Reflecting on ISS and Beginning Impact Projects at our Final Overnight

Contributed by Sydney Soofer

Chicken John's (yes, he really goes by chicken john) eclectic warehouse in the heart of the mission, was our humble abode for our final overnight! We all arrived at the warehouse at around 9 and explored around the "Chez Poulet." We then did Havdallah, and after had a Ma'agal Laila (led by the lovely Danit and Elana) where we cut out things from magazines that reminded us of our cohort and our trip to Israel and made collages. While cutting and pasting, we also talked about our favorite memories from our trip! 

After Ma'agal, some of us commenced in a full-blown dance party. I can tell you our dance moves have really come a long way... #thanksisraelis !! 

Once the partay came to an end, we all got in our PJs...some attempted to sleep (Levi), some stayed up the entire night chatting (India) and others, held an SAT study sesh (Oksana and May'aan). In the morning, chef Gavi cooked some bagels on the stove because the kitchen lacked a toaster... they were perfectly golden brown -- thanks Gav! With our stomachs full of yummy bagels and home-brought instant oatmeal (Gabi), we had a workshop led my UpStart, a non-profit organization which "inspires and advances innovative ideas that contribute to the continued growth and vitality of Jewish life." We learned all about how we can jump-start our own organizations and got a solid foundation and good inspiration for our own impact projects. 

After our 2 hour workshop, we ate some delicious pizza and went on a walk through the mission to Mitchell's famous ice cream shop! Their peach ice cream was a solid 10/10! Once we got back, we packaged a bunch of bags with toiletries for "Lava Mae" and had an amazing presentation by Hazel about her special experience in the West Bank. 

The parents slowly started to trickle in (my mom actually came 30 mins early--for those of you who know my family, you know this was an extremely rare occurrence). After Hazel's eye-opening presentation, we all got up and shared our experiences from the ISS trip with photos to help picture exactly what we were describing. For the grand finale, India made a super nostalgic slideshow with photos we submitted to her from the trip--truly tear-jerking. 

We then said "Lehitra'ot" and all parted our separate ways! It was so good seeing everyone and can't wait for the next workshop!