סופ''ש (weekend)

no fear. 

Anna and I being
our ridiculous selves 

Sorry for the delay in posts, blogging isn't exactly the easiest thing to do...mainly because I usually find myself catching up on tv shows from the states (has anyone been watching Dexter!?). This past weekend the group and I headed off to the Judean desert, to what I think has been our best trip yet (I may be a little biased since I did take some of the lead on planning this one). Packed into five cars, the best being the silver Hyundai that had this MA driver behind the wheel, we drove about 35 minutes out of the city to conquer our first adventure of the trip- rappelling. Armed with a harness, helmet, and pretty bad ass yellow bandana, I was ready to fearlessly walk backwards down the cliff. I can thank sky diving for making a dent in my fear of heights, allowing me to easily trust the harness and nice Israeli man facilitating my way down the cliff.  Don't worry, I had complete control of my speed going down, and I even had the courage to look over my shoulder to take this picture. It was a really great experience and the half naked Israeli's climbing next to us only added to the excitement. 


After rappelling, we got back on the road, passing through Jerusalem heading south west into the heart of the Judean desert and out to the Dead Sea (ים המלח= Sea of Salt). Typical of Israelis, our madrichim had told us it would take about 45 min- an hour to reach the Dead Sea spa...well, close to 2 hours later I finally was able to switch on my left blinker and part with the endless road lining the Dead Sea. We didn't realize how much time had gone by thanks to the amazing English radio station that we were picking up from Amman, Jordan. Speaking of Jordan, as we drove next to the Dead Sea, the mountains of Jordan were so clear and beautiful on the other side of the water. So, as we arrived at the Spa that we were going to have to pay for to get treated to all of the amenities of the Dead Sea, the staff wouldn't let us in due to the fact that we were late and they were closing relatively soon. Don't worry, that did not stop us. We were all jumping in the Dead Sea regardless of the added spa treatment. We drove the 5 minutes up the road to Ein Gedi (a free beach, with non-free bathrooms), located on the southern part of the sea, quickly changed into our bathing suits and headed into the sea. Most of the other people in my group have been to Israel before and had the pleasure of going into the Dead Sea, but for myself, it was an unreal experience. I guess everyone forget to mention that your body floats in the Dead Sea due to the extremely high salt content of the water. Surprise! Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly get used to this floating factor and the fairly easy movement needed to switch from from front to back, so I accidentally tasted the water. Worst decision ever. Let me just say, holy salt! It took about 5 minutes and some pretty interesting faces to recover. But, the floating factor did have its upside. Before I knew it, we all had our hands on each other's shoulders and had made a floating congo line, becoming the hot spectacle in the Dead Sea- even getting a compliment over the loudspeaker from the lifeguard (at first we thought he was yelling at us because of the harsh nature of the Hebrew language, but we rest assured when we figured out he was saying "good work"). The true test in this spectacle was when we all decided to  flip from our stomachs to our backs- I'm telling you, it is not as easy as it sounds. I will just say, we made some great entertainment for those standing on the beach.

dancing with flags. 

Dried off and caked in salt, we once again piled into the cars and headed to the place we were staying for the night, which thankfully was only 30 minutes away. As we pulled up to the rather large Bedouin tent, we couldn't help but notice that there was a group staying there as well (I will get back to this later, but basically the tent had a mesh barrier in the middle so two groups could stay there). After unloading the cars, my fellow leaders and I took charge to get dinner ready. With the help of one of our madrichim, we created a delicious dish of poike- which is basically a ballagan (chaos) of vegetables, chicken, and spices thrown into cast iron pots which are then placed into the fire to cook. In the meantime, we made dough to make fresh pitas on the fire, which we then all lathered with labneh and zatar to make a delicious appetizer. With our stomachs somewhat held over, we had a non-traditional Shabbat service thanks to Leah's guitar accompaniment. Now this is where our neighbors come into play. So we had found out at some point that our Israeli and South African neighbors were Jews for Jesus. As we sang our Shabbat songs, I couldn't help notice the Jews for Jesus coming over to our side to watch us and then a man, who I'm guessing is their leader, brought over some hand made flags for us to wave around. He was even so kind as to demonstrate the proper way to dance with the flags and explained to us the reason for the specific fabric- aka so the flag would always be moving. Now, I'm not entirely sure if these flags had a specific Jews for Jesus meaning, but they definitely added an amazing element to our service. 
Finally, the poike was done and we all filled up our silver camping bowls with delicious rice smothered in the fire cooked poike. Delish. Now onto dessert. We were all so full, but our dessert depended on the fire, so we had to make moves and ignore are bulging stomachs to indulge in delicious banana boats. For those of you unaware of what a banana boat is- it consists of a banana, graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate all wrapped into a piece of tin foil and placed in the fire to cook. No denying how appetizing that sounds. After I packed the banana boat into my already full stomach, it didn't take long for me to roll out my sleeping bag and try to catch some shut eye, but unfortunately for me a few people in my group snore a little too loudly for my liking, not to mention our neighbors who should definitely buy some nasal strips asap. 


As a leader of the trip, I got to do the 545 am wake up call to those in charge of breakfast and lunch and the 6 am wake up call to all of the late sleepers. Carrying the bags of vegetables to wash in the kitchen, I found my feet stopping as I was memorized by the amazing sunrise in front of me. I have pictures, but I feel like they do little to capture the majestic nature. What can I say, I am a sucker for sunrises. Maybe it was the sun reflecting on the Dead Sea, but I have never seen such bright orange and reds and 6 in the morning...mainly because I am never awake then, but still. We all sat around eating our cornflakes staring out at the beautiful sky while mentally preparing ourselves for the long hike that awaited. By 730, we were all packed and ready heading our to meet our fabulous hiking guide, Rayut (not sure of the spelling in English but I think that makes sense). She led us on our previous trip on Mt. Carmel and she is extremely knowledgeable about the land. Each armed with 2+ liters of water, we set off under the sun and into the expansive Judean desert. In order to make this hike a little more exciting, we decided to introduce a game of assassin into the mix. So basically, there was a carabiner floating around, and if in your possession, you had to try to get rid of it as stealth as possible. Throughout the hike, we would stop and ask who had the carabiner, and if you had it you had to face the circle and complete an embarrassing task.  Starting off with the carabiner, I couldn't help but try to get Anna stuck with it, so being the fast thinking I am, I told her that her bandana needed to be retied and I sneakily attached the carabiner to the back of her bandana, winning 10 (imaginary) points for creativity. Thus I started the game of assassin and our hike officially began. Watching someone doing the funky chicken at 9 am is pretty entertaining. 


We hiked for almost 6 hours through the desert, making sure to stop to hydrate and snack on the delicious trail mix that we made. Rayut led a discussion on the future of the Dead Sea and the current proposals on the table in response to its threatened state. We ended the hike at an amazing spring that no joke, appeared out of the woodwork as we descended down the mountain. After staring at desert all day, it was a little shocking to sea green foliage and a spring- I really thought Rayut had been lying to us all day just to motivate us to finish the hike. It really was an amazing hike, but having woken up at the crack ass of dawn from getting very little sleep, I was ready to man my position in the front seat and pass out- I strategically drove the first day, so I would be able to sleep on the way. Call it sneaky, but I just call it smart planning. 


I tried to add more pictures to the blog, but it was taking too long and I only had little patience. But all of my pictures are on picasa, so now that I finally updated my blog, the pictures should make more sense. I have more to say, but since this blog is getting a little lengthy I will spare you for the time being. 


Oh, but first, some exciting news. I have signed up for my first half marathon. On March 25, I will be running through the streets of Jerusalem in the first Jerusalem marathon. Might I just add that Jerusalem is a lot like Worcester in the fact that it has so many dam hills. Training begins now.