Entry #2
February 25, 2019
First off, I'm really sorry I haven't been able to get a post out sooner. I've been extremely busy over the past couple weeks - I can go so far to say that I'm even busier here than I am back home, though I'm definitely experiencing less academic-related stress. Since it's been so long, I thought I'd share just a few highlights from the past couple weeks. I won't include so many details since there's so much to cover.
On February 10th, my class and I went to the location of the ancient city of David, where we learned about civilization thousands of years ago and techniques utilized by archaeologists to uncover more information surrounding what went on in the time period and whether or corroborates what is told in the Tanach. After that tiyul, we had a fairly standard week and I began to get into the swing of things - I set up a daily routine for myself that involved an evening run as well as sleeping early enough to get at least six hours of sleep. We then had our first Jewish History test, which was tedious but surprisingly easy. After that, I met up with my sister on Friday. I can say this was really one of the biggest highlights of the trip so far -- I'd honestly forgotten how much I missed my family and friends until I was able to spend a few hours with her. I was then grossly overcharged by the taxi driver, who had "forgotten" to start the meter.
Last week was a chaotic one. We had yet another tiyul on Wednesday, where we went to the Jerusalem Museum to see replicated Dead Sea Scrolls and learn about their historical origin. The very next day, we packed our bags, cleaned our rooms (an agonizing process, seeing as nobody in our room had ever bothered to clean) and went to the Old City for a day to learn about the second Temple and its destruction (keep in mind, these trips were designed to follow what we were covering in our Jewish History classes). Since it was our first day tiyul, we were so exhausted towards the end of it that the counselors decided to cut our trip early. We then rode on the bus for several more hours until we reached Masada.
The following day, we did what every tourist was doing: we woke up at 4am, packed our bags, and summited Masada, a mountain of great historical significance. It's the location where the Jews, pursued by Romans, set up a new home for themselves, eventually killing themselves and their families to avoid recapture and slavery. Though all of us were running on a few hours of sleep, it was interesting to hear about the story of Masada, especially as we were able to witness direct evidence of civilization. We then went to the Dead Sea and later drove all the way down to Ein Gedi, where we slept for the night. In the morning, we rode on camels, a painful but rewarding experience, and later completed our drive to Eilat.
If you're not aware, Eilat is a location designed for tourists or Israelis looking for a weekend getaway. It's the southern-most part of Israel. Our counselors had clearly decided we needed a break and opted for a weekend of going to the beach, boardwalk, and plenty of free time. I'd actually been to many of the locations in Eilat that we went to, including two of the hostels that we stayed at. Still, it was extremely nice to have a relaxing weekend.
Before leaving, we went to an innovation center in Eilat. Despite many stereotypes of Tel Aviv being the center of modernization and start-ups, this center told us of their effort to support budding start-ups and promote the development of smaller businesses in the South. We then went snorkeling in the Red Sea and returned to our Kibbutz. We also changed rooms.
I really wish I could include more details about the day-to-day life, but there were so many details that I didn't want to leave out about the last couple weeks. I have some more trips ahead. Here's to hoping our wake up time will be later than 6:15am, something that hasn't been the norm for the last couple weeks.
Side note: I've been uploading all the pictures I take to a Google Photos album. Once finalized, I'll post a link.