Tuesday, May 11

A 7:00 A.M. breakfast wasn’t too rough for us as many of us were awake already in the tent (wasn’t as comfortable or sound-proof as we thought/many of us forgot to silence our Taylor Swift alarm clocks…). We had another delicious meal, this time breakfast, at the Ha’an Hashayarut Tents. It consisted of eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt, cereal, coffee, milk, and more of that delicious pita! Needless to say, we all got in our last final share of it. We set off to Nachal Hawarim where we hiked along the Hawarim stream, a tributary to the Tzin river. Afterwards we had a short drive to Sde Boker to visit the grave of David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister. What an interesting man he was. I was honored to have witnessed his gravesite and the beautiful desert view that lay behind it. Afterwards, our lovely Jobi (bus driver) drove us to Jerusalem, the holy city we’ve all been waiting to see! The excitement en route to the city was tremendous. We drove past the salt factory at the Dead Sea on the way which was also a special treat. We arrived to the Old City of Jerusalem, the Jewish Quarter. The stories we heard were amazing. There is so much history in Jerusalem and we surely learned a large chunk of it today. Finally, we saw the Western Wall, something I’ve been wanting to see for my entire life. It was amazing. Several of us felt great emotion and engaged in prayer, along with placing our notes in the wall. We then set off to our overnight location of Ma’ale Hachamisha. The rooms here are very nice and the beds look very cozy We are excited to get a good nights sleep for our long and exciting day ahead!