TL-46-426 Update 2

Day 2

Theme borders and neighbors… 

We started today with a trip to the northern Golan where we went to an outlook on Har Ben Tal overlooking the Syrian border. 

While there our tour guide, Hannan, taught us more about the history of Israel, its establishment, and its relationship with bordering countries. We also learned about the evolving map of Israel since it was first declared independent. Shoutout to Jacob B, our physical interactive map, pictured below. 

After learning more about the border, we made our way to an outlook where we could see Syria and learn about Israel’s complicated relationship with this country. 

Next, we made our way to an old abandoned Syrian bunker called Tel Faher. There we walked through the bunker and discussed more about Israel’s relationship with neighboring countries. 

After a short lunch stop, we proceeded to go for a water hike in the Nahal Hatzbani. This helped us to understand more about the connection to the land as well as the cultural connection to a tiyul (word of the day- literally a trio. But denotes hiking, a favorite Israeli pastime).

Nearby the hike, we then went water rafting. We enjoyed our not-so-lazy river trip, which was funny and a good bonding experience for each raft. Some groups enjoyed the chaos that came with difficulty paddling, while others enjoyed relaxing and letting the river do the work.  After dinner back at the hotel, we ended the night in small groups reflecting on our time so far and beginning to think more about our goals for the coming days. The activity ended with personal letter writing which we will look at on the last day of our trip to see how we’ve grown.