Israel Jan 24

Everyone was so excited to wake up at 4:30 this morning! The reason for the early wake up was so we could make it to Masada to see the sunrise. Very worth it, and romantic as well. And I am the kind of person that never likes to waste a good romantic moment. So, I spent the beautiful sunrise taking pictures with Kyle and Andrew. Fulfill romantic moment? Check. I think out of the 50 or so people pictures that were on my camera from Masada, 75 of them either have Andrew in them or were taken by him. At least there were no mirrors up there so he couldn’t take pictures of himself topless. I do remember taking one picture though, one that will be etched in my memory forever and ever: the very first tiger picture of Lucy. Grrrrrrrrr! Masada was great and had spectacular 360 degree views with the Dead Sea on one side and the desert the rest of the way around. The way down Masada we took the snake path which is a decently steep downhill, which was pure happiness flowing through my knees. From the snake path we walked 2 minutes to our breakfast location. Breakfast was the usual food, but I got lucky enough to sit with Jordana, Katherine, Pheobe, Anna and Melissa. Breakfast with beautiful girls in a beautiful place, what else could I ask for? Maybe dinner? No. The one thing more I could have hoped for appeared on my trip up for a bit of hummus. Her name was Mira. Just typing the name gives me goose bumps. Many people joked about her being my mom, but the immediate connection we had was no joke. It was like love at first sight, or something along those lines. At the end of breakfast I got my picture eating with Jordana. Phew. Almost missed that opportunity because of Mira. After breakfast we went on what must have been the Ein Bokek nature walk. It was a short canyon hike with gorgeous blue-green water and a nice waterfall at the end. Jenn, Michelle and Jesse jumped in a pool about half way up the hike which looked like so much fun, but I didn’t want to get my clothes wet for the 2 hour bus ride later. Jesse jumped in wearing just his Under Armor underwear and his Brooklyn tan. I’ve never seen him look more like a rapper than at that moment. During Chen’s talk by the waterfall, Eva took my camera and took pictures of random things around her and tried to explain how each picture represented Israel in some way. Absolutely hilarious!! We then had a couple people say how they were feeling about the soldiers leaving. I’m not gonna admit how close I was to crying when I did my tiny little speech. I would write down everything I feel about the soldiers leaving write here but I honestly can’t. First of all, it would take up the rest of the pages in my journal and I need them for the rest of the days. Secondly, it’s been 3 days since I got back and I haven’t looked at my pictures yet because they make me a little sad. If looking at pictures makes me sad, writing my feelings down would be a disaster. So the soldiers left and we went to Ein Bokek beach, our own private beach on the Dead Sea. The sun was playing hide and seek with us and the water was a little chilly. I just wanna say now that the most impressive feat of the day was that Josh floated in the sea basically the whole time we were there, and it was chilly. He just laid back, floated and drank a beer. On my way in it took a while for me to get in all the way. I stood there with Shayna, at a water level just below the danger zone, for about ten minutes before both of us ended up going in. It was really something else. You think about how it will feel to float in the Dead Sea, but it’s just so much better actually doing it. I’m not even gonna attempt to describe it. On the way out, I got the salt from the sea floor rubbed on my back (I don’t remember too clearly by who, but I’m sure it was an attractive girl) which actually felt really good. My skin was as soft as a baby’s bottom after that. Then, Papa Bear came in, and it was so funny that we asked him to go back out and do it again so we could get it on video. When we got out, my skin had a greasy feel to it. Weird. Then, on the way to the outdoor shower, Andrew, Stu, Kyle and I saw something that really only we need to know. Then Andrew started singing about it. Hilarious!! We then ate lunch and relaxed for a while before getting back on the bus to head to Eilat. When we got to Eilat, we had a free night out on the boardwalk. Who woulda thunk that 22-26 year olds would have to be told when they have a free night out? But hey, when I pay for my own trip, I’ll choose my nights out. Viktoria and I walked the boardwalk for a while looking at shops and stuff. It was nice, and we came across a shop with stuffed dancing dwarves from the 7 dwarves. Jesse and Music Mike were with us at the time. Jesse picked up one of the dwarves and pressed his hand to make him sing. To no one’s surprise, the dwarf sang the same line over and over again. To everyone’s surprise, the last word of the repeated line was the n-word!! We were all delightfully shocked. After that, Viktoria and I kept walking and eventually made it to the big screen where the Jets game was playing. A bunch of us sat and watched the game, and were surrounded by even more obnoxious Jews, many of them older gentleman. I blinked my eyes a couple times and then opened them to make sure I wasn’t in the Carnegie Deli. I headed back at halftime and ended up going to bed a couple minutes later.