A long couple of days... | Shorashim - Israel with Israelis

A long couple of days...

To whom it may concern:

I would have written via carrier pigeon, however, writing via electronic devices is much more efficient and kinder to birds. Hence, I write to you, my readership, this:

The past two days have been an essential part of being inculcated into not only the Israeli culture, but also to establishing a better relationship with our religion. We all came from different states of mind, and will leave equally as different, but, based on my findings, we are all one step closer to establishing who we are as Jews. After all, it is not about who we were, rather, who we are willing to become.

We started our adventures on a farm. It was technologically advanced within the farming world, but still quite nostalgic. There we wrote notes on carrier pigeons, and learned about the forward ways of farming, such as not growing tomatoes not in the ground. The tomato plants hung from the ceiling of a greenhouse a bit like rows of ceiling fans. Fortunately for us, we got to taste herbs of all kinds, tomatoes, strawberries, and for those so brave habenero peppers (and don’t worry, only one boy ended up tearing up from them but is fine now).

As the morning progressed we saw the holiest of holes at Machtesh Ramon, the world’s largest naturally formed crater. It was absolutely lovely. There is a whole range of poetic languages I could use to describe such a wonder, but in order to save time I won’t.

Moving on…

We are one of the few fortunate groups of Taglit because we were so lucky as to get to visit one of our Israeli’s (Bar’s) air force base. We were all pretty excited to see the f-16i plane and now all plan to join the army here and not come home. Okay, that’s not actually true, but it was pretty sweet. We left after seeing the plane of such an extreme caliber that no airplane ride will be acceptable again. Our stomach’s were rumbling by now because we had not eaten is so long and food is required to maintain homeostasis.

For lunch we stopped at a little falafel/shwarma stand. It was outrageously delicious and I am proud to say definitely authentic. Jealous?… I would be too. Anddddd, the best part of the whole thing is it was so cheap (that wasn’t actually the best part. The sheer bliss induced by such a simple pleasure is a wonderful thing).

We drove a bit to see the grave of David Ben Gurion (BG as we call him). Seeing that really put into perspective how a politician actually influences the world. It is such a bizarre (or scary depending on the way one looks at it) that just one person can change the state of the world. He, at the same time of all this power, was modest as seen by his simple tomb. This spot, like most we have see, also had the most beautiful view of Israel. For that reason I am glad that Taglit paid to have cameras installed in our brains so we can always remember such a serene image. And even if I just lied in that last sentence, most of us had digital cameras so upon our return home you too can experience the beauty.

Then we took camels across a desert without water for hours (or we took a bus, one of the two). Bus 158 kept it real on the way to the Beduin tents, a trip back in time that is basically indescribable, but I will try for the sake of your reading pleasure. I don’t even know where to begin. Hmmm… When we arrived we put our stuff in a giant tent and claimed our foam mattresses that were probably infected with cooties. It is a version of Middle East camping one would say. We drank tea and listened to stories of Beduin hospitality. I felt positively historic. And the tea was delicious. After such an amazing listening experience we rode smelling camels. It is pretty cool to say I wrote a camel, but it was relatively anti-climatic after about five minuets. I don’t really know what else to say on that.

After the camel rides and such we had a Beduin dinner, absolutely delicious I must say. It was rice, pita, vegetables, and for the vegetarians the ever historic frozen corn fritters that were over cooked in the microwave. By the end of the meal we had to be rolled back to the tent where we had time to chill before our star-gazing/ reflection session. For me that was such a perfect way to spend a night in the desert. It allowed us to look back at our trip this far and realize we are having the most perfect ten days for which anyone could ask.

But that was short lived because the alarms were ringing at four in the morning to wake us up for the hike up Masada. The way up was much easier than the way down actually because we used the Roman Ramp. We made it just in time to watch the sun rise. Perfection. Beauty is all in the eye of the beholder, but we must all be the same beholder because there was not one person who did not have their breaths swept from their lungs. We toured Masada and heard the stories and such and then it was time for the treacherous hike down. It was all winding and steep. By the end all of us were shaking, or at least the out of shape people were. We got packed breakfasts and it was back on bus to float in the Dead Sea.

The guide told us that the Dead Sea was called such because it is too salty to sustain any life. I think it got its title from the fact that we all looked like dead bodies defying gravity. Don’t worry we took lots of pictures. It was so lovely to just take a minute to chill on the beach. Absolutely lovely. But then when we got out we realized that salt water sucks. We were all crusty and gross. Yet, it was totally worth it in all regards.

Back to the bus heading to Jerusalem. Uhg… we are all super sick of the bus.

We then toured a market to get lunch and Israeli trinkets. We were only there for a bit over and hour and all of us wanted to stay on the crowded streets of such a marvelous market for so much longer. I don’t know a whole lot about people’s experiences there because I wandered off to get vegetarian food, but based on the fervor on the bus post market, we all had a great time.

And now… I write to you from a beautiful hotel at which we just arrived. That is the story of bus 158 for the past two days. Pretty intense, don’t ya think?

I leave you with this: The sun is just another star closer than it is far. This trip may be just another Taglit trip, but to us it has thus far changed our world.

Kind regards,
Bus 158