So much happening!
Wow, it's been an incredible week. It started with us going on a four-day hike through the Negev, which ranks among the most beautiful things I've ever seen. We started from Arad and just worked our way down to Eilat. There's nothing like four days hiking together to bring people closer. I got to know pretty much everybody at WUJS to some extent and I really enjoy most of them. I also got really close to some others and it made me only more excited for what will happen here. KT's birthday was the first day of the Tiyul so I surprised her on Sunday with a green beanbag chair for her room (there is zero comfortable furniture at WUJS) and a few other things. Then on Monday, her actual birthday, I surprised her at the campfire. I had worked with our friend Jared and we'd made chocolate-chip banana bread for all and I'd managed to bring smores ingredients for 60 people (not an easy task to hide) and our friend Ami led everybody in the Hebrew version of happy birthday. It was great fun because there were so many people who had never tried a smore before and had no idea what it was, so the Americans helped them make them and they all were delighted with the outcome. Then KT and I played guitar and sang with a few of the other musicians while everybody at around the fire and we slowly drifted away, falling asleep around 1am, waking up at 6am. These were our general hours for the Tiyul. I'm pretty sure KT liked her birthday present. On Tuesday, after incredible hiking, we camped inside the Maktesh Ramon at a Bedouin tent, with actual showers, so everybody was pretty thrilled that night and we had good food and slept on cushions outside, so it was total luxury for what we'd been used to. Then on Wednesday we had a wonderful hike inside the Maktesh, followed by camping about 10 miles outside Eilat (the southernmost town in Israel on the Red Sea.) and then had another campfire/singing/fun. The next morning we woke up at 5:30 and packed all our stuff up for the longest day of hiking. We started by going straight up a mountain (one of 4 we climbed that day) and eventually made our way through often trechurous conditions all the way to Eilat, which is now one of my favorite cities in Israel. We ended up spending the weekend there and we got a room at a hostel and hung out on the beach. We went out for KT's birthday Thursday night, which was a hilarious experience because it turned into the worst meal we'd ever had. It was so bad it just became amusing. And on Friday we had a wonderful Chinese dinner that was the best meal we'd had in Israel. Eilat is so beautiful I now find myself wishing I could be there every week. It wa amazing to sit at the beach, having snacks and drinks and swimming in the Red Sea when it got to hit. We're now planning on spending our 1-week break in Eilat, which I'm sure will be incredible. Well rent an apartment for a week and hopefully make a few trips into Jordan. Hopefully that works out because I really fell in love with the city, as I'm sure you can tell. I have much more to say and I hope to get another chance to update tonight, but I wanted to get this down.