We took pictures in front of a spectacular view and took a moment to absorb the splendor of the Negev. Next, we drove to become immersed in the Bedouin culture.

After a meaningful morning, we went to the shuk (market) on Ben Yehuda street and got a taste of the busy environment right before Shabbat. We sampled Israeli pastries, drank fresh squeezed juice and picked up souvenirs.

We spent Shabbat reflecting on the week we have had and forming an even stronger community among our group. Ww engaged in great discussion about our Jewish journeys and identities.

After lunch, we continued to the north western corner of the country to Rosh Hanikra. This site is located on Israel's border with Lebanon. The Mediterranean Sea has crashed into the rocks for thousands of years carving out grottos with beautiful vistas from within the rock.

Our day started with an intense, emotional trip to Yad Vashem, which is the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. Our, Swedish-born, Israeli tour guide began our tour with the history leading up to the Shoa and highlighted personal stories and accounts of victims.

Bus 683, dressed to impress. gathered outside to get in the spirit of the the night and take the spiffiest of our group photos thus far.

The small alley ways and twisty roads are distinctly Jerusalem. As we explored all the nooks and crannies, we were able to relive where people lived, prayed and shopped over 2000 years ago.

We were told we were going to a startup that works on an accelerator. I thought it was some MechE something or other to measure acceleration. Nope. Siftech is a platform to help other startups in Jerusalem and was my favorite visit so far and the one I found the most interesting even though it does not relate to my field, chemistry.

Yesterday,we went to two exciting companies in Jerusalum, Voiceitt and OrCam. Voiceitt is working on apps to help people with impaired speech, motor disorders, and degenerative conditions by empowering them to communicate. They have two projects, talkitt and moveitt: talkitt takes in impaired speech and outputs coherent speech and moveitt allows users to move a curser using their voice. OrCam developed a camera device that can be attached to glasses that allows blind and visually impaired to "see".

"After just seven short days, the group mentality and energy is a strong one, proving to me that the bond of religion or of a shared history is a powerful one that draws us together, in times of need and in times of leisure too.  Now, as I sit under the stars at our kibbutz under Masada, writing this blog post as my friends lay near me looking up at the sky, I understand the purpose of this Birthright trip. This is a lasting camaraderie."