To the North!!!

I do believe it's high time for a post.  I apologize for the delay. . . again, laptop problems.

Let me explain the title first.

1) While swimming in the Mediterranean after being here for less than three weeks, suddenly a lifeguard came up to and spoke to us in Hebrew.  Did we understand? No. Then he spoke to us in English.  Did we understand? No.  Eventually, he boiled down his message to three words: "To the North!" and kept shouting it.  Utterly confused, we half-heartedly swam north, along the beach.  He revisited us at least two more times, unsatisfied with the expediency of our obedience.  We never really understood what the problem was and why we had to go "To the North!"  Maybe there was an undertow. . . or a shark.  Who knows?

2) While planning what we might do for the Rosh Hashanah 4-day weekend, of course we thought, "To the North!"  So that's what we did.

Mind you, Rosh Hashanah was exactly one month ago. A lot has happened in a month.  Let me begin by complaining with a few snippets of the negative aspects of my life.

Snippet #1: I cut my butt.
Yes, that was my Yom Kippur.  I was doing something I shouldn't have (as we were gallivanting the streets after midnight like hoodlums), which was climbing a gate at the Spaceship in Be'er Sheva.

This is the Spaceship.
Well, actually it's an engineering building, but I'm convinced it could lift off the ground at any moment.

Climbing the fence :)

After reaching the top, I was SO excited to sit down and dangle my feet off the edge of the roof that I didn't look where I was sitting. 

Some time before I arrived, SOMEONE (God bless them) had thrown a glass bottle onto the top of the small entry building (which was made out of something like stone or concrete), and I assume it promptly broke.  One of the shattered pieces met my bum as I plopped down on top of it.  It didn't really hurt, but it bled a LOT (and had all ten or so of my friends who were present gasping as they craned their necks to see the damage).  I'll spare you the picture, but yes, I have one.  I also still have the ruined jeans. I just wanted to make everyone's first Yom Kippur in Israel a memorable night :)

This is just after I realized I had sat on glass.  Don't worry, I'm laughing hysterically.

Diana also thinks it's hilarious :)

Snippet #2: I signed a contract without knowing what it said.
Well, I guess I am at fault for actually thinking that a representative of an unnamed cell phone company wouldn't LIE to me about what a contract said in Hebrew.  Silly me, trusting people wearing official nametags and uniforms. . .

Snippet #3: My iPhone committed suicide.
Well, you see, I was in a restaurant in Crete, and it was in my back pocket.  I went to the restroom.  My iPhone was homesick and jumped in the toilet and tried to swim home.  You know what it actually did?  It died, never to reawaken.  I flushed the toilet twice before knowing what had happened.  R.I.P., iPhone.

Snippet #4: Last one, don't worry.  My housemate Laurel had a heavy duty U-Lock for her bike.  It's about ten years old.  It broke this week.  At the time, I was very thankful that mine was not broken.  The VERY NEXT DAY, my 100-shekel, 2-month-old U-lock broke. What are the chances?

So, today, I went down to Home Center without a receipt or any other proof of my purchase to exchange it for another. After telling me no five or so times for various reasons (no receipt, there is no warranty, blahblahblah), I got all Israeli on them and continued to insist upon getting a new one.  My heart rate was up, there were beads of sweat on my upper lip, my vision narrowed, it was awesome.  After making multiple (non-violent) threats and arguments, the stand-offish, perturbed employee took me over to another counter and handed me a brand new U-lock.  I said, "Toda Raba," but she didn't seem to care much.  I guess it's just the Israeli way.  I hope I don't accidentally act like a jerk when I return to the US :|

So other than a few wasted $$$ and a gash on a glute (which is healed, btw), life is still pretty fabulous.

Onto the fantastic events of Rosh Hashanah! But first, a fun video that was my introduction to Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year):



This was a four-day break that happened at the end of September.  For the first day, I traveled with some friends up to Ashkelon and Ashdod for a last hurrah at the beach. It's getting cold in Israel, and we knew that it could be our last chance.

The beach in Ashkelon.

Ashkelon, again!

My feet on some rocks at the Ashkelon beach.

Some really cool hardened sand with salt that went all along the beach.

The last bit of the sunset in Ashdod.  We went up to visit after Ashkelon just for the heck of it :)

After some beautiful beach time in the waves and watching the sunset in Ashdod, we went to Tel Aviv for a lovely first-night Rosh Hashanah dinner. Finding a restaurant that was open and not rented out for a private party was quite a challenge.  If you're ever visiting Tel Aviv, make sure that it's not the first night of Rosh Hashanah. After passing up the opportunity for a 350-shekel meal at a fancy place in a hotel, we settled for a lovely outdoor restaurant on the beach.  It was a nice, relaxing day :)

The group minus Becky just before we left Ashkelon.

A few days later, we had our "To the North!" adventure.  Similar to the first Israel-in-a-day expedition (http://medinthemizraakh.blogspot.com/2011/09/edible-doves-and-mud-monsters.html), we rented a car and went everywhere we could within a day.  This time, there were just four of us, instead of ten.  Other people wanted to stay in Be'er Sheva and study and stuff.  Now, that's just silly.

To start off the day, we rose early and drove up to the war monument in Be'er Sheva to watch the sunrise.  It was beautiful, but not as beautiful as the sunrise at Masada :)

The sunrise from the Be'er Sheva Monument.

We're on the Monument!  This is just a small portion of it; there is actually a lot more to it.

On our way out of B7 (short for Be'er Sheva - in Hebrew "Sheva" means "Seven"), we spotted a camel crossing sign.  Remember this picture?

Well, we attempted to recreate it.  I'm supposed to be a Bedouin leading my camel across the road, but really I just look like a ninja stealing a camel.

Next stop: Dead Sea.  How could we pass up another opportunity see the lowest place on Earth?  After stopping for some pictures, we continued to drive up the Dead Sea into the West Bank.

Dead Sea is in the back on the right :)

On our way "To the North!" we spotted a sign for "Jeriho."  Of course we stopped.  Not only did we stop, we ventured into the ancient, Palestinian-controlled city.

Jericho, that way. . .

Here's a not-so-great video taken from the car as we drove through Jericho, soundtrack compliments of Jason:



We also followed signs for the Mount of Temptation, which is where they say Satan took Jesus to tempt him with all the kingdoms of the Earth (Luke 4:5-8).

Whether or not this is the actual location where Jesus was tempted, it still bears the name "Mount of Temptation."  King Herod also built a palace up there.

During our trip, we had seen multiple camels with hot (temperature-wise), bored, tired teenage boys next to them, ready to collect our shekels for pictures or rides.  However, in Jericho, we came upon an unaccompanied camel.  Picture time!

I've always wanted to kiss a camel.  Ew, he had really bad breath, though.

My camel bestie and I had so much fun in Jericho!

See? We even look alike!  Destined BFFs.

 And then we left Jericho, but not before getting some falafel!

Falafel: Jericho-style!

We then went on to the Sea of Galilee, which isn't really a sea at all.  It's actually a freshwater lake with big stones on the bottom that hurt your feet.  It's difficult to float because of the lack of salt, but we still had fun.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of our time at Galilee, BUT I'm going back next weekend for a retreat so I'll get some then (hopefully).

On our way to Galilee, we got pulled over by Israeli police for pulling into a gas station going the wrong way on a one-way street.  As soon as the cop found out we were American, though, he told us to have a nice day.  As an afterthought, he informed us that the round red signs with white lines through them mean "wrong way."  We didn't tell him that they look the same in the US ;)

Somewhere along the journey, we saw a tank along the side of the road.

What do you do when you see a tank in the middle of nowhere?  You play, of course!

I'm at the controls!  Mwahahahaaaa

There was a mine field nearby, so of course I would play in that, too. . .

My mom scolded me later for this.

Then we went even farther north to Mount Bental, where there are lots of leftovers from the war with Syria, including army barracks, foxholes, and other interesting post-war relics.  We had quite a time exploring all there was to see.

The Sculpture Garden was scary.

But the Sculpture Garden was also cute :)

Tea-time with the friendly, goggle-eyed sculpture!

Oh, so many places to go!  I like how the Prime Minister's office was listed among the cities :)

Becky playing in the foxholes :)

I played in the foxholes, too!

Being all stealthy underground

A kibbutz, but I forget the name.  I mostly took the picture because of the beautiful sun rays.

Cue the Mission Impossible music!

'Twas very windy atop that mountain.

Then, went even farther north to some Druze towns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Druze).  We visited two towns: Majdal Shams and Mas'ade.

I don't remember which one this is, I think it's Majdal Shams, though.

Children playing at the Syrian border.  Observe: Syria.

At this point, we had seen the Jordanian and Syrian borders.  Why not go on to see Lebanon?  We did, but I didn't get any pictures of it :(  At the very north of Israel is a town called Metula, which is evidently where all the loaded Israelis go, because everything is expensive there.

And so we concluded our day trip in a small restaurant somewhere on the way home (where I procured a gluten-free dessert - happiness!).  That was our trip "To the North!"

I've also gone to Crete (yes, that's right, Greece) during Succoth and Netanya, but I will have to post about those later.  Due to my lack of iPhone, I don't have any pictures to post of those trips, so I'm waiting to get some from friends before I tell you all about them :)

I believe this will conclude my post for today.  Thanks for reading!

Lehitra'ot!