Day 8

Today we woke up at seven-thirty, some of us more ready to start our day than others.  It was a very solemn morning because today was Yom Hazikaron.  After we got up we had a very meaningful tefillah, led by Kayla, Tatiana and Jennifer. We then left for breakfast where many discovered the wonders of the hot chocolate machine at the kibbutz we are staying at. Many went back for seconds and drank more hot chocolate than they ate food. (This was followed by numerous bathroom stops!)

            After breakfast we headed to a special event at Degania Alef (the first kibbutz, founded in 1910), for Yom Hazikaron.  It was a very powerful ceremony, especially when half the class nearly had heart attacks from the ceremonial gunshots.

            The class then went on a shopping experience at two separate grocery stores. Each group had to find certain items so that we could eat a picnic. It was pretty frantic knowing we had a limited time to find all the items on the list. It took us a while to find Bisli, but we did find it in the end. We then got on the bus and kept heading north, more specifically to the Golan Heights. 

            When we arrived we learned about how the Kinneret is extremely important to Israel because it supplies the whole country with water.  We had lunch right outside the nature reserve, made from the food we bought at the stores.

            Then we headed off to a bike rental place where we took a lot of bikes and a guide took us on a bike trail and told us about this area’s rich history.  This entire area used to be a swamp until it was drained.  That created many different problems in this area so many people had to come back to restore the area. Morah Amalya and Rabbi Amanda decided that biking wasn’t their thing, so they rode a golf cart. Let’s just say that a few other kids liked the idea and hopped onto the cart as well. (We might not have named names, but we have to-Ben, Jennifer and Julia (Sorry)) It was quite the sight. Half way through the trail, they got left behind and got completely lost and had to be rescued. It’s not that we snickered much...

            Tonight was absolutely incredible. We ate a feast in the kibbutz hadar ochel (dining room) and then headed out to Tiberias to join in the Yom Ha-atzmaut celebrations. It was a hard transition from a remembrance day to a celebration, but the bus ride helped us a lot. You will no doubt hear about the craziness of this particular bus ride. We haven’t laughed that hard in a while. We decided that we would do a “flash mob” when we arrived in the city. The first person we asked to videotape it, recorded the ground, so we had to repeat our dance, much to the amusement of everyone on the promenade. It is perhaps the most ridiculous “dance” you will ever see. We saw some not-so-spectacular fireworks, but then heard there was a Seminal concert on in the square, so off we went with Rachel swathed in our huge Israeli flag and we had the best time ever. We danced, we sang and then…have you ever heard of fake whipped cream? Well, Zach decided to buy some after we had all been sprayed multiple times by total strangers. Zach made sure that all of us got completely covered. We ended the evening with Morah Amalya buying ice-cream for everyone. The bus ride home was a tiny bit subdued, but not much-until we found out that we are waking up at 6 AM. There are a group of keeners who want to run at 5 with Dudu, but we will have to wait and see if they will actually run. We think not.