Back home...

After 10 days of non-stop activity, I'm finally back at Tzuba. I'll just start from the beginning:

The first night, we stayed at Masada Youth Hostel. When I envision a hostel, the first thing that comes to mind is Eurotrip, so seeing this hostel was surprising. It was actually really nice, and ended up being nicer even than some of the hotels we stayed in later. So, after relaxing at the hostel, we hiked Mount Masada...at 4 in the morning. Seeing the sun rise above the mountain made it worth while, and the view was beautiful. I even saw some friends from home at the top who were on a trip with their temple. That was a nice surprise.

After descending the mountain, we drove to our next destination: the Dead Sea. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach. The hotel itself had a spa, which included a salt water hot tub...very relaxing. This part of our trip was really leisurely. There were no programs or schedueles really, which was a nice break from the usual structure. Of course I swam in the Dead Sea while I was there. It was so fun! We covered ourselves in mud and then went in the water. It was so cool to be able to float, but that made it pretty hard to swim. I felt so relaxed while I was there. I got a lot of sleep, walked on the beach, and talked with friends.

The relaxing came to an abrupt stop when we got to our next destination, Gadna. Gadna is what high school students in Israel experience in preparation for the army. It's hard to describe Gadna in a way that gives credit to what it is really like, but I'll try. Right when we got off the bus it began, and we were put into a tzevet. My tzevet had 13 girls and we had one mifakedet, or commander. All of the mifakdim and other higher ranked commanders were really stern and serious. We had to run everywhere we went and count each second we were given to do a task. So, if I accomplished nothing else, I learned how to count backwards in hebrew very, very well. Each morning, we woke up around 6 and had 20 minutes to be out of our tents in our uniforms. At night, we went to sleep around 11. We had an hour or so break before bed and breaks from breakfast, lunch and dinner. Over the 5 days of Gadna we did so many things. One day we did field training, where we learned to crawl and camoflauge ourselves. That day I got so many bruises, but it was actually a lot of fun. After we were done in the field we did a masa (I think that is what it's called..) which is like a journey. We walked, and a lot of the time ran, back from the field to the base. We also had a lot of classes with different commanders. The classes were ok, but sometimes it was hard to stay awake. One of the days was all about learning about M16s, and we got to shoot them. That was quite the experience. I was really nervous, but it turned out to not be so bad, although I expect that to be the first and last time I ever shoot an M16, or any other gun for that matter. I'm sure that I'm forgeting something, but I may have blocked it out of my memory. At the end of the 5 days, we had a ceremony at Ben Gurion's grave, which is a beautiful place. They gave out awards, and I was surprised when my name got called for excellence in my tzevet. I got a certificate with my name on it. The whole experience was pretty interesting, to say the least. I don't think I'd ever want to be in any army, considering I don't do well with order and structure, but I am glad that I was able to have that experience.

After we left Gadna, smelly and in need of showers and clean clothes, we arrived at our hotel in Eilat. Everyone got cleaned up and we went out that night to the boardwalk and a mall. The next day, we went the the Red Sea! The beach was really pretty, and the water was really nice. We went snorkeling and I saw so many cool fish. Some were really big, and it was pretty scary when they got close. We just relaxed on the beach for a while, and then we went back to the hotel for Shabbat. The next day, the people who wanted to could go on a hike in the mountains. I decided to go, and I'm glad I did. It wasn't a hard hike. The scenery was beautiful and I learned a lot of history from one of the madrachim. We went back to the hotel, packed our bags, and left for our final part of the trip...

...the bendouin tents! The tents were really cool. They were huge. All 90 girls stayed in one tent together. It was really nice, but very, very rainy. I slept really well, although it seems like I was the only one. The next morning, we woke up and had an amazing breakfast, and it continued to rain...a lot. David Solomon came and told us that the camel riding was canceled! I was so disappointed. They told us that they would try to bring us back there, but I doubt it. Instead, a bedouin man talked to us about their lifestyle. It was really interesting, and I learned a lot of things I never knew before. After that, we got on the bus and went back to Tzuba.

All that in 10 days. I stil can't believe it. Over that time, it seems like EIE has totally changed. I'm friends with people I had never talked to before, and I'm even closer with the friends I already had. Everyone seems really open and friendly towards everyone else. It's hard to explain, but the whole mood and feeling of the program has changed for the better. Although the past 10 days have been an amazing experience, I'm really excited to be back at Tzuba and to stay in one place for a while.