The "Leah Blog": back in action

Hey everyone!

Welcome back to Leah in Israel.  I know I never really updated it about Megiddo before leaving the last time, but safe to say, it was an amazing time.  I'm back in Israel for a little over 2 weeks, and per the request of the lovely Jessica Levy, I have decided to attempt to reinstate the blog for my latest Israel adventure.

I'm currently here on a program called the ATID Campus Fellowship.  It's basically birthright plus - longer than Israel, more intense, more off-the-beaten-track, more included, and more amazingness.  Over the course of the last semester, I have been attending classes with 3 other GW students, along with several retreats with the students who are taking the same class at Maryland and American.  These classes will continue next semester, but for now, we get to spend two weeks together in Israel.

Our adventure started Monday evening with a flight on Austrian Airlines to Vienna, and, after a slight layover, a flight from Vienna to Tel Aviv, arriving Tuesday afternoon.  The flight was generally fine (minus the fact that my messed up finals sleep schedule prevented me from sleeping at all on the first flight, and the annoying French lady woke me up several times on the second flight).  A few thoughts on Austrian Airlines, though:

1.  If bright colors are not aesthetically pleasing to you, do not fly this airlines.  The seats are bright green, and the stewardesses wear bright red.  And they go ALL OUT with their red: red jumpers, red shirts, red TIGHTS, and red shoes.  It was a little ridiculous/eye hurting.

2.  The security video was kind of hilarious.  It involved a guy who was so stupid he bumped into signs, got his tie stuck in the tray table, and was reading the safety message upside down.  There was also a woman and a 5 year old child, and these 3 were the only people on the plane.  It was rather amusing.

So after landing in Tel Aviv and taking the requisite hour to sit outside the bus for no reason whatsoever in the area I like to refer to as "the Hebrew U forgot to bring enough busses" waiting area, we made our way to Genesis Land/Eretz Bereshit.  For those of you who actually read my blog last time/were in Israel with me, this is where I went camel riding last time.  There were no camel rides this time because it was night, but we did have the same shtick with someone pretending to be Eliezer and Abraham, and the same amazingly delicious food - which was a great first meal in Israel after airplane food!  Then we took the bus down to the negev for our first two nights.

Today was a LOOOOOONG day.  We woke up early, and headed to Mt. Yishai in the Ein Gedi region.  We hiked up and down the mountain from around 8am until about 3:30pm.  It was intense, and the fact that I'm still suffering from the plague I contracted during finals, leaving me with an intense cough, did not help matters.  That, combined with my fear of walking down hills, made it particularly challenging.  However, the view from the top was completely worth it - gorgeous desert and mountain on one side, and the Dead Sea on the other.  On the way down, we went for a brief few minutes to one of the falls at Ein Gedi, which was beautiful so I wished I could have stayed longer.   I also got to practice my Hebrew a lot today, because since I was having trouble and taking it slow, so I hung back with the medic/guard/holder of the ghetto hunting rifle, who doesn't speak English, which was nice.

After the hike, we went to the Ein Gedi spa, where we pretended to go into the sulfar pool (but after putting my feet in for a minute I realized that my cut from the hike was burning so I took it out).  We chilled for a while, ate a huge but way too late lunch, and some people went to the Dead Sea.  Towards the end of the hike, a sand storm had started that picked up before we got to the spa, so the sand clouds and my cut (plus the walk to get there) made me opt out of Dead Sea-ing.

We're back at the guest house at the kibbutz we've been staying at.  We have dinner in a few minutes, and then some night program.

Lehitraot from the holy land once again,

Leah