Today we had a chilled-out shopping day! We woke up and had breakfast and tefillah chaburah’s. After those we went to do some shopping in Geulah. We then went to a cool place called the ‘time elevator’. Following that we went to the Malcha Mall and had some time to shop and buy ourselves some lunch (we each got money from Elazar, our logistics guy), and after that we went back to the hotel to get ready for banquet!!! We all got dressed up and then went down to take pictures before we left.

We got to the place, which was an amazing meaty restaurant! We sat on different tables and ate chicken, meat, fries, and lots of different types of salads with the amazing delicious home-baked bread that they serve there. Man, the food was sooooo good!!!! We joked around and sang songs together (we’re not sure how delighted the restaurant was about that!) and then we got ready to leave. We made our way back to the hotel and then had an hour or so to chill before the banquet ceremony. We all met up at 11pm and went straight up to the roof. Rabbi Rael stood in the middle of the circle and told us an inspirational story which we all listened to very attentively – you couldn’t hear a pin drop! We then all went into the room and started our award-giving ceremony! Each person received a siddur (with a hand-written note inside) from their advisor together with a book that we thought they would enjoy. We also each got a chance to speak if we wanted to. It was very nice and heartwarming to see everyone so excited about receiving their siddurim and books! When we finished with all the Campers, Rabbi Rael gave out some special books to the advisors about education. He told us how much the advisors had put into this program and thanked them from the bottom of his heart for giving this their all. The advisors then each personally thanked Rabbi Rael for having been the best director ever! And he really really was. He must’ve not slept for a month to ensure that we had the best TJJ possible, and we are so grateful to him! He really cared about each and every one of us as if we were his own children…

After the awards, our advisor, Ayelet, gave out the TJJ sweatshirts – the motto on them is “Like a Tiger!” which is the private joke on our TJJ bus! We were then all wearing our black and orange sweatshirts, and we hung out some more together – we were sooo sad that this was our last night in Israel! We were then told that we had to be downstairs at 4.15am to go to the kotel, so some of us went back to our rooms to sleep for a bit before we went…