Another week has passed here in Hod Hasharon, and it sure has been an amazing 7 days. First of all, on Tuesday, my session went into Jerusalem and toured through various museums about ancient Israel, which included seeing a model of ancient Jerusalem. The coolest part of the model was getting to see for our own eyes the exact layout of the city as our teacher Yossi hadbeen describing it. We were able to see where the poor people lived, where the rich people lived, and got to learn about the strategic placements of the Roman fortresses intended to squander any Judaic revolts. Later that day, we got to learn more about an ancient Sect of Judaism called the Essenes, who today may be considered very radical in their beliefs. We learned about how the Essenes devoted their whole life to G-d, and how their sect was made entirely of men– not a single woman. It might sound a little boring, but to me, the whole concept was quite interesting.

After the museums, we traveled to a youth hostel at the base of Masada which had the most amazing view of the water and Jordan out in the distance, along with Masada of course. The intention for the next day was to climb the snake trail of Masada, the original path. However, after waking up at 4:00am and getting all ready to climb, we found out that due to a cable car malfunction, we would have to drive an hour and 15 minutes to the other side of the mountain and climb up the Roman Ramp, which was built 7 years after the snake trail when the Romans overtook Masada in 73 CE. Even though the climb up the Roman Ramp was probably a lot easier, I was a little disappointed because it seemed a little TOO easy, if that makes sense. While we were at the top of Masada, we got to tour Genivas, Mikvahs, an ancient synagogue, and an extremely cool cave that were left behind after the Romans conquered. My favorite part about the trip to Masada however was when Yossi brought my class up to a cliff edge where IDF soldiers used to take a pledge, and had up take the pledge as well. We yelled one word at a time, chanting “Shenit Mitzadad Lo Tipol” or “Masada won’t fall again!”. After Masada, we went to the Dead Sea, and even though it was only 50 degrees, cold, windy, and raining, it was still the coolest experience. At first I will admit I was slightly afraid of just lying back and trusting the water, but once I leaned back I felt like I was floating, which I technically was, but it was a sensation I had never experienced before. Despite my previous thought, the salt in the water didn’t sting that much, and overall I felt pretty good while in the water, taking funny pictures with friends on Go Pros and on cellphones with our Madricha on the shore. On Sunday, we went to an ancient crawl space called Hirbet Midres which was used in the Barchoa revolt by the Romans. At first, I was slightly terrified of the extremely small quarters, but once we got crawling, it was insanely cool. We sung “Hinai Ma Tov” in a small room about halfway through the crawl in the pitch dark, and it was weird cause I couldn’t see anything of course, but overall I just felt so close to my class and truly felt like a family.

One thing that I’ve noticed since I’ve gotten here and seen on my trips is that Israelis are a lot healthier than Americans overall. It’s not meant as an insult, but even as I’m walking around, a lot of the shops that I see with food utilize a lot more fruits and vegetables, and fast food restaurants are a lot less common. For example, there’s a smoothie shop in the town part of Hod Hasharon called Moshiko’s where my friends and I often get smoothies rather than getting a large soda like back in the states, and what’s usually the most accessible. In addition, a common thing that I’ve seen while walking or driving around is there are so many more parks– for both adults and kids– around Hod Hasharon and the rest of Israel. The playgrounds seem to be bigger, and include more physically demanding exercises for children. Next to many kids playgrounds are a lot of adult playgrounds, compiled of workout equipment. Here at Alexander Muss we have one right outside of our dorm, and since I’ve gotten here it’s overall been a lot easier to keep in shape with the easy access to better food options and to workout equipment/playgrounds.