Ein Gedi and Dead Sea....A day I've been waiting for!

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Welll day number two of volunteering has happened as of yesterday, and it was yet again an interesting experience. It was a shorter drive with Daniella to our site this time, but the same routine. We had three groups of students who all came for one hour. One of the groups (the younger group) was new to her class, meaning, VERY minimal English. I had the task of taking them to use the flashcards and work on naming numbers 1-10. As we were doing this, there was a few boys in my group who were becoming a bit restless, and I found it hard to catch their attention again, because of the language barrier. The only word I could use to communicate with them was STOP and extreme eye contact. It worked well, just straight to the point with one word. Maybe I'll have to try that back in the states more often....I also think it worked well here because Israelis are SO direct in what they say and do. Example; my fitness instructor telling me she was a bitch. (I introduced myself to her, letting her know I wanted English Instruction, and she said hello, I'm Mayan, and I'm a bitch.) DIRECT. Unlike Minnesota Nice! One reason I won't make aaliyah here, so don't worry Mom and Dad 😊

And a big trip in Israel has finally arrived! Today we went to the well know Dead sea and on a beautiful hike to Ein Gedi. Ein Gedi is NOT the Masada hike I was hoping for, but it was sufficient enough (For now.) It was a long day....and I loved it.

It all began at 7:40 when we loaded the buses outside of Dizengoff. I went on the adventure trip with the rest of the group on the MASA trip (most of who I have not met yet...since I'm on an individual program here just for one month.) It was nice to meet the variety of people on the trip. The bus ride was long to get to the Dead Sea. I was so happy to get out of Tel Aviv because I have been here all week (with the exception of my volunteering.) It's interesting because Tel Aviv is SO different from the rest of Israel. Tel Aviv is not the typical "picture" people have in their minds when they think Israel.....the typical picture people think is camels, desert, mountains, etc. I was happy to see this "picture" finally today...and speaking of camels! At our rest stop on the way to the dead sea I had my first camel spotting in Israel. It was in fact at a rest stop with some beautiful mountain scenery in the back. I took it upon myself to have a photo shoot with the camel. They were also offering camel rides, but I think if I am going to ride a camel in Israel I'd rather have it be in the actual DESERT of Israel, not with a tour bus in the background. Our first stop on today's adventure was the Ein Geidi hike. I do recall doing this hike on my first trip in Israel in 2006, and I must say it felt better this time because I actually see the beauty in hiking now, unlike my high school self. The hike lead us through some waterfalls on the way..which was very nice to dip into because it was 30 degrees (Celsius of course, this is yet another change I'm still adapting to!) About halfway through the hike we had an option to go back to the bus or continue on to see a cave....me, being, me, chose do continue on with the hike. It got really adventurous at the point because we were than running into other tour groups (high school tour groups, how envious I am of Israeli high schoolers who can go hiking for field trips so often!) It became very dangerous because we were at crossroads with the other groups, on a very steep path (See attached video for a look.) We were all quite excited to get to the caves on the mountain when all of sudden...we ran into more tour groups. There was too much tour group traffic in the caves so instead we went into a different area, which we were able to slide (I mean slip) into a mini-looked like hot tub on the mountains (it was not hot water thankfully.) The slippery texture made it easy to get into this small tub, but a challenge to get out. Luckily we had guys who were able to help heave us out of the slippery tub.

We arrived back on the bus in the late afternoon and headed to the Dead Sea (that sandy beach part of course, because we were able to see it all around us on our hike.) which was just about a half hour drive. The Dead Sea....ahh what a glorious place. My first experience to the dead sea as a high school I did not purchase the dead sea mud to rub on my body, but I was a big tourist (and big spender, 10 whole sheckels!) and bought some mud this time. Luckily, I split it with a friend (my new Russian friend) so it was just 5 sheckels 😉 I put the mud all over my body, and lucky enough, I had it on long enough so perhaps it even worked as a sunblock for a while! Going in the dead sea feels wonderful, for about fifteen minutes and than, you might feel a small burn on your skin. I was warned only to spend about 15-20 minutes at a time in the Dead Sea, and this warning is validated. The adventurous day did not end there....our bus ride was nearly 3 hours back (about 2 hours to get there, but more traffic driving back towards Jerusalem.) We were able to see the Israeli/Palestine border on our bus ride back....that was interesting to see the walls separating the borders. I did also spot 2 more camels on our bus ride back, at a gas station.

It's now Thursday night, which means it's the weekend here in Israel. My plans for weekend #2 in Israel? I'll be going to my friend Snir's house, up in the North (Akko). I've been up to Haifa which is in the North but not as far as Akko, so I look forward to seeing the area, and meeting Snir's family 😊 So, followers, here's wishing you a very happy and safe weekend, and check for a blog back on Sunday/Monday (not sure where the weekend will take me so give me time to update!)

Love you all!

Ms. Sarah

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Comments

[g and g]

Enjoyed you on youtube, All the pictures you send are sababa, Your blogs are so interesting, Keep them coming! Love u