Well, it has been just about a week since my last post, and I have tons to report on! My last entry was on Rosh Hashana, which I was lucky enough to spend with the Halamish family! Many thanks for their hospitality, and most importantly, for making me feel like I have a real home while I'm here in Israel :)
Thursday night of last week, I drove with Shachar and her friend Galya up to the Golan Heights (in the nothern most part of Israel). The drive was beautiful, as this part of the country is very open, mountainous, lush, with lots to see along the way...including the Sea of Galilee (where Jesus walked on water, as the story goes...) There we camped under the stars in preparation for our hike early the next morning. It was a beautiful night, there aren't so many times we can spot a sky full of stars in Chicago...even if it was a bit rocky beneath my sleeping bag. Flash forward to 6:15 am the next morning...the ladies are waking me with promises of coffee and breakfast sandwiches. I'm tired and feel as though I slept on a pile of rocks...probably because I did. The particular trail we are braving is the Yehudia Trail...(which unbenownst to me until after the hike, is recommended for experienced hikers only...hmmm). We hit the trail around 7:30am and let me tell you one thing- any previous "hiking" experience I have had did not prepare me for what we encountered. Boulders, swimming, cliff hanging (well, for me it was anyways..), hot hot Israeli sun....and of course, I had one somewhat minor fall, but it lead to some pretty nasty looking bruises. 8 hours, yes 8 hours later we made it out in one piece...and I must say, trying as it was, I feel pretty damned accomplished! Shachar, being the experienced hiker she is, managed to bring along a camera and took some pretty sweet shots, so I'll add some when I get a chance. I proceeded to pass out the second we got in the car...and was woken up when we were the only acceptable place for a post hike refuel- McDonald's. (Sidenote about McD's, the non-dairy koser mcflurry tastes suspiciously like the real thing...hmmmm).
Saturday I returned to Tel Aviv, and was ridiculously sore from the hike. Despite that, I agreed to head out to dinner with some of the girls, and was SOO glad that I did. Annie from New York lead us to this Indian restaurant which turned out to be a restaurant + hostel + rooftop bar....great food, good prices and lots of places to lay/lounge complete with pillows. Basically, amazing! Ulpan (Hebrew class) picked up again on Sunday, and I actually felt like I was making a bit of progress! I guess spending 4 days around people mostly speaking Hebrew is good practice! Had a bit of a headache most of the day, and was generally exhausted from the weekend....no good but luckily had a bit of cheering up on Sunday, but I'll keep that part a bit of a mystery :)
As I write this, I'm sitting at Dizi, a pretty swanky laundry mat/restaurant/bar/coffee shop a few minutes walk from my apartment. Not a bad combo, I'm finding out! I'm off to study some vocab words before heading to bed...I'll post some more pictures soon! Love to all back home and everywhere...
La'Chaim!
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