"I'll Smile When I Remember"

Hey folks,

My experience in The Slingshot in Eilat!

This will be my last blog post before I take off for SEA as my flight is in a little over 12 hours and then I have 36 hours of transit before I arrive in Chiang Mai and begin our first tour. This last week has been a whirlwind of emotions and different experiences. Last weekend, we headed to Eilat, a city situated all the way in the south of Israel, surrounded by mountains and desert, and crystal clear water on the shores of the Red Sea. We stopped on the way to do a great hike, the first actual "hike" that Oranim has provided for us in five months. We then headed to the hotel and had a bit of time to relax after having traveled close to 5 hours by bus, before taking part in a Kabbalah Shabbat with close to 280 other Oranim participants in our hotel. After the ceremony, we ate a great dinner and went out to the bar nearby to party the night away. Great music, great friends, and all in all, a fantastic Friday night all around! The next morning, I went down to the beach with 5 girls from the new program and on the way, met up with my old friend Richard from elementary school. He decided to come down to Eilat for the weekend to see me before he starts his 4 month kibbutz program. We rented banana boats, did some tubing, and rounded the hour off with pedal-boating. A lot of fun, but definitely left me with a lot of bruises from smacking against the water after being dragged by a speedboat. That night, we all crammed onto a boat cruise and danced the night away while drifting out on the Red Sea, smiles plastered on everyone's face and chants of "Team Ashdod" echoing into the night louder than all of the other groups combined. I followed up the boat cruise by going on a crazy contraption called "The Slingshot" with my friend Jordan, essentially a cage that is flung up over 100 feet into the air and then dropped into free fall. It was super fun but incredible disorienting and nerve-wracking at the same time. The next day, we finished off our Eilat trip with another hike, this time to the top of a mountain with a view of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel all from the same vantage point. It was quite breathtaking and made me incredibly emotional knowing that my time to leave this country was coming so soon...

After Eilat, the reality kicked in that there were only a few days left to organize and say my farewells. Monday night, we had a ceremony for our group that was attended by teachers, the new group, our coordinators and some of the host families of people in our program. I wrote a song for the occasion which was a big hit, and summed up some of the things we loved about living in Israel and specifically, living in Ashdod.  I've posted it below... The ceremony also included a fantastic speech by my buddy Dan Richman (one of my companions in Thailand) and a slideshow by roommate Dan Amster which perfectly combined photos from volunteering, trips around the country, Israeli nightlife, and our beach and ruins. The ceremony was followed up by an awards ceremony for different roles in our group: class clown, king of the group, queen of the group, etc. I came in as runner-up in the category of most improved Hebrew, which was a real honour after my hard work to learn the language. Tuesday was incredibly busy, complete with a trip to Tel-Aviv to say goodbye to my family and see my new cousin Yael, a pizza party at our coordinator Kineret's moshav where we got to make and bake our own pizzas, and one last Bad Decision Tuesday at Pigal, our go-to bar for bottomless beer. Finally, yesterday was a day to get chores done and finish packing up a lot of my belongings and I organized a bonfire down at the beach for both groups to have one last hoorah. Boris and I went to a construction site and stole a bunch of wood for the festivities. We built a magnificent fire, complete with a bed thrown into the mix and rounds of corny songs like "Wonderwall" and "Time Of Your Life". I went night-swimming one last time and went to bed at 6:30 this morning, pleasantly tired after having seen off some of my very good friends.

I can't believe that it's time to say goodbye to Israel. I have grown very attached to the people and lifestyle here, the amazing sights and landscapes, the culture and the language, and it will be hard to leave it all behind. This trip has further affirmed that I love this country too much to stay away and I know 100% that there will be a return visit in my future. Time to go now, I only have a few more hours in Ashdod to say my mushy last goodbyes to my amazing roommates and catch a cab to the airport with my buddy Goose. Miss you all and will be thinking of you in Thailand!

Ciao for now,

Max

THE ORANIM BLUES

I woke up this morning, five months had passed

Oh where did the time go, it flew by so fast

Now my heart is heavy, as I prepare to go

I'm folding and packing, and planning and tracking

כש אני חוזר ל פו

But I know it won't be long, till I'm back on that flight

Staring out my window, Israel in sight

Games of Durak and Contact, that we played so well

The hustle and bustle, and sore aching muscles, and sandbags at Sar-El

The ruins at sunset, trips to the Seamall

Crazy karaoke, and Tuesdays nights at Pigal

If there's one thing we've learned here, if there's one thing that we know

It's that Israel, ארץ Israel will always be our home

So goodbye dear students, Oranim 56

Goodbye Shiry, Kineret, you will be sorely missed

Goodbye to Yod Alef, goodbye Har Mezada

Goodbye to Ashdod, and תודה רבה

And whenever I'm lonely, when I'm sad or just plain down

I'll think of all the memories, and turn it right around