(no subject)
Today it hit me that Kibbutz Tsuba is my home. My room is my room, my bed is my bed. Where I was once a tourist, I am now a resident.
Today we came back from a three-day trip to Hebrew Union College, Ein Gedi, the Dead Sea, and Mount Masada. The trip was amazing.
But coming home was even better. It hit me as we drove in on the bus, and I saw my room from the window, and I had the feeling that you get when you finally drive up your street after a long vacation.
I am home.
As for the trip, well it was pretty incredible. In order to do it justice, I will give you a day-by-day account:
Thursday:
Morning. We got up at 6:00 AM. We went to Jerusalem. Currently in Jewish History we are studying the 2nd Temple Period, so we went to the Old City and visit several museums and the remnants of the 2nd Temple walls, where we learn about Roman Rule, the 2nd Temple, the Zealot Rebellion, the ultimate Roman destruction/massacre of Jerusalem, etc. I really loved the trip to the Southern Wall of the Temple; it was amazing..
We got back on the bus and we were off to Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. EIE used to be located in HUC, and they still have connections with the college, which teaches Rabbinics, Cantorial Studies, and Teaching. We went there to receive a tour of the campus, meet the director, and do our own general studies there. Our teachers came to the college and we had all our classes there. It was really nice, except for the fact that we had school. Oh well.
After that, we left for Ein Gedi. Ein Gedi is in the south-ish west, by the Dead Sea. It is a part of the Judean desert. The hostel (yes hostel, not hotel - look it up if you don't know what this is) we stayed at was okay, and we slept with 5 people to a room. The day we got there, we didn't do much besides settle in.
For those of you who know me, you know that I am the last person you could imagine staying in a hostel. It was nothing like I was used to, but I was okay.
Friday
Friday, we woke up early. By “early” I mean 4:00 AM. (Alright okay I guess it wasn't that bad..) We left the hostel by 4:45, piling into a bus in pitch black of night, and headed to Mount Masada.
But it was all worth it - what followed in the next 5 hours; hours I will not forgot for a good long while...
We began the hike up Mount Masada at 5:30. A group of guys decided they would attempt to run. I can honestly tell you that they succeeded in doing so for about 3 and a half minutes. But regardless, the hike up was incredible. The mountain is not tall, as mountains go, but the "Snake Path" that we took is steep and winding and if you take a relaxed pace it is about a 45 minute hike.
Deby and I made it in 45ish minutes. We did a nice pace taking a lot of short breaks so not to get tired or pass out.
The trip didn't end there; after standing around like a pack of papparazi sucking the life out of the short-lived kodak moment called, we had services (in one of the oldest known synagogues in the world), and then we had a Jewish History class. So we spent the next four hours walking all over Masada, learning about the Romans, and the Zealots, and Herod, and Josephus Flavius, and the fort itself, and the story that makes it all famous...
****Side Note:
I am, considering the audience of my blog, assuming most of you already know what happened at Masada. If you don't a brief summary of the story can be found here, under the heading "History."****
Suffice it to say, it was an interesting lesson. The fort itself is huge on top, with rooms, buildings, and exhibits galore. And even in the beating sun (you really only enjoy the existence of the sun on Masada when it is just above the horizon), even though I had to LEARN STUFF... I enjoyed it. At the end of the whole experience, we stood on the Southern (I think?) side of the mountain, where a long canyon, perhaps a few hundred yards wide, separates Masada from another towering cliffside, where, when one yells his loudest, he can hear his echo, in its entirety, reflect back at him after a delay of 3 or so seconds, where our class, in unison, yelled out word by word, "Mitzadah Shenit Lo Tipol" - Masada will not fall again. I cannot truly describe to you what this was like, or how it felt was awed.
After that, we went back to the hostel and rested for a little while, ate lunch, and rested until about 4:00 PM, when we went to the Dead Sea.
Let me say a few things about the Dead Sea. Once again, for the non-Jewish: the Dead Sea has the highest concentration of salt of any body of water in the world. In Hebrew, the name of the sea is "Yam Hamelach" which literally means "salty sea." Now, salt makes it easy to float (remember that experiment you did in third grade with the egg in the saltwater?), because the water has higher density. In the Dead Sea, it is so easy, that you have no choice but to float. No matter how you position yourself, how you try, you will float.
This sounds pretty cool, in theory. You can actually sit down cross-legged and read a newspaper, or lie out and get a tan. Right?
Well, technically yes. Except that there is a little downside to the extraordinary saltiness of the water:
It hurts. Like a b***h.
Only a masochist would truly enjoy staying in the water for any longer than 5 minutes. Honestly, it burns. The water burns. The moment you get in, you will immediately discover the exact location of every minor cut and scrape in your body. Why? 'Cause it burns! If you so much as shave your legs, ladies, the day before you go in, you skin will burn. If you so much as get a drop of the water in your mouth, or merciful God forbid, in your eyes, you might as well just do what the Zealots did on Masada, just to end the pain. And if you so much as (I actually swear this is true, based on the actual first-hand accounts and advice of my friends and counselors) fart in the water, the saltwater will enter that rearmost crevice and burn you in a place you will then wish you had never even had.
But the Dead Sea is good for one thing: to tell people you went in. Also, Dead Sea mud supposedly is really good for the skin. You're supposed to completely cover yourself with it before you actually go in the water. So, we stayed in the Dead Sea for the obligatory 5 minutes, and then went back to the freshwater pool that sits by the spa. Let me tell you, there is nothing that feels better than a good clean pool after sitting in the Dead Sea. The water felt... thin. It was weird.
So we left at around 6:00 PM and FINALLY returned to the hostel for the day. We rested ourselves until Shabbat services, and then had an Israeli dancing session with a teacher who came with us from Tzuba. But after that, the hike, Masada, the Dead Sea, for the first time ever, the entire semester that pretty much everyone went to bed, by choice, BEFORE curfew. Babies don't sleep so well.
Saturday
Saturday. We woke up late. Blissfully, blissfully late. And then, after morning services, and lunch, we headed off once again to do stuff.
It was a fun day. The hostel we stayed at is actually a part of a large national preserve called the Ein Gedi Oasis (I think). Ein Gedi itself, being part of a desert, is, well, a desert. But... rainwater from areas to the north percolate into the rocks and spring up in a random place in the desert, and then flows for at least a mile amid the canyons and desert. Along the sides of this spring is a strip of lush wildlife, and at one point in its path the water makes a waterfall. Overall, the place is a mountain-y river-y beautiful place, and we had the privilege of hiking along the stream. At the far end of our hike we reached the "hidden waterfall," the high point of the hike, where we basically just swam and played around for half an hour. Then we hiked back. It was really cool stuff.
We returned once again to the hostel, packed up our stuff, and left again, this time for good. We came back to the kibbutz after a busy but exciting weekend, and now, finally, I am home.
<3,
Me
Today we came back from a three-day trip to Hebrew Union College, Ein Gedi, the Dead Sea, and Mount Masada. The trip was amazing.
But coming home was even better. It hit me as we drove in on the bus, and I saw my room from the window, and I had the feeling that you get when you finally drive up your street after a long vacation.
I am home.
As for the trip, well it was pretty incredible. In order to do it justice, I will give you a day-by-day account:
Thursday:
Morning. We got up at 6:00 AM. We went to Jerusalem. Currently in Jewish History we are studying the 2nd Temple Period, so we went to the Old City and visit several museums and the remnants of the 2nd Temple walls, where we learn about Roman Rule, the 2nd Temple, the Zealot Rebellion, the ultimate Roman destruction/massacre of Jerusalem, etc. I really loved the trip to the Southern Wall of the Temple; it was amazing..
We got back on the bus and we were off to Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. EIE used to be located in HUC, and they still have connections with the college, which teaches Rabbinics, Cantorial Studies, and Teaching. We went there to receive a tour of the campus, meet the director, and do our own general studies there. Our teachers came to the college and we had all our classes there. It was really nice, except for the fact that we had school. Oh well.
After that, we left for Ein Gedi. Ein Gedi is in the south-ish west, by the Dead Sea. It is a part of the Judean desert. The hostel (yes hostel, not hotel - look it up if you don't know what this is) we stayed at was okay, and we slept with 5 people to a room. The day we got there, we didn't do much besides settle in.
For those of you who know me, you know that I am the last person you could imagine staying in a hostel. It was nothing like I was used to, but I was okay.
Friday
Friday, we woke up early. By “early” I mean 4:00 AM. (Alright okay I guess it wasn't that bad..) We left the hostel by 4:45, piling into a bus in pitch black of night, and headed to Mount Masada.
But it was all worth it - what followed in the next 5 hours; hours I will not forgot for a good long while...
We began the hike up Mount Masada at 5:30. A group of guys decided they would attempt to run. I can honestly tell you that they succeeded in doing so for about 3 and a half minutes. But regardless, the hike up was incredible. The mountain is not tall, as mountains go, but the "Snake Path" that we took is steep and winding and if you take a relaxed pace it is about a 45 minute hike.
Deby and I made it in 45ish minutes. We did a nice pace taking a lot of short breaks so not to get tired or pass out.
The trip didn't end there; after standing around like a pack of papparazi sucking the life out of the short-lived kodak moment called, we had services (in one of the oldest known synagogues in the world), and then we had a Jewish History class. So we spent the next four hours walking all over Masada, learning about the Romans, and the Zealots, and Herod, and Josephus Flavius, and the fort itself, and the story that makes it all famous...
****Side Note:
I am, considering the audience of my blog, assuming most of you already know what happened at Masada. If you don't a brief summary of the story can be found here, under the heading "History."****
Suffice it to say, it was an interesting lesson. The fort itself is huge on top, with rooms, buildings, and exhibits galore. And even in the beating sun (you really only enjoy the existence of the sun on Masada when it is just above the horizon), even though I had to LEARN STUFF... I enjoyed it. At the end of the whole experience, we stood on the Southern (I think?) side of the mountain, where a long canyon, perhaps a few hundred yards wide, separates Masada from another towering cliffside, where, when one yells his loudest, he can hear his echo, in its entirety, reflect back at him after a delay of 3 or so seconds, where our class, in unison, yelled out word by word, "Mitzadah Shenit Lo Tipol" - Masada will not fall again. I cannot truly describe to you what this was like, or how it felt was awed.
After that, we went back to the hostel and rested for a little while, ate lunch, and rested until about 4:00 PM, when we went to the Dead Sea.
Let me say a few things about the Dead Sea. Once again, for the non-Jewish: the Dead Sea has the highest concentration of salt of any body of water in the world. In Hebrew, the name of the sea is "Yam Hamelach" which literally means "salty sea." Now, salt makes it easy to float (remember that experiment you did in third grade with the egg in the saltwater?), because the water has higher density. In the Dead Sea, it is so easy, that you have no choice but to float. No matter how you position yourself, how you try, you will float.
This sounds pretty cool, in theory. You can actually sit down cross-legged and read a newspaper, or lie out and get a tan. Right?
Well, technically yes. Except that there is a little downside to the extraordinary saltiness of the water:
It hurts. Like a b***h.
Only a masochist would truly enjoy staying in the water for any longer than 5 minutes. Honestly, it burns. The water burns. The moment you get in, you will immediately discover the exact location of every minor cut and scrape in your body. Why? 'Cause it burns! If you so much as shave your legs, ladies, the day before you go in, you skin will burn. If you so much as get a drop of the water in your mouth, or merciful God forbid, in your eyes, you might as well just do what the Zealots did on Masada, just to end the pain. And if you so much as (I actually swear this is true, based on the actual first-hand accounts and advice of my friends and counselors) fart in the water, the saltwater will enter that rearmost crevice and burn you in a place you will then wish you had never even had.
But the Dead Sea is good for one thing: to tell people you went in. Also, Dead Sea mud supposedly is really good for the skin. You're supposed to completely cover yourself with it before you actually go in the water. So, we stayed in the Dead Sea for the obligatory 5 minutes, and then went back to the freshwater pool that sits by the spa. Let me tell you, there is nothing that feels better than a good clean pool after sitting in the Dead Sea. The water felt... thin. It was weird.
So we left at around 6:00 PM and FINALLY returned to the hostel for the day. We rested ourselves until Shabbat services, and then had an Israeli dancing session with a teacher who came with us from Tzuba. But after that, the hike, Masada, the Dead Sea, for the first time ever, the entire semester that pretty much everyone went to bed, by choice, BEFORE curfew. Babies don't sleep so well.
Saturday
Saturday. We woke up late. Blissfully, blissfully late. And then, after morning services, and lunch, we headed off once again to do stuff.
It was a fun day. The hostel we stayed at is actually a part of a large national preserve called the Ein Gedi Oasis (I think). Ein Gedi itself, being part of a desert, is, well, a desert. But... rainwater from areas to the north percolate into the rocks and spring up in a random place in the desert, and then flows for at least a mile amid the canyons and desert. Along the sides of this spring is a strip of lush wildlife, and at one point in its path the water makes a waterfall. Overall, the place is a mountain-y river-y beautiful place, and we had the privilege of hiking along the stream. At the far end of our hike we reached the "hidden waterfall," the high point of the hike, where we basically just swam and played around for half an hour. Then we hiked back. It was really cool stuff.
We returned once again to the hostel, packed up our stuff, and left again, this time for good. We came back to the kibbutz after a busy but exciting weekend, and now, finally, I am home.
<3,
Me