amazing weekend

So this weekend was absolutely fabulous. On Thursday the group went to class and then got back around 2:30, then we had the rest of the weekend free. Mattan came up to Afula to pick me up and we drove to Zichron Yaacov which is a cute small town with boutiques and wineries. We went to the Tishbi cafe and had a bottle of wine and ate cheese and crackers. It was very fun. The shops in Zichron are adorable. There are a lot of artsy places. There is this paper store that has all the paper making equipment outside and you can see how they make paper. There are also a lot of jewelry stores and stores with art, it reminded me a lot of an art fair. After Zichron Yaacov, we drove to Shave Tziyon. The water there is absolutely gorgeous, we walked to the beach and also BBQed dinner. That was a lot of fun. On Saturday we went to Rosh Hanikrah which has caves and the water crashes inside, it's unbelievable. You walk inside the caves and the water is so loud and wild, it's very cool to see.

After Rosh Hanikrah, we drove to Tel Aviv and then to Maccabim where we spent time with Tamar and Dana and her husband. I also met Mattan's old friend Noga who was such a sweetheart. It was really nice, we just hung out at Tamar's and ate leftovers from Shabbos and drank coffee. This morning everyone woke up and went to class to take our final exam. It was pretty easy, we had to choose three questions out of five to answer. I wrote about Theodor Herzl, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how the Holocaust changed the Zionist movement and Israel in general. It was pretty interesting to take the exam because although I had been learning all about this all month, I hadn't applied any of my knowledge until now. I realized I learned a lot! haha. After class we went to our last lunch ever at Kibbutz Sarid. That was sad, I will miss Sarid's pickles and chicken nuggets and especially their soup. After lunch we were allowed to go back to the college and work on our papers. I chose to do so because I hadn't worked at all on it over the weekend. I got 2 and a half pages done while I was at the library which was really good because the paper only has to be three pages long. Then we came back to the dorms and I packed a little and cleaned up. This evening was the final dinner with all the camp staff, federation staff, and our professor. We went on a tour of the kibbutz where the dinner was (I forgot what it was called) and then we ate dinner there outside. It was gorgeous out! The weather was perfect and the view was breathtaking. The people that work there cooked all different kinds of pizzas for us and there was a lot of cakes and other things to nosh on. We sang some songs and gave speeches and said our thank-yous to everyone. Unfortunately my camera died while I was there and I didn't get any pictures but there will be a lot on facebook that other people took. Tonight is our last night in the dorms and we are going to Tel Aviv tomorrow. That is going to be a lot of fun.