Hey everyone it's Lauren!!!! You guys miss us yet? Wait of course you do because we are just "angels." Haha just kidding. Anyways about my day... so this day I felt a variety of emotions; confusion, pain, sorrow, and disgust. When we were at Yad Vashem (memorial and the names) the guide took us first to the memorial for the children who passed away in the Holocaust. The memorial was extremely powerful and so stunning. The architect who made this memorial was a Canadian born in Montreal. This architect just had 5 candles and put several mirrors at different types of angles to duplicate the candles. So it looked like the whole entire room was covered with candles. As the candles were dispersed around the room there was a voice in the background calling out each child in the Holocaust. When I left this memorial I was in complete awe, I couldn't move nor speak. I felt disgusted in how a person could do such a cruel thing not to only an adult but to a child or even a new born baby. These were children! Children who had their whole life to live!
After that memorial we went into the actual museum. Yad Vashem was in a triangular shape and everything was dark except there was light at the two ends of the museum and at the ceiling. The shape of the museum symbolized when the Jewish people were hiding underground from the nazis and the only light there was was the light was in the past, future and the little tiny cracks where you could see the light from above. At this museum we saw a variety of different things; artifacts, survivors telling their story, and little clips from the Holocaust. However, what was different from the Holocaust museum from Washington than here is that at the end of the museum your looking out at the beautiful view of Jerusalem. When we reached the end of the museum and I saw this jaw dropping view of Jerusalem I began to feel so much pride. Pride in our country, pride that we the Jews made it. After all this time where almost every nation stated that the Jews will never exist look where we are now! Look what we have accomplished. After so many years of betrayal, hatred, and suffering we made it!
When we were finished with the museum we had lunch and guess what it was... PIZZA! It was soooo good. Michal our tour guide got soooo much pizza it was almost enough for each person to have a full size pizza. We ate the pizza and I wanted to almost barf at the site of all the boys especially DAVID for eating 5 pieces of pizza and shoving it in his mouth as if he was an animal. Parents, I do not know how you deal with these boys, they eat sooooooo much. But anyways OFF TOPIC back to my blog.
We then went to the IDF cemetery and the site of looking at a soldier who fought for our homeland was also very difficult for me to see. When Michal was telling us stories of how some of these soldiers died I was so inspired and empowered. These were ordinary people with ordinary lives who fought for the right for every Jewish person in the world to have Jewish state. One man was the leader of his military group and they were sent on a mission. They were in Lebanon when Hezbollah shot a grenade. They had only a few seconds to run but he knew if he wouldn't stop it they would all be endanger. So he did what not a lot of people would do in the world. He did what a true hero and a true leader would do. He jumped on the grenade trying not to affect anyone else but himself. Not only did he put his life at risk but his family. He had 3 children and a wife. From this day on till now people are remembering him throughout the world. Now this is just one story of one man who died a noble and memorable life. Now multiply that one person by over a thousand. Every single soldier who is buried on Mount Hertzel is a person who should be remembered not only in Israel but all across the globe. Even for the people who have been in the army and even for the people who came across the world just to serve for the Jewish state of Israel. One of these lone soldiers was my sister. I wanna say that I am so proud of my sister. She had no one and through all the ups and down she never ever gave up. Thank you so so much to every single soldier who has and are protected/protecting our Jewish state.
Yours Truly
Lauren Shimonov
(P.S. sorry Ms.Machon for the horrible grammar love you!!!)
Hey, what's up guys its David (SCARCE) here , and when we left off last time, with the so called "angel" was telling us about Yad Vashem and Mt Hertzl. After all hide shenanigans, we were immediately packed onto a bus and driven at Israeli speed to the Kfar Hanokdim Bedouin Camp and the camel ride. We got to the Bedouins and were quickly escorted on to the camels humped backs. (Dear readers (but mostly parents), it wasn't as bad as you think.) No, camels do not smell as bad as they seem, no it's not as uncomfortable as it seems, and no, nobody got hurt. It was a fun trip. All of us even named our camels (Pooper, Barb, Barb IX, and Dopey.) We got back from the camel ride and got to see our "beautiful" tent for the first time, but were very quickly whisked away to a local Bedouin who gave us tea and coffee and told us about their lifestyle. Several seconds later, we were brought to a delicious dinner which none of us could figure out how to eat, so we ate with our hands. After a good laugh, with full bellies, we walked over to a fire pit where a local man pit a fire for us. Ari was wonderful and played his guitar as I, and later on Jonas and Mr. Schryvers took care of the fire. We stayed up late into the night singing songs and warming our hands, or in Lauren's case, trying to cool down. After several hours we finally went straight to bed and boom next morning.
This morning we were woken at 4:15 by a very tall homosapien who goes by the name of Mr. Schryvers with loud booming voice. He told us to get up so we wouldn't be late for sunrise on Masada. We all drowsily got up and prepared for the long drive and climb that would lead us to a beautiful site. We arrived at Masada with that feeling of excitement and were immediately set to climb. Michal told us that she would meet us at the top, and that was our cue. Micah and I immediately started to run up as a race between us. Micah won. Dammit. Anyway... The sunrise was beautiful. (See photos below for more info. Michal gave us a wonderful tour of Masada and the story behind it. After the "nice" walk down, we got into the (thank God) air conditioned bus and started on the trip to the Dead Sea. Apparently me sleeping is a funny time lapse because Micah, Ethan, and Daniel found it hilarious. Long story short, the Dead Sea was SALTY. The very tall homosapien from earlier decided he needed a dunk in the Dead Sea, and ended up with salt in his eyes. Don't worry, he is OK. After reading the news floating on your back, nothing will surprise you anymore. We were once again crammed onto the bus and driven here, to Machtesh Ramon. Three words. It was beautiful. Period. So here I am, writing this, taking some time from life, informing you dear readers of our adventure. Goodnight (here anyway).
-David Z
P.S
Ms. Machon please don't kill me for grammar. Please...
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