Forgot to mention! Oranim took us on a long weekend trip to Eilat and the Negev the last weekend of March. I LOVE hiking in the Negev, when you get to the top of a mountain and look in every direction, it's as if you're looking at a postcard. It just looks fake - the endless hills of desert in different colors? Come visit, I'll take you there.
Vantage point from David & Paula Ben Gurion's graves
During the Red Canyon hike (on the first day we hiked at the Big Machtesh, and don't ask me what that means)
We had time to wander around Eilat, go out to the bars/clubs, hang out on the beach, they had a Kabbalat Shabbat for us on Friday and a boat/booze cruise on Saturday. Suffice it to say, it was nice.
The following Wednesday we hosted a Ramla Seder for everyone in the program who was in town (23 I think) at our house. So the majority of the cooking was left to the able bodies in our house - which was mostly me and one of the other guys. But it was fuuun, we skewered 10+ pounds of chicken, made matzah ball soup, grilled veggies, lalala.
Skewering.
Some of the seder-ites.
And we made desserts.
Alright, then I went to Allan & co. for Seder at Gail's house which was so much fun! And I learned a lot. Did you know the Israelites didn't just eat matza when they were leaving Egypt, but all year round because they could leave it to harden or not wait for it to rise or something like that while they were slaving? Yeah.
Also went to Herzeliya beach (AMAZING, beautiful, fancy) then to Tel Aviv and hung out for a while and tried to go to the Museum of Art but they closed 10 minutes after I arrived (I went yesterday instead), but I saw the Hunger Games! Read them, then go see it.
Art Museum's on the right, it's a really artsy looking building...
Finally, then went to the Kinneret to go camping and hiking and swimming etc. for a few days. We went on a hike in the Yehuda, so it's big mountains that you basically climb straight down then hike along the inside path along a river, which's fully equipped with gorgeous waterfalls. However there are also falling stones from many sides. So, here's a little story from the hike: we stop at the big swimming area that's at the bottom of a big waterfall, where a lot of people are hanging out and breaking/swimming from hiking. We decide to have lunch and then go swimming, however one of the park rangers comes over and tells us that they're closing off the area for the time being, too many rocks are falling from one side of the mountain. We complain that we wanted to have a swim, and he says, "Well, you'll have to swim in the next 'pool.'" When what he meant was 'You'll HAVE to swim in the next one' because about a hundred meters further on when we got to the next area, there's a waterfall/cliff with a deep lake at the bottom and the only way to pass through to the other side and continue the hike is to jump in and swim across!!! My shoes are no longer white booooo.
You can see the jump all the way behind us...
From the top of the hike
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