On this day fifteen years ago, a little girl named Molly was born. She grew up to get a meaningful Jewish education that inspired her to feel a deeper connection to her homeland. At the age of fourteen, she was so thankful to get the privilege to visit the wonderful land of Israel for her second time, on an amazing summer program called TJJ.

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Today was a great day. Not only was it my fifteenth birthday, but we spent the day at the beach in the scorching southern city of Eilat. As we left our hostel for the day and lathered on a ton of sunscreen, we prepared to walk to the beach. We arrived there and met our fellow Canadians from Bus 1 under an awning where we were given instructions for the day. As half of the group waited in line to go banana boating, my friends and I decided to take advantage of our time and went paddle boating instead. We ventured into the Red Sea and saw the beautiful coastlines of both the mountainous Jordanian sky and the looming hotels and buildings of the port city of Eilat. Our legs tired and we turned to head back to the beach and switch to kayaking, my personal favourite. We didn’t end up having much time for my favourite activity though, because soon after we left, the next shift banana boating was called to board the motor boat. Even before we were pulling out at sea, I was already feeling the thrill of the ride. It only got more exciting when we mounted the banana boat, a raft that is pulled quickly in the wake of the motor boat. The experience was both extremely terrifying and also one of the best parts of our trip. I did, however, pass on the tube ride that was offered afterward because I was already so hyped up from our banana boat ride. When we returned to the beach once morewe gathered again under the awning and I ate the melted chocolate bar from my bag that I had bought the day before from the Yotvata factory. It was delicious.

 

After we relaxed in the shade and dried off, we were all escorted onto a small boat cruise that would take us around the sea. We danced, we sang and we ate falafel, finishing off with snorkelling and swimming in the Red Sea. For the rest of the boat ride we displayed our bus spirit and had our second boat-ride-dance-party of the summer. Unfortunately, the fun had to finally end. As three o’clock approached, we docked at Eilat and bussed back to our hostel.

 

We all got showered and dressed and prepared to leave for the legendary Ice Mall. As was explained by Rabbi Zahtz, it got it’s name because of the skating rink that takes up the lower level of the mall. But since we’re Canadian he said it’d be a waste of time to use it. We got to the mall and ate dinner, then proceeded to browse the stores in search of gifts for our friends. Throughout the entire evening we were looking forward to going on the mini roller coaster that ran through the mall, but our dreams were crushed when we found out we were “too old”…Whatever that means.

 

As nighttime approached, I started getting bored of walking around so I looked for another activity. An advisor of mine came up to me and offered a game that sounded like fun. He suggested that we see how many times we could run up and down the escalators. I took the challenge, but decided to raise the stakes. Instead of following the direction of the escalators, I tried walking down the up escalator and up the down escalator. This started off as a funny little game, but turned into something much more. I started climbing up the down escalator. For the first few steps, I was alright. As I kept going though, I felt the pressure in my legs. My friends began cheering me on from the top. I took a few more steps and reached the middle, but I didn’t stop there. I kept climbing. When I was no more than five steps from the top, I looked up. At that moment the truth came crashing down on me. Even though I kept climbing up, the stairs were ever moving downward. This meant that even after five steps, I would still be three steps from the top. I did not let that thought break me. I kept going. With one stair left, I took a huge step to reach the top. I thought I would make it, I was right, but not in the way I expected. As this was an escalator, the last step turned into to two and I tripped, stubbing my toe in the process. I immediately hopped to McDonald’s and asked for some ice. I sat in the food court with my foot in the ice cup for the rest of the evening. It was extremely painful. After that experience, we left the mall and had curfew right away, as we would be leaving for a hike at 4:00am the next morning.

That concludes the story of my fifteenth birthday. It was a one of my favourite days of TJJ, definitely a birthday I will never forget.

-Molly Lohner