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Published: March 13th 2008
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Last weekend, our program took us on a trip to the south. I love the Negev. I think the desert is absolutely breathtaking, and even after a weekend of the heat and mountains of sand and craters of sand, it was still amazing to look at by the end of the weekend.
We left early Friday morning and drove down to the south, stopping for breakfast along the way. We got to our first hike, a national park that started in this valley that was created by erosion. The trail led us up a whole bunch of stairs and ladders and we ended at the top. I did this same hike on Birthright last summer, and it was significantly easier this time, mainly because I knew exactly what to expect. The view was just s amazing as the first time, too. From there we went to see David Ben Gurion's grave, and we ate lunch right by it. We went to our hotel in Dimona and relaxed for a bit and showered, then we ate dinner in the hotel. After dinner, they took us to a tent where a group played the drums and instruments from all over. They did
some capoeira also, and a couple of us (Hilary and I included) got to go up and do some capoeira with them. Poorly, of course, but it was a lot of fun. At the end they passed out drums and tambourines and we all played along, and then they passed out a few belly dancing scarves and four other girls and I went up front and attempted to belly dance. We went back to the hotel and slept.
Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel. First we went to see Mikhtesh Gadol, the Big Crater. These craters weren't made by volcanic eruptions or meteors, like most are, but by erosion, so they have their own special name, mikhtesh. After that, we went to a spring near the Dead Sea and walked around by this spring. Some people swam in it, but I sat on a rock and talked to my friend Jay. We stopped for lunch after the hike and then drove to a kibbutz to go swimming because it was pretty hot out. After we borrowed their pool, we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. For dinner, we went to a Bedouin tent
and sat around on cushions and ate great food at low tables. It was really fun, I ate with some really fun people and the food was pretty awesome. After we got back to the hotel, my friend Aviva and I split a bottle of wine and hung out with a lot of people who are here for the year. They're all really nice but I haven't spent a lot of time with them, because most weren't here for Ulpan and just got here from break 3 or 4 weeks ago.
Sunday morning we ate breakfast in the hotel again and packed up. We went to Ein Gedi, where we pretty much climbed a mountain. At the top was a temple from the Copper Age, about 7000 years ago. We climbed back down, which was much harder than going up and left my left quad sore for 2 days afterwards. At the bottom was Ein Gedi's natural springs, and we went in them. We ate lunch and then headed to the Dead Sea, where we put mud all over us and then floated. The Dead Sea is really incredible, but it stings a little bit and you really can't
stay in for too long. We headed back that night.
Our bus driver on the trip was crazy, and he kept playing the same song over and over again. It was fun at first, because the song was a Hebrew pop song that I hear out sometimes, but it got old really fast. They called our bus the party bus, because whenever we had to get on the bus to go anywhere, the music would be blaring (with the same song, of course) and sometimes we would all just stand outside the bus before getting on and dance. My bus had all sorts of really fun people on it, and I got to know a lot of them better while we were there.
This week has been pretty good, but busy. Monday night, I went to my friend Jay's apartment and he made dinner for us and his roommates. Tuesday night, Hilary went out to a dance bar her friend co-owns. Last night, I went out salsa dancing with my friend Rachel. Tonight, I'm hanging out with a bunch of the people who are here for the year, which should be a lot of fun because they're all really great people. Things have been going really well. And I've been going to classes too, of course, which are pretty interesting.
My family comes next week, so I've been planning fun things to take them to see in Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
This weekend, Hilary and I were supposed to go to Eilat and Petra, but she got food poisoning last night so we're going some other time instead and hanging around Tel Aviv this weekend.
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