Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
First 2 Weeks of Seminar
Ok so as most of you reading this know (that means my parents, because I don't think many other people actually read this) I don't really have internet access while I work as a counselor on Ramah Seminar. I'm on my first day off in 2 weeks, and it has been MUCH needed! I get about 5 hours of sleep a night and each of my days is about 18 hours long consisting of 3-4 stops each day of hiking and walking around. I hike/walk about 6 km every day. My experience with the kids has been both a positive and negative one: there are some amazing kids out there that impress me tremendously, but unfortunately there are several kids that make me disgusted to be related to them as human beings. I want to ship them off to boot camp until they learn respect and the values of being a good person.
Anyways, let me try and give you a quick summary of what I've been doing...
My first week of Seminar started in the north of Israel, based in an orthodox youth village called Hodayot. The theme of the travels in the north was Borders and Beginnings, where we showed the kids the borders with several countries and showed them different kinds of people living in and around Israel. We traveled all around the Golan Heights and the Galilee, seeing beautiful nature hikes and cool cities. Some of the pretty hikes I've done are in places called Banyas, Gilabon, and Mount Arbel. These were all nature hikes, some being around beautiful waterfalls and hiking in streams (which I always think is very cool). As for Mount Arbel, we hiked up it in order to stand on the top and pray Shacharit (the morning prayers) as the sun rose, which was really a beautiful scene. I know I throw the word beautiful around, but it's one of the best words I can use. Other places we've visited have related to the military here, as it is one of Israel's central focuses. We visited a place called Kfar Giladi where we heard the story of a man named Joseph Trumpledor, who was a Zionist leader and came to live in Israel, saying that if no one cultivated the land up north, countries would simply take it over. He died fighting for what he believed was his homeland, and was quoted as saying "It is good to die for your country." We also visited an old army based overlooking Syria called Har Bental, and we got to run around in all the old trenches in this base. We've also gotten to meet with Israeli Arab teenagers to hear their perspectives on things as well as meeting some Druze people in their village (called Dalit al HaKarmel) to hear their perspectives on Israel.
The second week here we moved ourselves to the base camp in Jerusalem, and have started to travel around this area. We've traveled up to Tel Aviv to see Independence Hall, where Ben Gurion declared the Jewish state of Israel in the middle of a war. We took the kids to a mall where every single place to eat in the mall is strictly kosher, there's a synagogue there, and how this mall completely shuts down on Shabbat...how cool is that??? We've taken them to parts of the Old City, to walk around the ancient towers of the walls of the old city, walking in Hezekiah's water tunnels. We are also exploring the War of Independce of 1948 and seeing some battle sites, such as Castel and San Simon Park. We also got to tour an underground ammunition factory called the Ayalon Institute and we visited the Palmach Museum (the Palmach was basically the beginnings of the Israeli Defense Forces).
Next week begins our 5 days of Etgar (literally meaning Challenge), where I will be one of about 9-10 counselors leading about 70 kids on a 5 day hiking, swimming, biking trip from the Kinneret (on one side of Israel) to the Mediterranean Sea (on the other side of Israel). This trip is commonly known as Yam L'Yam (Sea to Sea). Anyways, my next internet access should be in about 2 weeks, so be prepared for another big update then. Pictures will follow soon hopefully!
Love you all and hoping this finds you well,
Talia
Anyways, let me try and give you a quick summary of what I've been doing...
My first week of Seminar started in the north of Israel, based in an orthodox youth village called Hodayot. The theme of the travels in the north was Borders and Beginnings, where we showed the kids the borders with several countries and showed them different kinds of people living in and around Israel. We traveled all around the Golan Heights and the Galilee, seeing beautiful nature hikes and cool cities. Some of the pretty hikes I've done are in places called Banyas, Gilabon, and Mount Arbel. These were all nature hikes, some being around beautiful waterfalls and hiking in streams (which I always think is very cool). As for Mount Arbel, we hiked up it in order to stand on the top and pray Shacharit (the morning prayers) as the sun rose, which was really a beautiful scene. I know I throw the word beautiful around, but it's one of the best words I can use. Other places we've visited have related to the military here, as it is one of Israel's central focuses. We visited a place called Kfar Giladi where we heard the story of a man named Joseph Trumpledor, who was a Zionist leader and came to live in Israel, saying that if no one cultivated the land up north, countries would simply take it over. He died fighting for what he believed was his homeland, and was quoted as saying "It is good to die for your country." We also visited an old army based overlooking Syria called Har Bental, and we got to run around in all the old trenches in this base. We've also gotten to meet with Israeli Arab teenagers to hear their perspectives on things as well as meeting some Druze people in their village (called Dalit al HaKarmel) to hear their perspectives on Israel.
The second week here we moved ourselves to the base camp in Jerusalem, and have started to travel around this area. We've traveled up to Tel Aviv to see Independence Hall, where Ben Gurion declared the Jewish state of Israel in the middle of a war. We took the kids to a mall where every single place to eat in the mall is strictly kosher, there's a synagogue there, and how this mall completely shuts down on Shabbat...how cool is that??? We've taken them to parts of the Old City, to walk around the ancient towers of the walls of the old city, walking in Hezekiah's water tunnels. We are also exploring the War of Independce of 1948 and seeing some battle sites, such as Castel and San Simon Park. We also got to tour an underground ammunition factory called the Ayalon Institute and we visited the Palmach Museum (the Palmach was basically the beginnings of the Israeli Defense Forces).
Next week begins our 5 days of Etgar (literally meaning Challenge), where I will be one of about 9-10 counselors leading about 70 kids on a 5 day hiking, swimming, biking trip from the Kinneret (on one side of Israel) to the Mediterranean Sea (on the other side of Israel). This trip is commonly known as Yam L'Yam (Sea to Sea). Anyways, my next internet access should be in about 2 weeks, so be prepared for another big update then. Pictures will follow soon hopefully!
Love you all and hoping this finds you well,
Talia
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