This Monday was Yom Hashoah, the morning started off with us in class and then we all walked into town. We stood there for a few moments and then a loud siren went off that all of Israel could hear. Everyone stopped in the middle of the street and got out of there cars and stood there silent for two minutes while the sirens were blaring. Everyone got out of there shops I even saw people standing on their balconies in an apartment building. Everything had just stopped, it was the craziest thing I have ever experienced. It’s amazing how most of the country spends a day remembering the Holocaust because even something so horrible as the holocaust happening there is a place we can call a Jewish state and call home. After the two minutes passed and the sirens stopped everyone got back in there cars and time had started again.

On Wednesday we went to the Lebanon border and and talked to a guy from the kibbutz that lived there, let’s just say he had some very interesting ideas and thoughts. Afterwards we went rafting in the Jordan River and it was so much fun! Every time our raft would drift to the sides of the river we would have to duck because here were branches and bamboo sticking out everywhere, it was hilarious. Then we went to a kibbutz to stay the night, it was very pretty!

The next day we went to a spot where the Yom Kippur war took place in the Golan Height called the Valley Of Tears. We learned about two heroes of the war, the spot we were at was right next to the Syrian border and while we were talking notes we could hear bombs going off and gun fire because of the civil war happening in Syria. I know that i was safe but to be able to hear something like that happening was just saddening.

Next was our hike in Galilee, it was all downhill and very beautiful, my only complaint was how hot it was! When we got to the bottom of the hike we were at this pool and waterfall and it was spectacular! You could see a rainbow in the waterfall, the water was freezing but it was so worth it. We swam to the waterfall and there was a hole in the rocks behind the waterfall so we swam under the waterfall and climbed the rocks and stood in it and it was so amazing in so many different ways.

Now that the session is coming to an end, and I know I have a month left but that goes by so fast here. I’m just so sad that this amazing chapter in my life is coming to end, because it’s not like camp where you go home and then come back the next year. This is the end game, I won’t be coming back. But these four months have been filled with amazing memories that will definitely bring me back to Israel.