My Hebrew is terrible.
So many things have been going on this past week! This weekend, we went to Eilat, which is on thevery southern tip of Israel, on the Dead Sea. It’s where Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Saudi all come together, which is cool because you san see them all from sitting on the beach!
Eilat is very hot. Very, very hot. My friend Sonya who has been there before said that it feels like you’re in one giant hair dryer, which is a pretty accurate description. It was around 115 to 120 degrees in the hottest part of the day.
On Friday, we left Be’er Sheva at 6 am and got to the beach at around 9. We were all grumbling about how early we left, but in hindsight it worked out well because we got primo beach spots and had the whole day there. I was there for a couple of hours and multiple sunscreen applications when I decided that I couldn’t sit outside anymore. Yossi, an Israeli who went to Northeastern and designed this trip as his senior thesis, was with us and him, Tess, and I went into town to walk around. Eilat is literally the Vegas/Cancun/Varadero of Israel. Tons of tourists, expensive hotels, a boardwalk, and this crazy mall with a ton of designer stores. After a while, it was time to go back to the hostel and nap!
On Saturday, we all took a four-hour boat ride on a wooden boat. We anchored and then there was a water slide and some floating tubes and we all jumped off the bow into the bluest water I have ever seen. I know, I know, I’ve said that before about Mexico, and Bali, and a zillion other places. But this water wasn’t blue-green, it was so clear blue. It seemed really clean to me, but apparently the pollution is getting pretty bad. I guess I’m just used to looking at the Charles all the time.
Sunday we had the long trek back. We were supposed to leave early, but our busdriver was opperating on “Bedouin time” which apparently is like Thai time, or Cuba time, all of which are late. So we didn’t end up leaving until around 12:30. Since it was the heat of the day, we couldn’t turn on the air conditioning because the bus would overheat. So there we were, all 26 of us, with Andrea suffering from food poisoning in the back, in 115 degree heat. Needless to say, none of us were happy. But we survived, and took showers and hung out in air conditioning for a while, no worse for the wear.
Today, we are touring bedouin villages, which will be amazing. Our lectures on the Bedouins have had some issues because of language barriers, so I’m hoping that today will shed some light on the things I don’t really understand. Tomorrow, we leave at 3 a.m. to hike up to Massada and then watch the sunrise over the Dead Sea! And then swim/play with the mud. After that, we head to Jerusalem! Such a packed week.
I’m currently suffering from a stomach bug/food poisoning thing, but I think I’ll be over it soon.
I’m hoping to upload some pictures onto Flickr soon so you guys can see what an amazing place this really is.
