We started our day on Tuesday at Sderot near the Gaza Strip. It was a crazy experience being so close to the border of major conflict. I was intrigued to learn about how people sacrifice their lives every day because they will not surrender the land to their enemy. We spent some time in a park that serves as a bomb shelter which was really impactful because I could not imagine living my life in constant fear like these people do. Then we went to a lookout point where we could actually see some of the Gaza Strip and learned more about the history of the conflict and current events. Then we made our way to the Bedouin tents where we stayed until the following morning. We put our stuff down and headed over to the camels for a quick ride during sunset. The camels were pretty gross but it was a fun experience regardless. Then we ate dinner in one of the tents with many other birthright groups. They served us the classic hummus, pita, shwarma, rice, potatoes, and salads. The food was very tasty to no surprise. After dinner we had some time to hang out, take showers, and spend time together. Some of the boys even had a wrestling match in the tents. Then we went star gazing out in the desert with no distractions. We each had time to sit by ourselves to reflect and think about anything that was on our minds. After some time we gathered back together as a group to share what we thought about and listen to each other speak. Lastly we made it back to the tents to sit around the camp fire and sing some campfire songs. It was a great way to spend our last night together before most of us crashed and went to sleep fairly early compared to all other nights. On Wednesday we woke up early to hike Masada. The snake trail that we were meant to hike was not open so we goin a different route. We climbed to the top and then Tzvi gave us a tour of the ruins that still remain up there. We took the cable car on the way down and all packed in there like sardines. We had some time to shop around the Dead Sea store and eat our last falafel and shwarma of the trip. After that we went to the incredible wonder of the Dead Sea. We floated there for about an hour and exfoliated with the minerals before it was time to shower and head out for our last few moments as a full group. We had a traditional and delicious Israeli dinner in Jerusalem. When we were finished eating we sat in a circle to share our highs from the trip, what we will take away from the trip, and what we learned. It was great to hear what everyone had to say but it was sad to come to terms with the fact that we had to leave right after. We headed on the bus to Ben Gurion airport where we said our final goodbyes and got our group T-shirts. 12 of us made it back to the states while the rest of the group remained in Israel to extend their trip. We might have said goodbye but it was only temporary. I know we will all stay connected and meet up again soon.