Today we woke up early and left the hotel at 8.15am to go to Tel Aviv. The ride was about an hour long. Most of us slept on the way! Our first stop was the Independence Hall where we watched a film about how Tel Aviv was started and about the declaration of Israel’s independence and everything that came before and after it. We then went into the hall itself while the tour guide described to us the borders of Israel before and after the war of independence in 1948. It was very informative…

After that, we got back on the bus again and got off at Yitschak Rabin square. This was where Yitschak Rabin, a prime minister of Israel that was planning on giving up on land for peace, was assassinated for doing so. We saw the spot where he was killed and all the informal messages that people wrote on the wall to commemorate his death.

We then went to visit the Palmach museum. It was really amazing and interactive – it was an exposition of the secret underground Palmach forces that fought at the time when the state of Israel was being established. Each room has a different hologram people speaking to us to tell us about the history in story-form.

After the Palmach Museum, we went to Tel Aviv and had some free time to roam around the Flea Market in Jaffa with our advisors – it was soo much fun! We all dressed up in funny Aladdin pants and bought things… some of us even bought Jewlery, fresh fruit juices, other useless gadgets, and cool hats!

We then got back on the bus and drove to….Bar Ilan University!! We got there and entered through their beautiful university campus which is absolutely gorgeous! We were greeted by a lecturer and a student there who is the head of the year-abroad Israel program in Bar Ilan. They sent us on a scavenger hunt (the prize was chocolate so everyone was super-motivated to win!) where we had to go around campus and get various things on camera: certain buildings, two people skipping down the road and singing an Israeli song, a picture from the campus shuttle, etc. We also had to solve riddles and write a poem… We got back to the room at the designated time and the group called ‘The Champions’ won, so they got the chocolate!

After this fun-filled day, we got back to Ein Tsurim (the Kibbutz that we’re staying at) and had dinner. We then went to the activity room to meet for night activity. It started off as a really boring speech, but then we were in for a pleasant surprise: out Tour guide Etanna, and our security guard Alazar burst in to the room in army garb and started shouting orders – they had orchestrated an army night for us! We were all called on to follow them outside and given orders such as run, walk in single file, call back to me “Ken Hamefakadet” (translation: yes, commander!) Etanna was actually a commander in the Israeli army so she knew what she was doing! She made us get into a Chet (a hebrew letter that looks like three sides of a square). If we talked while she was talking, she made us do push-ups and other exercises. All in all it was super-fun! Those who didn’t want to participate didn’t have to, but most of the bus stayed for it and had an awesome time!

After an amazing and exhausting day, we went to sleep.