The big city

Hey eighth grade parents and families,

Yesterday, after a 6:30 wake up, we headed on our bus, driven by Wattid, to the city of Jaffa. Although there was much too much fog to see the city of Tel Aviv from the Jaffa Hill, we still were able to admire the view. After that we took a class picture in front of the old city walls of Jaffa. We then headed to the suburb of Jaffa named Neve Tzedek, where we ate some of the best ice creams of our lives. Right after eating ridiculously great ice cream, we headed to Independence Hall, where the State of Israel was proclaimed by David Ben Gurion 60 years ago. We learned about the Declaration of Independence, and then left straight away to Shenkin Street where we had some time for shopping. We bought everything we wanted, and then continued our insanely fun trip to Rabin Square where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 after a huge peace rally he led. There, we learned about Rabin's life, accomplishments, and untimely death. With a drastic change of mood, we drove to Rehovot, and visited the Ayalon Bullet Factory, where illegally manufactured ammunition underground and secretly under the British noses. After buying many gifts and souvenirs, we drove to Jerusalem and our hotel, Beit Yehuda, where the Young Judea stays for their year course. We settled in our rooms, and at 7:00 p.m. we went downstairs to eat dinner, which was surprisingly delicious. After we all finished eating, we hung out for a while until 8:30, and then we went outside with our madrichim and had a final activity, which included every person talking about his/her experiences during our trip and receiving our t-shirts. Many people were very mad because the color of the shirts was light green instead of blue and white. For a grand finale, we ate ice cream and watched a talent show, including a song "tribute for the greatest prayer in the world" written by Itamar and Daniel S. and performed by Idan, Ilan, Sam C., and Caleb, and a guitar off between Adam and Rebecca. After this great final activity, we returned to our rooms and packed our suitcases and backpacks for our last day in Israel.

Written by:
Itamar, Ben I. and (to a lesser extent) Aaron.

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