Caesarea, Wingate institute, Zikhron yaakov, Yarkon river

On Sunday we went to Massuah, a holocaust museum that also has an exhibit especially on the subject of Adolf Eichmann and his trials in Israel, after the short movie about the trials of Adolf Eichmann, we learnt alot about how although the trials didn't need 100+ witnesses who survived the Holocaust to testify, they needed to share their stories and Israel needed to hear their stories so they could understand what they went through. After that, we continued to explore the museum. We listened to audio clips from the witnesses for the trials who survived the Holocaust on specific topics, looked at artifacts from the Holocaust and then met at the end to talk about the Holocaust and how it relates to Israeli society. We watched a couple of short movie clips about Israeli society one that was about Holocaust survivors and how the tried to integrate into Israeli society after such a surreal experience that can be difficult to cope with, another movie clip about Israelis going to Germany to buy a car to sell in Israel who then get stopped by German police and how they related the Holocaust to their interaction with these German police. After the museum we went home to make dinner and have a chill evening. Monday, we went to an outdoor amusement park and we did the ropes course it was pretty scary because it wasn't like a ropes course in America where there's a person below you that has a rope to you if you fall or want to come down they can drop you down by that rope this one you only had one rope that connected you just to a wire above the different obstacles which made me all the more uneasy with the whole thing, I only got to about the middle thing before I got scared so I went back to the ground which was very comforting after an almost nervous breakdown. After that I went to climb the little rock wall which was fun and then we went to the zip line, the place we went to is home to the second longest zip line in the world and the longest in Israel, that one was under repairs so we all got to go on a still very long 400m zip line which was so much fun and a big thrill. After all the excitement in Gush Etzion on the ropes courses we went in a hurry back to Lod because we had a shiur with the boys Rabbi from yeshiva who told us about Passover. On Tuesday we went to Tel Aviv to a park on the river to go paddleboating it was really fun and a kind of nice relaxing activity it was nice and sunny outside so that made it alot nicer. After that we went to the Ramat Gan Diamond museum to learn about how diamonds are processed, created, cut and traded. Ramat Gan is the largest diamond exchange in Israel, also what makes it special is that their offices are connected to cutting labs, processing labs and everything that they need to process diamonds for trade. Also we saw replicas of famous diamonds like Elizabeth Taylor's famous pear shaped diamond and many other fancy diamonds that are well known. After the diamond museum we had lunch and then went to the Wingate institute for Athletics. The Wingate Institute is home to some of the most advanced equipment for athletes, they have physiotherapists, psychiatrists, and trainers to help athletes train for the Olympics, soldiers train there for army exercises, there is also a boarding school in Wingate specifically for exceptionally high school athletes who stay in dorms at Wingate and train everyday along with their school studies. We took a tour around to see their Jewish Athletes Hall of Fame, learnt about the different techniques they have for measuring a person's fitness and a room the specifically has less oxygen in it to imitate high altitude training. We then took a kickboxing class which was fun but I wasn't dressed for it (jeans) so I only stayed for about half of it. When we all finished the kickboxing class we waited for our bus so we could finally go home to Lod. We had dinner and then a free night. On Wednesday we had tours in the north, we started in Caesarea where we saw the remains of the old Roman port and how amazing the advancements were for humanity even for that time. We started in the theater where we learnt about culture that citizens would've seen in the theater back in it's prime, like plays and drama. We continued to look at the port and all the houses and mosaic remains from the prime of this ancient port city. Although I had been before I learnt a lot of new things for example that there was a large Jewish population living in Caesarea in it's prime. After a couple of hours in Caesarea which I think is necessary to see everything we continued our tour of the north in Zikhron Yaakov, a town famous for the winery and beautiful town center. We started at a tour of the old cemetery to learn more about how the city began and what the hardships were in the beginning. Our plan next was to take a tour of the Aaronson house which was home to a spy ring for the British about the Turks, Sara Aaronson was captured by the Turks and was going to be questioned about the secret spy ring so she convinced the guard to take her to her house to change clothes and whilst he was standing outside, she killed herself with gun she had hidden in her wall behind a tile. This act saved the spy ring because she obviously couldn't reveal any information to the Turks, therefore she is known as a heroine to the community in Zikhron Yaakov. Unfortunately we weren't able to get into the museum which was sad because I was quite excited about going through to see her room where apparently the tile where she hid the gun is still there.Thursday we went to a shiur about Pesach and then continued to the Yarkon river for a tiyul. We walked around the swampy areas also to a cool castle type building and some people jumped into the river during lunch, then we got back on the bus and continued to another castle which had the most amazing view and you could see about 6 cities just from the one spot. After the tiyul day, we had dinner and then a free night