Saturday, June 8, 2013

June 9, 2013

So I'm behind on posts, and I'm really tired so...can't guarantee that this will be very good.

On Wednesday, we spent all day (11 am-10+ pm) at a mega event for all Birthright groups currently in Israel. It started off really fun and I was really into it, but then it got so hot and the day just seemed super long. Shockingly, I didn't complain! I actually had a pretty good time. I represented our group on the volleyball, basketball, and soccer teams. I also climbed a rock wall, shot a paintball gun, did Zumba, and kicked ass at various army training activities such as monkey bars, parallel bars, and doing those jumping in and out of tires thing. The day ended with a little ceremony of sorts and some music. The ceremony was meh, but there was actually pretty awesome live music that we missed because we hit the road. I was happy to leave, but that would have been awesome! Oh, I brought my hoop with me because I thought it could potentially give my team some extra spirit points (a real thing). A girl discovered me hooping and it turns out she's been hooping for six years...and she's from New York...and we have a few mutual Burning Man friends from the city! Of course, right? At the end of the day I met another hooper girl and she was super good.

Yesterday was an interesting day... we finally went to Tel Aviv, but honestly we weren't there long and didn't do much. I'm DEFINITELY glad to be returning for a weekend in August! The gay pride parade was going on, which we didn't see, though we certainly saw a lot of eccentric people and lots of rainbow flags. We went to Robin Square and then did an activity called "Our Street." We were broken up into groups and had scavenger hunts. Our theme was graffiti. We went around to specific graffiti and had to ask passers-by about their opinions on political statements and blah blah blah. Honestly I wasn't paying much attention. I thought it was unfortunate that we had to go from point A to point B and not discover things on our own. Most people were looking at the ground or talking with each other instead of looking around and exploring. One part that I really enjoyed was our last assignment for the scavenger hunt. We had to tape up a piece of paper, write an issue in the middle, and ask 15 people to write their opinions/draw/whatever on it. It seemed appropriate to choose "gay marriage." I actually really like the way it came out! I have lots of pictures. I love that it's in English and in Hebrew and even has a few little pictures.

After that we were on our own for lunch--only 30 minutes. A lot of people on this trip are really bad about being on time, so we were late to our next activity. I'm talking 40 minutes late. Ridiculous! I managed to find some cheap Brooklyn pizza only two blocks from our meeting spot so I decided that would be delicious. And it was. We then walked about a block (or less) to Independence Hall, where we learned about Israel becoming an independent state. Pretty cool.

After, we went back to the hotel and got ready for our Shabbat "service"/dinner. Let's just say two people were not in an appropriate state for Shabbat and will be sent home from the trip early. That's all I'll say about that... So that definitely caused drama within the group. I ended up hanging out with everyone at night in a room for the first time since I got here! I didn't drink or anything but it was still fun to hang out.

Today I got to sleep in! It's sad when sleeping in is 8:30. Breakfast at 9, thennnnn beach at 10!! My first time in the Mediterranean Sea :) I wanted to go in the water but there were fish and I don't do that... I was happy to lie around and hoop a bit! We were only there for two hours. Now I'm back at the hotel, it's 4 pm, and I've got another two and a half hours before we meet for an "activity." No idea what we're doing. I'm really glad I've gotten to hang out by the pool and relax today. A nap would be great... Maybe I'll do that right now! Tonight we're going out so I'm sure I'll want to rest up.



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