Parent Trip (part 2) and Poland

Hey everybody I'm back from Poland and am at William and Gali's house for Pesach. I am going to continue where I left off last time so here it goes. Even though we had to wake up extremely early to climb Masada, it was still a nice trip. We arrived at the top in time to see the sun rise. It was awesome. I could not believe that we complained about this. We left after about 4 hours and went back to our hotel so that we could change and go to the dead sea for a float.
I had been to the dead sea once before but I didn't remember what it had been like so it was basically a new experience for me. The day before I had fallen and cut myself pretty badly. Only when I got in did I remember that. It hurt so badly, but I wanted to stay in, so I picked my feet up and floated for another five min. I got out and our מדריחים brought over a big bucket of dead sea mud. Everyone got out of the water and put the mud all over themselves. No one could tell who was who with all of the mud on. After ten min of the mud I decided to wash it off and get changed. The rest of the day we were allowed to do what we wanted and nothing else really happened. We left that hotel after a day and then we headed to גדנה (army training).
We arrived at an army base in the Negev and the minute we got off the bus the commanders were making us run. We had to run to get in lines, run to get our stuff, and that was all we did. After Gadna I had to write an essay on Gadna so I am going to paste it in so I don't have to retell the whole thing. Here it is:

Gadna
The time for Gadna had finally arrived after weeks of waiting. I ran off the bus wondering how hard it would be and how much I would get out of it. At camp we had done a day of army training but nothing like the real thing. The air was cool and refreshing but sand was hitting us so hard it felt like we were being attacked by a herd of Killer Bees. The weather should not have been like this in the desert. As soon as that thought popped in my head it started to rain. What a way to start Gadna training.

Rip. The sound of two pairs of pants and a shirt ripping. Plop. The sound of pants falling off. Every boy in the bathroom changing into their uniforms had something wrong with them. Some clothes were so tight that they were walking like Frankenstein. Two minutes left and nothing fit anyone. Buttons were flying everywhere like the Chicago Air Show. The time was going down and a group of six boys came waddling out of the bathroom in ripped and baggy clothes. No buttons, ripped, and baggy, the Uniforms were as comfy as a warm bed in the winter.

Running to get in line as fast as a cheetah chasing its prey just to get the first meal. Arriving in line for a nice meal, and plop. Something gray and dirty was looking back a me. I couldn't believe that this is what the army ate. At least I thought that I could get some bread. So I went over to the bag and felt something as hard as stone. The bread was stale and moldy as well. This was the first experience I had with the army and just because of the food I never want to go back there again.

For days we had been hearing about the journey that we would have to take in the middle of our training. Five kilometers both ways throughout the hot desert. That day arrived and we started to prepare. Filling up jerry cans, packing food, and hiding our valuables were an essential part of the journey. We needed everything to go perfectly. It was six in the morning and we were off. Running and jumping over ditches to make it safe to the training field. When we got there we all realized that it had been a worthless trip because we could have done the same thing back at the base. This was just another worthless part of an otherwise awesome Gadna experience.

Gadna had its highs and its lows, but all in all it was a good experience to have. Throughout Gadna I got closer to a lot of people of EIE in my sevet and also accomplished some things that I did not think I could do. I had been looking forward to Gadna from the moment that I arrived in Israel and it made EIE feel like it is and always will be a part of me.

So that was basically my Gadna experience. After Gadna we headed to Eilat for a few days for some rest before going back to Tzuba and school. What we thought would be rest was defininetly not. everyday we would go into the desert and go on a six mile hike. The one good thing came when we got to repel down the side of a cliff. That was cool. We arrived back at Tzuba and had school for a few days and then it was time for the parents pilgrimage. Everyones Parents were coming to Tzuba for about a week and a half. Normal school days were happening while the parents were here. Each kid is allowed to miss one day of school with a parent so I got to go out of school and go to Tel Aviv with my mom for a day. It was nice. The Parents left and we were on our way to Poland for about a week.
Poland was an interesting experience because you don't know what to think about it. Do you want to have fun or just make it a sad trip. Other questions arose like that when our JH class met the first day to discuss what we were going to do. The first day we went to a jewish cemetary in Warsaw and just rested the rest of the day because our flight had gotten in that morning. The second day we went to the Warsaw ghetto and saw the ghetto wall and what everything was like for the Jews during the שוע and what happened to it. Then we went to Majdonik. this was the first time that most of us had actually seen a camp where millions had died. We learned about one girl who had came to this camp and survived the war but her reletives did not. The next day was an easy day of walking around Lublin. It was a nice day with not much to do. After that we took a five hour bus ride to Awschits. It was wierd to see how they turned it into a museum, but then we went to the second camp and it was just the way that it was at the end of the war. It was kind of freaky. We left Poland that day and arrive at Israel on Friday morning. We didn't have to do anything for two days.
Saturday night came and we all went to a Matisyahoo concert. It was awesome to see him in Concert. Someone from our group even got pulled up on stage and danced with him for a while. Then it came time to say goodbye to everyone and go to our host houses for Pesach. Here I am now so thats about it. I will try and write as soon as possible.
Bye.
Micah