Mum's the Word!

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Yes, yes, I know. Bad me.

What? It's been three months? Four? Urg. Apologies.

But I've been busy. For those of you who don't know, I am still at the Arava Institute, but now I am an intern here! I work for a part of the Institute called Ecopaths, they are the ones who arrange the famous Bike Ride every year from Jerusalem to Eilat. So I've been knee deep in Bike Ride business, as well as a Hike which will happen in two weeks (we are giving some help to this event run by the Heschel Center and Hazon).

Anyways, if you are curious about the Bike Ride, you can check out the website: http://www.hazon.org/go.php?q=/rides/2007IL/pedalThePast_-_PreserveTheFuture.html

Also... my dear friend Avi is coming all the way from Brookline to do the ride! Hurray! So if you are feeling particularly generous, you can go to his page and donate. :-).

Anyways, on other news, oh, I have so much news to catch you up on. But I think I am going to dedicate the next few blogs to my three week trip with Mom. Thats right, Mom showed up in the middle of January, and we spent a week here in Ketura, a week traveling in Jordan and Sinai, and then another week bouncing around Israel.

So lets start with Ketura.

Well, theres not too much to say. Just beautiful pictures. But mom came and we were preparing for the end of the semester, and there was much celebration. Mom and I went on mini hikes almost every day in my great endless backyard, and we ate a lot of date frozen yogurt from Yotvata (the dairy kibbutz down the road.). It was all in all lovely.

We also spent a day visiting Timna Park. These are copper mines near Eilat that were mined thousands of years ago (yes, pre-Abraham. Crazy, eh?). We toured around with our trusty friend Yonaton, a trusty kibbutznick (and also the computer dude at the institute) who used to work in the park. Its good to have connections.

And Mom certainly beat me in staying up late. On our last night, we had a big bash with a DJ from Ramallah and a DJ from Tel Aviv. Yes, it was that awesome. So awesome that when tired ol' me left the party at 2:00, Mom continued to dance for another hour. The next day people were commenting on her endurance and excitement. Well, I guess I had to get it from somewhere :-).

Unfortunatley, though, that last night we had a bit of a drama. Cause what is the middle east without drama? As you all know, this part of the world is well versed in drama... the border into Sinai breaking, the deaths in gaza... we are on our toes.

But that particular night was sad. I will try my best to be vague in order to preserve privacy, but basically and jealous (and drunk) israeli soldier came into the pub at the end of the party with his M-16 and chased his girlfriends Arab friend with his loaded gun.

Everyone was ok, baruch hashem, (the army police arrested him) but it goes to show, we've got a long way to go till we see peace.

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Photos

See those mountains in the back?
That's Jordan.

Underground.
A cave in the old Timna mines wid Yonaton.

The Mushroom.
Can you imagine why this rock is called that?
Timna.

Moms arms span thousands of years.
Timna, yes, these are layers or mining marks, two eras apart from each other. freaky.