2 Nice People and a Crazy

I flew back to school yesterday, which meant spending time in the airport. I like airports. They're like magical inbetween places. Still, you don't always want to spend all your time there. Which is why, when I saw that there was a flight that left 2 hours before the one I was scheduled to be on, I wanted on.

I started at the check-in desk, where I met the first nice person. One of the airline employees offered to help me by showing me how to try and switch on the self-check in machine. Unfortunately the earlier flight didn't show up. She explained it was probably full, but maybe I could talk to someone at the gate and get on stand-by. I said good-bye and went through security.

There wasn't anyone at the gate, so I went to the airline lounge thing to talk to an employee. He looked up the flight but unfortunately I wasn't able to switch onto it. Then he did something that made him into nice person number 2. Without me even asking, he started looking to see if he could switch me into a better seat on my plane (he couldn't, my flight was over booked, but still very nice of him).

I went off, wondering what I would do (other than homework) for the next 3 hours in the airport. Then I saw the bookstore. In I went. And that's where I heard the crazy lady. A girl in the bookstore was there with her mother. She asked the mom to get her a particular book and the mom turned her down, claiming the book looked "too mature" for her child. They then left. I looked over at the abandoned book. It was titled "Middle School: Worst Years of my Life". The girl was 9 at the youngest. Yeah, a book about middle school is way too mature for your fourth grader. As I said, crazy lady.

Israel Trip Part 7 (Last Part)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

So the next day was Saturday. Aka, Shabbat. So leaving the hotel before night was a no go. But that's okay. We spent the day together, having some fun by the pool, talking, having a B'nei Mitzvah for the members of out group who wanted to do that in Israel. It was very fun. After the service part we had a party. But not just any party, a 2004-06 ish themed party. Because that's when most of us became B'nei mitzvah at home.

Then night fell. We performed Havdalah. Then we went to the boardwalk.

There was an adorable little pony.

Also shoes. And hats.

 There was a light/water/music show. They projected stuff onto the water. It was really cool.

Then we went off to bed, preparing ourselves for what would be the longest day ever.

It started innocently enough. We went to Tzvat. We toured it and learned its history.

We looked at a synagogue with a super rude modesty checker (We'd been told that girls needed to cover our knees and shoulders, but this guy made us wear shawl to cover our elbows too. Which is fine, if that's their standard but he had such attitude about it.).

Then we went to the coolest candle store ever! Not even a little bit joking here, it was awesome.

This was the shop sign. Are you ready?

Candle.

Also a candle.

Still a candle.

Some candles in the back, with some sweet candlesticks in the front.

BAM! Another candle.

Look how adorable the owl and book candles are!

After the candle store we walked through the city towards the artist colony.

Then we got on the bus. It was mid afternoon at that point. The smart among us napped. The foolish (and me) did not.

We arrived at our final (non-gas station, non-airport) location. We were going rafting. Unfortunately  I have not pictures of this event. Cameras+Water=bad. But we rafted a little down the Jordan river. When we arrived at the campsite at the end we got to partake in a rock climbing wall (I kicked butt), a zipline into the water (it was awesome) and archery(I...could have done better). Then we were able to retrieve our change of clothes from the bus, and get dinner.

After dinner we watched an Israeli comedy movie, while our bus driver slept, powering up to finish our long trek. After the movie our group leaders mocked us with skits (it was okay, we'd done mocking skits a few days earlier as part of an activity).

You can't tell by looking at it, but they were being hilarious.

Still being funny. Still can't really tell from the picture.

After that we got on the bus and drove to the airport. We had a 5 AM flight so we arrived at about 1 AM to the airport. Again, the smart ones slept on the bus, and again, I was not one of the smart ones.

I also didn't really sleep more than an hour on the plane. And the plane ride back was about 12 hours, plus a layover. Basically when I landed and went through customs I had been awake for 35 of the past 36 hours. I was having fun.

Also when I landed in New York, I was greeted by something I'd forgotten existed about 10 days in Israel. Rain. And not just drizzling rain. Super heavy rain. It was refreshing.

Also, because I am smart, I didn't actually go to sleep until about 6-7 hours after I got home because I wanted to wait and go to sleep at a normal time. Dinner with my parents that night was...interesting.

Israel Trip Part 6

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5.

So I left off with the group attempting to sleep in a tent in the desert. It was not the best night of sleep ever. Then again, we went to bed after midnight and got up at four in the morning. So, that probably contributed.

Why were we getting up at four in the morning you ask? So that we could climb Masada by sunrise. It would be cooler for the hike up, and we would be able to tour and climb down before the really hot part of the day.

We ascended via the Roman Ramp. It took about 20 minutes. That thing was steep. Like, I enjoy hiking on steep, rocky things and I was a little winded by the end.

The sign for the Roman Ramp.

The view from the Roman Ramp.

The sign for the Byzantine Gate.

And there I am standing in the Byzantine Gate. That smile is the smile of a  person who is glad to not have to climb up a steep ramp anymore.

Once at the top, we rested a little and watched the sun rise.

I literally have 10 pictures of this with the flag blown out different amounts in each one.

I love the reflection of the sun here.

We also ran into a Bar Mitzvah.

After we finished resting we explored a little and looked at the ruins.

Then we climbed down Masada. This time we took the snake path. The snake path was so named because it winds down like a snake. This meant a lot of tight turns, not all of which had great guard railings where you'd want them. It was also just steep enough to be uncomfortable, but not steep enough to feel really steep. Basically it was awkward to walk down. But pretty! you just had to be careful not be distracted and fall. Which no one did!

We got breakfast after that. It was around 9am. Then we went to the Dead Sea.

That's me. Floating. In the Dead Sea. Just floating away.

We then all promptly got out of the Dead Sea and rinsed as thoroughly as possible. We dried off and went to Ein Gedi, where we said goodbye to the Israeli soldiers.

Then we rode a bus for hours and hours to get from the Desert in the south, to Tiberias, in the North.

We spent the night in our final hotel. The next morning we went out and explored the Golan Heights.

Syria is somewhere in here.

Wave hi to Syria again. It's in here somewhere.

We left the Golan Heights and got to stop at a military base. They had tanks and let us take a picture of one. Only one. And only from the front.

There's a picture of me standing on the tank (with other people) but it's blurry.

The next item on the itinerary was the water hike. I have no pictures of this because for some weird reason they don't want you to bring electronics along on water hikes. I will say that the water hike was amazing. It was also followed up by a swim in the Sea of Galilee.

The best part about the Sea of Galilee was swimming in warm water. I'm from the east coast. Our water is cold. And my school's right on a Great Lake. That's also freezing cold. Warm water is nice to swim in.

Anyway... After the Sea of Galilee we dried off and cleaned up for Shabbat.
Part 7! (Final Part)

Israel Trip Part 5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

After the melting awful humidity of Tel Aviv we spent the next day in the desert. But first we had to get there.

Pit Stop

We stopped off at an Israeli shopping mall to get lunch. It was definitely strange to have to go through a metal detector before being allowed entry. Also, seeing an Israeli soldier in the restroom with a huge gun just slung over her back was a bit of a culture shock.

We arrived at our first destination and walked for a bit. We saw Ibex.

We also saw some great views of the desert.

Then we saw the grave of David Ben Gurion and his wife.

Then we went for a walk through the desert. It was going to be a 2 hour hike, but we had to shorten it to 30 minutes because it was 106 degrees. I finally appreciate the expression "It's a dry heat".

The park we were at.

An Ibex in the desert.

A tree in the desert.

A cave thingy in the desert.

An oasis in the desert.

A girl on the trip dropped her camera in the water. One of the guys jumped in after it and retrieved it for her.

We would have hiked up there had it been cooler.

Apparently it's rare to see a bird in the desert.

After the desert we went to Ben Gurion's home in the kibbutz where he lived.

Instead of a hotel we spent the night in a Bedouin Tent. But before bed we went for a camel ride. And spoke with a Bedouin who answered our questions about his culture. Then we went out into the desert for reflection.

Part 6 is up!