From Tel Aviv to Lebanon...or kind of close?

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Saturday morning Ben and I woke up and ate this HUUUGE breakfast. I got about 10 hours of sleep and did some reading. It was beautiful. We ate lots then did some more reading. We said good bye to Alan and Joanie and headed off to the beach to meet Ofry. We hung on the beach for a while and it was so nice to see her. She drove us to the Tel Aviv Central Bus station where we met Ayla to take a sherut back to Jeru! Home sweet home. We got back to Jerusalem and went out for Brun's birthday. It was a lot of fun. I came home that night and had an insanely fun night bonding with room 310. It was one of those nights where I got a late night burst of energy and ended up having a hilarious, memorable night with Jacob, Micha and Adam. 

The next morning we woke up at 545 to get ready to drive to the north to meet with Mechina Ma'agan Michael. The Mechina is a gap year program for Israelis to postpone their army service by a year just like we're postponing our college experience by a year. We drove all the way to the north and it took about 4 hours. I slept the whole time though, which was good because I had only gotten three hours of sleep that night. We finally got there and met the kids from the Mechina. We played a lot of outdoorsy trust building games in mixed groups, but it was fun. That night we made dinner together on a fire and had a bonfire and did some star gazing. It was absolutely beautiful because we stayed on this camp site in the middle of the north where we could see Lebanon.

Today we were in groups again and had a lot of group discussions. We talked about our identities and how we form our Jewish Identities as far as Israel, etc. It was really interesting to hear the points of views of the Israelis. Jamie and I got really heated as far as these discussions and talked about how we feel as though Israel is our home right now because we are living here and how there is no other country in the world that we could go to that is technically foreign and feel so at home at. This was enforced so strongly when our bus pulled into Beit Shmuel and I sighed and felt how nice it was to be home and unpack. 

But back to our Mechina bonding experience. After we had our talks we ate lunch together and then all just had some time to hang out. It was so nice talking to them and asking them why they took a gap year and how although we're so different and they're going to the army next year and we're going to college, how similar our lives actually are. We're meeting with them about 6 times this year and we already bonded so much this weekend that I know by the end of the year I will leave the joint program with friends I'll want to keep in touch with for many years.

After we left we went to Tel Aviv and went to Rabin's grave because tomorrow is the memorial of his death. We had our own little ceremony and it was really nice. After we went for dinner and Laura, Talya and Miriam and I got pizza. Then a bunch of us went to chill at this park and Jamie and I had a beautiful conversation. We drove back to Jerusalem and here I am.

Class tomorrow! Elections so soon! SO exciting!