Ein Gedi- March 1-3 (Weekend before Gadna)

While at Ein Gedi, we stayed at a youth hostel, which had a beautiful view of the water, and the highway.  The weather was beyond beautiful, which everyone was ecstatic about.  The couple days we stayed there were more relaxing than I expected.  All we did all day was hang out with friends, walk around, and tan.  Friday night and Saturday afternoon, we had Shabbat services, which were lead by a few of my friends.  There was also another teen group that was staying at the hostel, and it turned out that some of the kids on my program go to camp with some of the kids on the other program.  Also while we were there, my Jewish History teacher, Oshrit, took us on a nice little hike to a waterfall.  It was a lot smaller than most of us expected, but it was still super fun, especially being all together.  Before we knew it, Sunday came and it was time to make our way to the army base and start Gadna.   

Gadna- March 3 (Sunday)- March 7 (Thursday)

            We left Ein Gedi some time after breakfast, on Sunday.  When we arrived at the army base, which is in Sde Boker, they were not ready for us yet so we went to this little market near by for a bit.  Once we entered the base, and set our bags down on some benches, we were sent immediately to meet the commanders.  The commanders intimidated us all because they were only talking to us in Hebrew and only a few of us could understand.  Before we got split up into groups, we were taught the army stance that we would have to stand in the rest of the time we were there.  The way we got split up into our units was completely random.  The head commander would point to a person and tell them to go to the commander said.  I ended up in a really good unit, with a bunch of my friends.  The commander we had was the first commander that we met, and we were upset that we got her because she seemed scary.  But in actuality, she was the nicest commander on the base and every other unit was jealous of ours. Our commander then told us some info about the upcoming days. The next day, we got our uniforms, which consisted of a puke colored shirt and pants.  Unfortunately for my unit, there weren’t any jackets left by the time we received our uniforms.  For the rest of the day, we learned about 0 to use and shoot an M16 (a gigantor gun used in the IDF-Israeli Defense Force).  It was actually really cool to learn about all the different parts of the gun, especially since it was the first time I was up close and personal with one.  The next day, Tuesday, we had a few lessons in the morning and then headed off to the shooting field.  Once we got there, my unit was split up into five smaller groups, obviously I was the last one.  As soon as my group was called, I could feel all of the muscles in my body tense.  We got to the entrance of the building where we would shoot.  When we finally walked in, we all lined up on a blanket and sat in attention position, waiting for the Memem (higher position than commander) to give us directions.  The time finally came, I was lying down in shooting position, one hand on the handle and the other on the barrel.  As soon as I heard the command to “fire,” I moved my finger to the trigger and let it rip.  This was probably the coolest thing I have ever experienced.  Once I finished, I was in such shock that when people asked me how it was, I didn’t know how to answer.  It was such an awesome opportunity that I’m super glad I was given.  The next two days went by quite quickly and before we knew it, it was time to leave.  Even though I didn’t enjoy it at the beginning, I ended up having fun.   There are two things I will not miss about Gadna; waking up everyone morning at 6:00AM and having only twenty minutes to get fully ready for the day, and sleeping on flimsy cots in a tent.

Eilat/Bedouin Tents- March 7(Thursday)-9(Saturday)

            Straight from Gadna, we went to Eilat for another relaxing weekend.  Yet again, we stayed in a youth hostel, but this one was nicer than the one in Ein Gedi.  It was also nice because all 85 of us were in the same area and had our own little courtyard.  Thursday night we all went to the boardwalk, which was about five minutes walking distance from the hostel.  At the boardwalk we walked and shopped around.  The weather was amazingly warm, heavenly compared to what we dealt with at Gadna.  Friday morning, we woke up early and headed to the beach.  To our luck, it was a perfect beach day!  While we were there, I stretched out in the sand and soaked up the sun.  I even got to go snorkeling and see a bunch of cool-looking fish.  That night we stayed at the hostel and had evening Shabbat services.  After services, we had bonding time, where we did funny activities, including some short skits.  Some of the activities reminded me of the show “Whose line is it anyways.”  After bonding time, we had some free time before it was time for bed.  Saturday morning we got to sleep in, which I was super grateful for because I didn’t get much sleep while in Gadna.  Around 11, we had afternoon services and then lunch.  After lunch we went to the mall and boardwalk (which are right next to each other), and hung around.  Early into the evening, we packed up our rooms and had Havdallah service before we left.  Once all packed up and on the bus, we made our way to the Bedouin Tents, where we would sleep for the night.  Upon arrival we were greeted with beyond delicious food that just kept on coming and coming.  After dinner, we sat around a fire and sang some songs.  The next morning, we woke up a bit early so that we could ride camels!  This was my second time riding a camel, but I was still really stoked and had an awesome time!  I rode on a camel with Nina, and somehow we ended up being the very first camel, the one to lead the pack.  It was another awesome experience that I will never forget.