Hey guys, I just got back from my year in Israel last night. It was such an awesome year, no doubt the best of my life, although the 11 hour plane rides suck. The year really gave me a new sense of the beauty/importance of the holiest place in the world, its just too bad there will most likely be war again this summer (deffinatly on the Gaza front and possibly on the Lebanon front which would be terrible for Israel to fight a two front war).

Anyways, I'll be around here and I'm going to keep working on my RCT park for those who've been waiting so long.

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I'm Back
I was once TN's top poster!
2007 Gadv Count: Kingda Ka-6, El Toro-6, Nitro-4, Medusa-2, S:UF-2, R:TC-1, B:TC-, GASM-0, Skull Mt-0, B:TR-0, RMT-0, RT-0

Welcome back!

Sorry, I was off riding coasters when you posted this.

I'd love to see some pictures from your trip if you took any. I visited Israel for 10 days in 1998 and want to go back someday.

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Intimidator Coming in 2010 to Carowinds!

Any chance you're gonna post an update soon on your rct2 park? Oh and BTW, Welcome back.

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I don't know how this thread slipped by any one... Its kinda sad. Anyways, welcome back. I'd like to see some more pictures also.

Welcome Back!

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2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1

Thanks for the welcome back Between me and my friends, I have litterally thousands of pictures from my year and I just went through a lot of them and put some in an album for you guys.

I should first tell you what the year was. After high school a lot of Jewish teens spend a year or so in Israel doing various things. There are programs for everyone ranging from hardcore Jewish learning (yeshiva), more relaxed Jewish learning (history and culture of Judaism and Israel), college courses (basicly learning abroad), social working, army service, touring, mixtures of these, and probably many more that I'm not aware of. What I did was technically a yeshiva but it was very relaxed and modern. It was the first year of the school so all 20 of us didn't know what we were getting ourselves into (out of the 20, there were 4 other friends of mine from my highschool so it wasn't going to be too bad), but it ended turning out great. We had classes ranging from the normal Bible/Talmud to Jewish philosophies of Maimonides and Kuzari, Jewish history, history of the Holocaust, The David Project- teaching us Israel advocacy, buisness ethics, and many more.

The location of the school was great. It was in a complex which is based on a kibbutz. A kibbutz is a closed off community, mostly used for agriculture, which is all socialist. So the complex my school was in also had many other schools, mostly for Russian and French highschoolers, a school for autistic kids, and an American elementary school. The cafeteria was free for everyone in the complex (like a kibbutz) and the other facilities like the pool, tennis courts, gym, work out room, laundry (free) were all free to us to use. The location of the campus is smack in the middle of bustling Jerusalem, just a walk away from many restaraunts and hang out places.

Every other week we went on a day trip ranging from museums, hikes, biking, ATVing. Through out the year we took two 3 night trips and a week in the army. The two trips were to the north and south. The north took us to the coastal cities of Haifa, Acco, and Rosh Hanikra were the cliffs on the water made grottos which were very cool, and the Lebanon border. We also stayed in the small town of Shlomi which is a kilometer from the Lebanon border. We saw buildings that were hit from Ketyusha rockets only a few months before we were there. We saw huts on the other side of the border that were used by Hezbolah militants, and the road that the two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped on that started the whole war.
The trip down south brought us into the Negev Desert which included the Ramon Crater which is like a mini Grand Canyon. We did some awesome hikes down in the desert and ended at the southern most tip of Israel at the city of Eilat which is on the Red Sea where we had a day of snorkeling and water sports.
The week in the army was...interesting. This program that the Israeli Army has is a 5 day army experience for the Israeli highschoolers that will have to join the army in a couple years. A lot of the American programs do it just for the experience. The first day was, no joke, the worst day of my life. the WHOLE day was running in lines from one place to another. The rest was pretty cool. One day was field day where we went out into the desert and learned how to crawl, how to jump from a grenade, and a bunch of other cool training. The highlight was the gun range. After A LOT (and I mean a lot) of preping us how to handle the M16's, we each got to fire 10 shots, so that was pretty cool.
Even thought it seems like we went to a lot of dangerous places (we were in the West Bank a lot) our school made sure to keep us safe. I never had the feeling of being in any danger, whether sitting on a city bus, being in the city of Hebron, or strolling through the Arab markets.

We had off every night and every other weekend where we basicly had the whole country to explore, whether going out to a bar with friends, staying at a kibbutz, or chilling on the beach in Tel Aviv.

Overall, it was a fantastic year and I'm sorry its over. Be sure to check out my pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailsh...76/t_=43752276
(if you dont have a snapfish account, just use this: email: allyourbase887@yahoo.com password: 12345)

__________________
I'm Back
I was once TN's top poster!
2007 Gadv Count: Kingda Ka-6, El Toro-6, Nitro-4, Medusa-2, S:UF-2, R:TC-1, B:TC-, GASM-0, Skull Mt-0, B:TR-0, RMT-0, RT-0