Day 1: The Longest Day of My Life and Day 2

After packing all night, barely sleeping, getting to the airport, going through baggage and security, waiting for a flight, flying eleven hours and then riding in a bus for three hours, our day began. Luckily for us, it began on the beautiful beaches of the Mediteranean Sea. We walked around for a bit and took pictures, then re-boarded the bus. We then made our way to Mt. Arbel for a hike. The task seemed daunting at first for the disheveled crew, and daunting it was. However it was just as beautiful as it was daunting. The hike culminated at an incredible waterfall under which we swam and relaxed. We then made our way to Tiberias for dinner. After shawarma, falafel, and walking around the city, we finally made our way to Kibbutz Afik. We got better acquainted with our soldier friends and went to our long-awaited beds.

Day 2

After waking up to our first morning in Israel in kibbutz Afik, we had a nice long morning hike in the Jilaboon Valley in the Golan. It was a good hike and one of my friends said that it was the best hike of his life. After that we had lunch in an Israeli mall. The falafel stand had a “Welcome Taglit” sign. After lunch we went up to Mount Bental and then we went to Mitzpe Gadot where we viewed the Jordan valley and Syria. We learned the history of the 1967 “Six Day War” and the 1973 “Yom Kippur War”. Later on during the day we visited the cemetery where the resting place of the famous poet Rachel lies in. We learned her story and our tour guide read some of her poems. At the cemetery we started a group activity where we got together in groups, each person described himself in 3 ways, and then later in the evening a member of each group spoke to the rest of the group and explained the similarities discovered among the group members. Each group included an Israeli soldier participant. In between the cemetery and the evening activity we had dinner of course back at the kibbutz.- Roy Aloni