Yom Kippur in Israel was like nothing I've ever experienced. First, my roommates and I made pre-fast dinner and we ended up making way too much so we had a few friends join us, and after feeling like I was gonna vomit if I moved we started fasting. On Yom Kippur, the entire country shuts down and since there are no cars on the road (except for emergency vehicles) everyone in Israel gathers in the middle of the streets walking around. It was an amazing thing to see, everyone in the city in white just hanging out, kids riding bikes in the street, and people playing games to pass the time without using electricity or anything like that. We starfished in the middle of the street just because we could and that was really cool. A few of us who were fasting decided to stay up as late as possible Friday night so we could sleep as late as possible Saturday and avoid the feelings of starvation. We played cards and charades and talked until I crashed at 4:30AM. The next day we did the same thing until we went to synagogue to hear the Shofar blow at the end of the holiday, and then of course had a delicious break the fast. Unfortunately, you really aren't supposed to take pictures of what happens, but I found pictures to show what this experience looks like.
We have a 10 day break for Sukkot coming up and my friends and I are planning on doing a 4 day hike called Yam L'Yam (Sea to Sea) where you hike across Israel from the Mediterranean to Lake Kinneret which I'm very excited about. Then I think we're renting a car and driving around Israel and stopping in a bunch of places like the Negev and the Dead Sea and hiking and camping and roughing it. We don't have any for sure plans yet so we shall see what happens!!
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