After a long night’s sleep, or
relatively long compared to what we had gotten on the plane, Diller KaShLaSh
woke up at the hotel they were staying at and went downstairs for breakfast.
For me, this started our day with a bang. I have to say, the hotel breakfast
tops all others I have ever had. We then got on the bus and took it to Independence
hall in Tel Aviv. But before we went into the hall we sat down in a circle
outside and discussed various terms in Israel’s Declaration of Independence and
why exactly we thought these words were placed in the declaration. This
provided for a nice opening into our day, as it introduced the topic of
starting a nation, something that we would touch on later. We then proceeded to
Independence Hall where we watched a movie that described the beginnings of Tel
Aviv and listened to excerpts of the meeting in which the Israeli Declaration of Independence was ratified.
After we wrapped up this segment of
the day we moved into a bit of a lighter portion in which we played an “Amazing
Race”-type game. We started in Rabin Square where we were given team colors, a
navigation clue, and a few other question/challenges we needed to complete.
After a few complications our team finally reached our first destination where
we picked up our next clue. This went on for a little while until my team
finally stopped for lunch at a local pizza place. The whole race was a really
cool experience for me, as I had never been to Tel Aviv, let alone Israel, and
it was very interesting to experience the culture and feel of the city in this
way. We all convened later on at the end destination where we revealed the
winners of the race. Unfortunately, my team did not make the leaderboard but we
did have a very good time.
When this was completed we took the
bus to a Gay Teen Community Center in Tel Aviv. In the center we talked to two
teens participating in a gap year in an organization called IGY (Israeli Gay
Youth) that educated and advocated about LGBT experiences and rights. We played
a few games to learn about terms (like gay, female-to-male transgender,
asexual, etc.) that I found interesting, although I did know a lot of the terms
from previous knowledge. After the game
was completed the two teens shared their own experiences in discovering that
they were homosexual and coming out to their respective families, as well as a
bit about the gay community in Tel Aviv. This provided for a very insightful experience
as I had never heard firsthand someone’s experience with this.
Our last major event of the day
took place at night with a dinner and tour of Old Yaffo, otherwise called Jaffa,
or, as I personally pronounce it Jay Fay (hehe). I found this to be the most
amazing part of our day. Jaffa was really beautiful and the tour we took of it
was very insightful. This experience was something I will not forget.
To wrap up, after we returned to our
hotel, the Chicago group sat down and discussed what we got from the day parts
of the day. This was a really nice way of wrapping up the day. When this was
completed we all went to our rooms, and despite how tired we all were, played
an Israeli game that is incredibly fun.
By: Talius Chickering
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