Saturday night, 250,000 people gathered at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv for a huge concert with fireworks, unique dances, and videos of the first pioneers standing on sand dunes, the very land that was soon to become skyscrapers. Many (wisely) stood and watched from their balconies and rooftops at one of Israel’s pivotal moments in history as it celebrated 100 years of Tel-Aviv’s existence and what I hope to be an eternal future for the Jewish people.

Joining the students in the navy school, we hiked across the lush, northern part of Israel in our green army uniforms and spent sleepless freezing nights in tents waking up to encounter cows ready to greet us as we stepped out of the tent flaps. We suffered commanders shouting to close up the gaps in our long line of ‘soldiers’ trickling down the mountains. It was fascinating to come across other groups (as this is a very popular hike in Israel)and watch their reactions as they let us pass them, thinking they were stepping aside for what they thought were enlisted soldiers. I began to realize just how much the army is ingrained in Israeli society. Living in America, I myself never came across a soldier back from fighting in Iraq nor was I, fortunately and unfortunately, affected by the war in any significant way. Yet in Israel, army service begins the year after high school- 3 years for boys and 2 years for girls. In Israel, every teenager’s path to adulthood goes through military service as they guard borders and fight terrorists at the tender age of eighteen! If they choose not to defend their own country, their own lives, their own family, no one else will.

From the Mediterranean Sea to the Sea of Galilee, I walked for three days across the entire State of Israel. One advantage Israel has in being barely larger than the state of New Jersey but having the topography of California, is that in their spare time people can trek across the entire country on the Sea to Sea, or in Hebrew, Yam le Yam, three-day hike.  This year some of my friends have found their connection to Israel through spirituality, others through all-day learning of Jewish texts. I have connected to Israel by exploring and traveling during all of my free time, discovering the gorgeous and diverse parts of this tiny country. In the north there are beautiful green mountains with rivers flowing through them; in the south is the world’s largest crater (Mitzpeh Rimon), deserts, nomadic Bedouins, and the lowest point on Earth, the Dead Sea. I try to take advantage of every break I am given and all of my free time is devoted to traveling and seeking new hikes and new places to visit. So much to do and see, yet so little time.

We began our days here kayaking and rowing and have finally advanced to learning the intricacies and theories behind sailing! Our biggest trips will be sailing to Haifa and Herziliyah, two nearby port cities.

This boarding-school teaches high-schoolers not only the courses necessary to graduate high school, but also the art of sailing. After speaking to many of them, I discovered they have mixed plans regarding their future. Students in this naval-academy are not required to join the navy after graduation, when they begin their 2 or 3 years of mandatory army-service, but it definitely helps, they told me. Others have no interest in joining the navy for their army-service and came here as an opportunity to gain a good high-school education while learning about sailing and about the Israeli navy.

I am loving this unique experience and find myself eager to return even before the weekend is over. 

6:30 am: our day begins at the IsraeliNavalAcademy. Woken up by a peer, rotating every week the responsibility of “first cadet of the week.” It is the beginning of an extremely long day. Noise of the excitement of receiving not one, but three army uniforms for different purposes, is heard throughout the school. We were fitted and sized for our green, everyday, army uniform and belt, our khaki formal uniform worn only by those in the Israeli Navy for formal events and day trips, and a third white jumpsuit (which looks more like a painter’s one-zee if you ask me), resembling a big unattractive balloon for when we hop into the water to sail at sea.

Speaking of the sea, have I mentioned that the base is literally on the sea? The ocean waves crash against the platform on which we raise the flag every morning and is situated next to the Old City of Akko where Muslim Prayer can be heard at almost all times of the day.