raven-anya

As of today it has been over a year since I left Israel last summer. I had a recollection speech about it several weeks ago, before much of the fighting broke out yet again in the Middle East. Now, with my friend and my counselor from last summer both home, I can breathe a slight sigh of relief. Yet I still can’t. I have friends that I made last summer who are Israeli, one of whom has a sister my age, old enough to be preforming her military service. Another of my friends, an American like myself, was originally planning to spend a gap year between high school and college in Israel; that would have been this coming year. I have yet to a

Hi, everyone! I'm sure that at least a few of you who will read this won't be able to do anything more then spread the message, but I would be eternally grateful if you did even that. Most of you, if you read any of my journals, know that I was in Israel with a national youth group trip this summer. I had the honor of traveling with 22 other American teens. At the end of our week in Europe, the first week of our trip and the last week in June, one of our number received devastating news from home. His younger brother had been struck by lightening while helping to teach a group of younger campers. He was in the hospital, but they didn't know

Heat and sun. Not something common where I live at the moment. In Israel, those things are inevitable. It was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the Negev. I will be the first person to admit that I don't like that weather that much. And that I have the rather annoying habit of pushing myself a little too much. Beautiful if not something that many would call the Negev. The Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Tel Aviv, yes, but not the Negev. But it really is beautiful. Ancient water-eroded canyons cut through the landscape in winding paths, each one marked in a distinct way for hikers. We just finished spending the last of three nights in the dese