The mechina organized during the summer for a different program to plan this trip for us, and they provided us with tour guides and a place to sleep and some funding. This is very different than what usually happens, because we didn't get to pick the places we wanted to go or prepare the lectures ourselves. Although this was a downside, the upside was that our tour guides were great and gave us knowledge on a level that we would not have been able to do ourselves.
The first three days of the trip were very difficult. We spent three hours a day doing archeological work, which sounds cool, but basically we just stood in an assembly line for three hours and passed 5-pound bags of sand to each other. The sand in the bags would later be inspected by archeologists who would look for artifacts to discover exactly what the place we were in was. After the 3-4 hours, we learned in a classroom about the City of David until we had lunch at 2:30, which was very late for us. Then, we walked around the City of David and learned A LOT of history about the place. Some of us were a little dissapointed that we spent so much time focusing on the City of David and not on the rest of Jerusalem, but we learned a lot and it was pretty interesting. It was harder for me because I didn't understand everything, and we only got about 5 hours of sleep every night, so many people had trouble staying awake during the day.
After the first three days, the trip got a lot a lot better. We learned about the green line that separated Israel from Jordan before the Six Day War, and about how this line was drawn by military men who had no intention of the line lasting longer than a couple months, but it ended up lasting 20 years. The line was drawn hastily, and people's houses were cut into two, so they couldn't cross from the kitchen to the living room without being shot. We learned a little about Christianity and Islam in Jerusalem, because the place is holy for many religions, and this part was especially interesting to me. Then, we walked to Shuk Machane Yehuda, which is a famous market in Jerusalem. We played a game where we had to walk around and ask the shopkeepers for recipes related to their own ethnic group. Most people were very nice, and we even got a few free samples!
The last day, we woke up at 3 am to start a "masa," or journey, called our "Aliyah L'Yerushalayim." Basically, we walked from Ma'ale Adumim area to Jerusalem in order to simulate the hike that Jews used to make from their homes to Jerusalem for specific holidays to make sacrifices at the Temple. We ended at the Kotel, the Western Wall, and we had a meaningful closing circle and wrote notes to put into the wall. This was my first time at the Kotel this year, and it was great to be there again.
So to sum this up, the trip was really really hard. We were always exhausted, and it was tiring to spend so much time in an assembly line passing sacks to each other. However, it was also one of the most fun trips we've had, and I'm so glad that I finished it to the end (about half the group left in the middle because it was so hard...we ended with 29 people out of 50). Jerusalem has a different atmosphere than other cities in Israel, and I've decided that when I do live in Israel, I will want to live in Jerusalem.
An example of every 5-minute break we had!
Me, Ori, and Sagit with a beautiful view of Jerusalem!
Brad, Roy, Tali, me, and Ori. We are also by the view, but it is blocked by trees. I like this photo anyway though :)
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