We started the week off with a tiyul, which is a change from the usual. We headed to the desert to the sand dunes. The hike through the sand was difficult, but the sand felt good on my toes. We sat and had class in the sand. I played with the sand and let it run between my fingers. This was the most satisfying sensation, feeling each grain slip through my fingers. After class we ran down the dunes. I am surprised i did not fall on the way down the first dune. On the second dune Grace and I did somersaults down. I became dizzy very quickly and I got sand all in my pants. It was a blast and as we were leaving it began to rain. It was crazy how often do you get to stand in a sand dune in the rain? It was really neat to be in nature and see the city on the outskirts. How does one look at barren land imagine life there.  We then headed to a museum where the first aliyah settlement was. We got to walk around the town and learn on how these people were successful in surviving in Jerusalem.  The town was gorgeous and we got to see the working well that decide whether or not Judaism would continue. The well still worked and it pumped water out, which allowed me to wash all the sand off my feet from the dunes. After all the sand and traveling we went to something a bit sweater. A citrus orchid. We got to ride on a little train pick oranges and make orange juice from them. It was the best orange juice i have ever had. We went to the inside of a building on the grounds that was a replica of the packaging system used to ship the oranges out. This was cool because we learned about the second aliyah and how most of the people who came were teenagers,not much older than myself. We then took this information and made an activity out of it. Our group sat in a circle and everyone went around saying something they hope to accomplish in the long run. It was really moving to hear everyone’s hopes and dreams. As each person shared we all responded to them with positive feedback. The whole activity was beautiful and showed the best side of everyone. After this we all head to dots in a huge mall.

The rest of the week had a more serious tone. We spent 13 hours on Thursday in our core classes learning about the holocaust in preparation for Poland. We spent the entire day devoted to the history of the Jews of Europe and their lives before and during the holocaust. The day was long and draining especially towards the end where we did this activity which we were faced with problem which a person in the holocaust would have had to deal with. An example was a woman and her baby are running inside a camp and find shelter in an emptied out bunker where there are already 14 other people hiding, the baby begins to cry and is a threat to everyone’s life what do you do? It incredibly hard to fathom the thought of having to kill your own child in a time of need. Everyday the Jews of the holocaust made extremely hard choices and decisions. We finished of the day of studies with watching the first part of Schindler’s list. The next day we head to Jerusalem. Once in Jerusalem we spent almost the entire day at Yad Vashem studying even more history of the holocaust. The museum was fascinating there were so many artifacts and pictures showing the layers of the war. The last room of the archives was probably the most moving because our guide said the only had around four thousand of the six thousand names of the victims of the holocaust. Our guide said this was really concerning because this is the last generation any survivors will be alive and if we don’t find the rest of the names now they will be gone forever. We also went to the children’s memorial and it was breathtaking it was a dark room filled with mirrors on every wall reflecting the three candles in the middle of the room thousands and thousands of times. As you walk through the room the names of the all children who were killed are read. We also went into an area where there’d were large stones with names of all the areas and town where Jews lived before the holocaust. We went to the area of Ukraine towns and I told my story of my great grandparents who lived in Kiev and escaped before the war. On a lighter note we went to the shuk next and it was crazy. There were so many people and so much food. I wanted to buy everything however I controlled myself and only bought a wool sweater for Poland. After the shuck we headed towards our hostel and we changed into Shabbat clothes. We walked to the Kotel and sang and danced with many women. The experience was so uplifting to see so many smiling faces singing and dancing together. On the walk back we came across a water fountain where we all ran through and got soaking wet it was a blast. After all the dancing we headed back to the hostel and headed to bed after a nice dinner. The next day was very relaxed we went on a short walk to the rain station where we spent the afternoon in the sun. Then we had three hours to ourselves to back and hang. Then it was time to come back home. Once back at home we all went to town for dinner and came back to the dorms and packed for Poland.

I’m not sure how ready I am for Poland. I’m not exactly nervous for the common reason that we are going to Poland and seeing death camps and parts of the holocaust where it actually happened. I’m nervous I won’t be able to connect to anything that’s happening. I have never felt a deep connection with the holocaust and I’m worried that I won’t be able to have a connection in Poland. This makes me nervous because I want to be able to connect because it was such a big part of history. I feel a deep need to find a connection to the holocaust,bit i do not know if I can. I had no family the was affected due to the war and no ties to any who was directly affected. This is one of the reasons it’s so hard to connect. I’m hoping being in Poland will help me connect on a better level since I will be in a place where things actually did happen.