06/17

This weekend I went on a trip hosted by the Technion International School to the north of Israel - a region that until 1967 was a part of Syria. The Golan Heights, what this area is called, came into existence about 30,000 years ago with lava from active volcanos solidifying into a landscape with rolling hills. This has made it a place that people go to with the hope of becoming closer to nature. A few kilometers away from here is the country of Syria where there is a civil war raging between rebel forces within the country. It is a matter of a few kilometers that can seal the fate of one’s life.

--------

The beginning of the trek
---------

  

I started my trip in a massive hurry, waking up at 7:45 am with a bus to catch at 8 am. I think it was because I felt a little sick the night before and couldn’t fall asleep for a long time. It wasn’t long before the sense of rush dissipated and I was among hills walking down to the hexagonal pool. The lava that came out of the volcanoes solidified slowly, creating hexagonal columns of rock, the symmetry being thermodynamically favored. Time and natural forces brought about the formation of a pool surrounded by these hexagonal columnar basalt rocks. Us 30 students who went on the trip thoroughly enjoyed swimming in the cool waters of the pool. The pool was deceptively deep at points with just one step taking you from your feet being planted to you searching for the bottom. A student with us on the trip, who can swim about 6 feet before needing to stop and hold on to something, decided to be brave and try and swim in the pool. He started off at a point where he could stand comfortably and after swimming a short distance and felt the need to stop, he tried to put his feet on the floor of the pool but couldn’t find it. He needed to be thrown a tube to help him keep up. It was refreshing to swim in the cool water and sit on rocks by a tiny waterfall and feel the jet against my back. The hike reminded me of how much I loved the hills and trekking.

 ---------

The hexagonal pool

--------

From here we stopped at lunch at a hummus restaurant where my flatmate, David, and I had to share a table with someone because it was too busy. The man was kind enough to let us sit with him and it turned out to be an extremely interesting conversation between the three of us. He was born a Jewish-American in New York where he live for the first 25 years of his life when he and his wife decided to move to Israel. We talk a great deal about the political climate in the country and in the middle-east. There was consensus on the table that the conflict was costing all parties resources and lives. He said many things that made me think - about the leadership of the countries, about the skewed education systems, and the struggle of attaining peaceful resolution.  

I was in this state of thought when we took our bus to Mount Bental. It has an observatory that looks down into the Valley of Tears. It has this name because it was where a war was fought in the year of 1973 and many lives were lost. 3 kilometers from where we were standing was the border between Syria and Israel. Two countries that have been fighting each other since Israel came into existence, it is common to see some fighting and explosions from this point. We learnt about the political history between Israel and Syria here, also talking about the current state of affairs in Syria. It was absolutely heart-wrenching hearing about the number of lives that had been lost in this conflict. The current state of civil war in Syria has taken countless more civilian lives.I felt torn and wanted to scream. Certain things are beyond my comprehension. I remained in a turbulent state with thoughts swirling in my head like a storm for a long time.

--------

The beach at Haifa
--------

We stayed in a very comfortable hotel that night with extremely good food. The next day we rafted down the Jordan River. The river is shallow and thin in the summer, not quite majestic like many people tend to imagine. The 30 of us were broken up into 5 different rafts with us battling each other and pulling each other into the river. I was completely soaked by the end of the hour and a half. We drove up to an expensive restaurant where I felt like I ate more than I ever had before.

My weekend was full of experiences that made me think, wonder, and question. I hope that the rest of my time here is full of the same.