the water.  Soon we all had to take showers and went straight to the mud pits, where we covered ourselves from head to toe in Dead Sea mud.  After that, we were all  extremely muddy, so we went back into the sea and repeated the cycle.  And then we BURNED in the painfully salty sea.

Once we left the Dead Sea we headed over to Ein Gedi, the oasis in the desert.  There we went on yet another hike, SO MANY STAIRS, to a lake with a refreshing waterfall. The whole class had a water fight in which each one of us, countless times, were pushed into the water and splashed in the face. During this time we drenched Yonit, our tour guide, seconds after she got in the water! Luckily the bus driver didn’t notice as our soaked tour guide got into the bus. We dried off, got on the bus and went on our way to the holy city of Jerusalem.

We finally arrived in Jerusalem. The Welcoming Committee (Kayla, Jennifer and Rachel) set up an activity for the whole class. With our eyes closed, we wandered out of the bus holding onto the person in front of us. We were led to an overlook of the City and we stopped to breathe in the Jerusalem sounds.  We opened our eyes at the same time and each took in the breathtaking view that is the City of Jerusalem. Four of us had never visited Jerusalem and each one of them spoke about how different it is real life rather than in a picture. We stood in a circle singing Yerushalayim Shel Zahav and we thanked God for bringing us here together.

We got settled into our new hotel rooms, we ate dinner and headed out to Ben Yehuda Street.  There we split into three different groups and went exploring.  Although the main purpose of this expedition was to buy gifts, we ended up just buying food instead.! Peanut butter was a popular choice, as was Nutella and ice cream. Shocking.

So as the eighth grade gathered around a table, we all ate our various food choices and headed off, back to the hotel. The Jerusalem Tower is so close to Ben Yehuda, it is totally cool.

We hope to write tomorrow, and we will if we have time to blog before Shabbat.

Day 2

If we had to choose a theme for today, it would have to be “camels.” We started off in The Mountain of the Camel where we did tefillah. Jennifer, Kayla, and Tatiana did a wonderful job leading the rest of the class. It was quite spiritual for many of us. Afterwards, we spent some time reflecting and writing in our Ramah journals.  Yoni said, “Home is wherever you are.” Rabbi Amanda wrote, “ God was in this place and I didn’t know it.” (from Vayetzei). After that, and a lot of pictures, we all got on the bus to head down into the Ramon Machtesh. (Ilan Ramon named himself after it.)

In a different part of the machtesh we collected colorful sand from a sand park and learned how machteshes are created, we then headed out back on the bus.  On the way out we briefly stopped and examined sandstone left behind by volcanic eruptions.  It was weird because the stones were all hexagonal. (We would translate the word machtesh, but there isn’t really a translation for it. As we found out, it is not a crater, but sort of looks like one!)

Soon many discovered their need for a bathroom, although some (we are not saying which gender of course) didn’t need the bathroom enough to use the bushes. Everyone rushed on the bus and we drove off to the hotel, for the second time this morning! The Bathroom Race of 2014 had begun!

After we finished the race, we drove off to a Bedouin encampment. There we enjoyed the thrill of riding camels, both the pros and cons. We then enjoyed a Bedouin feast composed of chicken, rice, and pita bread. Soon after that we visited a Bedouin man who taught us about his interesting culture. It began with him playing an instrument that looked like a small harp. Avi and Yonit started dancing in the middle of us, and most of us tried our best to look like we weren’t with them. Julia ground coffee beans in a wooden thing that looked like a large, skinny mortar and pestle, to a certain beat and did an excellent job.

We ended this hot, camel-centered day in a pool in Mitzpeh Ramon. It was fun to see Kayla and Eitan swim a very competitive race, won by Kayla (sorry, Eitan). Everyone had a great time, including the staff and none of the staff were thrown in. Actually, only one person was shoved in, and it was only by a little finger, so it doesn’t really count (sorry, Eitan).

We tried to prank Yonit by hiding Rachel, but we were found out rather quickly, since Morah Amalya and Rabbi Amanda can’t keep straight faces (no hard feelings).

The staff wants to thank Josh and Zach for contributing to the blog. As the blog committee, they write most of it during the day and then it gets supplemented and edited by the adults later on! We didn’t ask them to do it last night, since they were already asleep when we did it, but from now on, it’s all them.

The day ended with a short nighttime hike in silence. We each sat in our own space and thought about ourselves in the world, the stars, the universe and how we fit in. We shared our thoughts and walked back to the hotel. Lights out is at 10 PM because tomorrow is an early start.

Day 1

We have only been in Israel for a few hours, but it has been an incredibly intense and fulfilling day. It has been a day peppered with sad, happy and exciting moments. Of course, as soon as we arrived at Ben Gurion we celebrated Julia’s 14^th birthday with balloons and a very public (and pretty out of tune) happy birthday song in Hebrew.

We found our Ramah staff, Yonit, Roni and Avi, but where was our madrich? Where was Dudu? Well, he had a flat tire, and basically walked to the bus, leaving his car we don't’ know where! Yonit is a very lively tour guide, who is passionate about the Land and is extremely engaging. Roni is our bus driver who even let us finish our breakfasts on the bus, and Avi is our medic/guard, who keeps a watchful eye out for all of us.

We began the day at a beach called “The Palmach Beach. The Tefillah Committee members led tefillah and did a wonderful job. Yoni, Yaakov and Ben did us proud as we stood on the shores of the Mediterranean, listening to the waves lapping at the sand while we faced east to Jerusalem. After tefillah, the students had a few minutes to wet their feet in the ocean, and then we ate our second breakfast of the day J

At exactly 10 AM while we drove to Beer Sheva, a siren went off in commemoration of Yom Hashoah VeHaGvurah and everyone moved off to the side of the highway and got out of their cars for two minutes of silence. It was a sobering moment. In Beer Sheva we had a very meaningful service for the victims of the Holocaust, in which everyone participated.

This all sounds pretty serious-and it was at times. But, there have been some lighter, fun moments. Morah Amalya and I pranked the kids at JFK by saying that they had to have another vocabulary test, which they took, even though they didn’t have to! Unfortunately for all of us, Yaakov bought a joke book in the airport, which we fully regret already. On the plane we definitely made our presence known, and there was a lot of socializing and moving seats in the 10 hour flight. It was extremely cool to fly over Spain and see the outline of the coast, not to mention the fact that we witnessed both a sunset and a sunrise.

We began our hike of Ayn Ovdat at 3 PM and although it was warm, it wasn’t awful and it was an easy hiking experience, which was a good thing since some of us clearly needed to sleep. We saw lots of Ibex on the rocks, lizards and a crab that took a particular interest in Tatiana!

We are at the Ramon Hotel right now, where the rooms are lovely, clean and bright. Of course, Morah Amalya and I needed Yoni to get down the remote controls from the wall for the AC and he needed to get down my towels!  Otherwise, it seems like a wonderful place to lay our heads for these two nights.

This evening we played some bonding games with Yonit and Dudu. It turns out that Zachary is very good at talking with a full mouth of water! Who knew? Everyone participated in a theatre game that required them to have a conversation about a topic that the “audience” chose, but they could only ask questions. It felt very much like seeing a scene from Waiting For Godot. There were some hysterical moments, and we all stayed awake for just a bit longer. Everyone is tucked into bed and we are going to sleep soon!

Layla Tov,

Amanda, Amalya and the 8th Graders