Goodbye Holon, Hello Eilat?

   

    It has been a "Typical Year Course" as i would say crazy week. Sunday I moved out of my home of the past 3 months in Holon. The scouts (the israeli's on my program that are doing a year of volunteering before the army) stay in Holon the whole year, so saying goodbye to them was very sad. One of them was my roommate which made it even harder. We were either near tears, or like my scout roommate Yali, sobbing as we said good-bye to them. It was hard to leave Holon. It was amazing living in a place that not many tourists go see. It's definitely a different experience to go visit a place for a couple of days, and to live there, know which stores are cheap, know the names of the people working at certain stores and have them know your's, and work at a school know all the kids and their parents. I'm very grateful that I'm able to have such an experience, because realistically, if you want to see a place, the only way to see it is as a tourist, we can't all just drop everything and move to a foreign land for 9 months. Which is why I'm so grateful. 

   Saying goodbye to the scouts and the kids at the school i worked at was very hard, but knowing I have 3 more months here makes it much easier, because I know I will be back to visit. I know that in June is when I will be faced with a much harder situation, because honestly who know's when I will be able to come back to the this place and visit the people I've created such strong bonds with. 

   After moving out of Holon we had a 3 day "Chofesh" (break). Myself and 10 of my other friends, Nufar, Jamie, Alyana, Emma, Mimi, Sylvia, Ori, Noam, Adam, and Tobi took the opportunity to go travel. We woke up at 5 45 monday morning so that we could catch the 7 A.M. bus down all the way to Eilat. The bus ride was the expected 5 hours and when we got there we were greeted by sun, a beautiful beach, the Red Sea, and warm weather. It was incredible. Being the cheap 18 year old Jews that we are we didn't go straight to our hotel, we went straight to our camp site- that's right, tents and everything. We got to camp, locked our stuff up, and again being the cheap 18 year old Jews we are, we didn't pay for a cab into the city, we walked 2 hours to the Tayelet (the "boardwalk" of Eilat). We spent the day there on the beach, hanging out on private beaches and getting kicked off of them. During the day we passed a ride that looked like fun, (shown above) basically the people were strapped into a metal ball and shot up like a slingshot very high, flipping over the city of Eilat on the edge of the Red Sea. My friend and I asked how much it was, "60 shekels" he said, we were camping and couldn't even pay for a cab to the Tayelet, "hah, thanks" we said and walked off.  After our day on the beach we were walking by the ride and a man ran up to us and said in broken english to us "2 people, no money...ride." Well, my friend and I got a free ride on the ball (again, shown above). The city of Eilat is quite a site, especially when you're far, farrr above it plunging head-first toward the ground. 

   That night we decided to put in 10 shekels each ($2.50) and take a cab back to the camp site. We pitched our tents, and were out. The following morning we woke up pretty early and got started. We started our hike. Our hike was definitely not easy. It was pretty much straight up a mountain, for a long time. We hiked up very steep mountains, hoping to reach the peak. Like in every case, it was worth it when we got to the top. The view was amazing. If i stood facing west to the left of me was the city of Eilat, and Israel, in front of me was the Red Sea and Jordan (shown by a huuuge flag the country waves on it's beach across from Eilat's Red Sea beach), to my upper right was Saudi Arabia, and to my right was Egypt. I stood there hearing nothing but the wind. It was amazing, I could see 3 countries and was in another. It was amazing how peaceful i felt and yet I knew that the 3 countries I could see clearly in the not so far distance want so badly for the country that I am in to be gone. I guess it was a false feeling of peace, but isn't it always? It was beautiful, and that's all that I cared about at that moment. Hiking down wasn't easy, going up a steep mountain isn't easy, but going down is just down-right scary. 

   When we got to the bottom we were at the beach. The beach that we were on offered snorkeling. Well, we all coughed up 32 shekels for a snorkle and mask ($7.60) and went snorkeling. For those of you that don't know me well I have a strong fear of fish- it's embarrassing, i know. The 2 times I've tried to snorkel in my life in the past I have created a scene by either running out like a little girl, or having to get pulled back on the boat by the random Caribbean guy running the boat. I guess you could say snorkeling isn't my thing. Well, I was surrounded by my best friends all there to support me and I decided it wouldn't hurt to try again. Well, I jumped into the freezing cold water. Luckily for me, people thought i was just hypo-ventilating from the cold water and not from the fear. When i finally got to breathing normally I put on the $7.60 googles and snorkel that looked like they hadn't been washed for months. When I felt entirely ready I put my head in the water. Well, I saw a couple of fish and this time instead of jumping right out of the water I just ripped off the mask and began to tread. I stayed in the water for a record 7 minutes and saw quite a few fish before I decided I had had enough. Needless to say, I was content and proud of my self as were my friends, maybe next time I'll stay in for 10 minutes, that would be crazy.

   That night we didn't want to walk back to the city of pay for a cab so we started walking to see if there was a small restaurant or market near by. Well we passed authentic looking beduoin tent and decided to check it out. "Students? welcome! BO!" said the beduouin guy working there. We sat down and asked how much it was for food. "meat? ohhh meat nice, meat expensive, everyone 70 shekel" ($17). So what do you think we did? "NO THANKS". "Okay okay, 40 shekel each , I give you chumus, nargila, pita, good time". He really did show us a good time, there was tons of chumus, homemade pita, a special cheese they make there, french fries, tea, it was amazing. Then we got up and danced. My friend Tobi from Nigeria won everyone over with her good dancing, so much to the point that the Beduoin guy jokingly (we hope) asked to buy her for 1000 camels. It was a great night.

    The next morning we got on the bus back to Jerusalem, our new home for the next 3 months. I'll write about what I've been doing here in the past week soon, I think it will be another good 3 months.