The end of Birthright

Hi Everyone. So Birthright is official over. It ended yesterday in a lot of tears and hugs. Almost everyone had to go back to the US. Some, like us (Robby and me), are staying for a bit, but not as long as us. I think I left off when we were still in Tiberas. We had 8 Israeli soldiers join the group. Birthright wants the Israeli's to mix with us so that we can find out how it is to be an Israeli youth growing up in Israel and so the soldiers can ask how life is in America. We had a lot of discussions on joining the army and politics. An Israel soldier named, Natol, ended up boarding with us for 5 days. She was very nice, but quiet. Anyhow, from Tiberas we went to Jerusalem, which is an amazing city. Although we only got to spend a very short time wandering the Jewish Quarter of Old City, I felt it was beautiful and very powerful. The buildings look like something from a small town in Italy. Very close together with arches and hidden staircases. People walked along the roofs to and through the alley ways. Robby and I plan to go back there in the next couple of days to take our time and see everything. Next was the Yad Veshim - the Holocaust Musuem which was very well put together, but we were on a guided tour that was running late and so there was no time to stop and truly look at the pictures and read the quote. The tour guide was helpful in telling stories, but I could have spent the whole day there and not have seen everything. The cool thing though was that we got to hear a live account of the Holocaust from the best friend of Anne Frank. Her name was Hannah and she shed some light on what happened to Anne after the Nazis found her in the attic. She said that she talked to her three times (they were separated by a wall) and that Anne thought she was the one survivor of her family left because her sister was days from Death and Anne had no idea that her father had been rescued from his concentration camp a month before. It was a very sad story and I hope nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again. Since I'm on the depressing stuff, I'll continue by saying we visited three cemeteries - the Soldier's one in the Jerusalem, one outside Tiberas, and then one somewhere else. I think Birthright was trying to tell us that Israel is proud state that so many people died to make. Birthright liked to stress the points of being Jewish and a Zionist. We had to go to a 8000 person gala because we were part of the 100,000 birthrighters that visit Israel. It was basically a huge propaganda festival where we all clapped for the philanthropist that support Birthright and then they attempted to spread the gospel that we should stay in Israel and marry Israeli's or Jew and breed little Jewish culture. I understand that Israel is a small country and that Jews are a minority, but when things get very self-centered they tend to urk me. Robby, me, and the 2 Russians we made friends with on the trip went walking around the army base that the gala was on instead of listening and played on all the tanks that they had. It was essentially a tank museum. I never knew that there were more than 5 different kinds of tanks, but there are about 40 different kinds. Robby and the Russians pretended they were being run over and the shot at by the canon.
Um, let’s see, we went to Tel Aviv and got to walk around the bazaar of sorts. The funny thing was, in Tiberas, which is the Miami of Israel and safer than a little due hickey town in the nowhere land, we weren't allowed to walk around the streets without a guard, but in Tel Aviv, a major city and prone to bombers, we were free to roam around by ourselves. I understand that Birthright wanted to keep us safe, but I think they needed to rethink when and when we can't walk unaccompanied by a guard.
Okay, we went to the Dead Sea and I actually went in the water. I figured that it is the one and only time that I will probably ever be here and I should try it out. The water is about 90 degrees and very oily. Kind of gross. Once you sit in teh water you instantly float and it's incredibly hard to stand vertical again. That was the cool thing, but kind of a pain when you're trying to get back to shore. It also burns any little cut you have, so the fact that we went there after a huge hike down Masada - an old Jewish and Roman settlement on the top of a huge rocky cliff, did wonders for a relaxing swim. Robby and about 85% of the kids in our group covered themselves in the Dead Sea mud and run around hugging us no muddy people. Supposively the mud is really good for your skin and all the boys were saying how smooth they felt afterwards. The last few days were pretty much spent shopping and going to the beach. A bit boring for Robby and I, but you got to go where the group goes. Now, I'm at Amy's house. Amy is Gayle's - my friend from Webster- sister. She is one of the sweetest people I've met and pretty much we showed up here late last night and she said what's mine is yours. Very nice. She also has an incredible cute doggy that is still a puppy and likes to chew everything. All our gear is on top of a table because Po Po can't reach that high yet. That is about all. Hope everyone is having fun back home. Let me know what's going on, how life is, am I missing anything cool?

A paparazzi photographer took some pictures of the group one day and here are a few. Sorry they suck. When I figure out how to upload Robby's pix I will.


Me and my dumb camera.


Yeah, I'm a nerd.


Our giant body builder picking up one of the soldiers in the first day that we met them. She was like "who the hell is this guy?"


Us, the Russians and Tamar, our roommate for the first half of the trip.


Me being a paparazzi back to the photographer.


Robby at the meet and greet of the soldiers.