Israel Jan 26

We woke up this morning in a tent while laying on dusty thin mattresses and under dusty, thin, unzipped sleeping bags. We went over to the building next to the tent to have breakfast which, for me, consisted of freshly cooked tortilla type bread with hazelnutless Nutella on it. American athletes eat Wheaties, Bedouin camel riders eat Nutella-like substances on tortilla-like bread. 6 in one, half-dozen in the other. After breakfast it was time to ride the camels!! The Bedouin’s set up an obstacle course with jumps and we were timed on how fast our camel could jump all of them. If a camel hit the a bar, we got points take off. I really wish that was what it was like (especially because Katherine was my camel comrade and she used to be on the equestrian team), but it was fun anyways. I attempted to get pictures of everyone on their camels before Katherine and I got on Seymour (our camel), but I didn’t quite get everyone. We got on and went for about a 20 minute ride with a nice viewpoint about halfway. Riding on a camel with a beautiful girl on Bedouin land: check that off my bucket list. After camel riding we did a canyon hike (I think it’s Nahal Chavarim). It was a great hike and I stayed in the back with Lucia and Courtney again. We did catch up to Ben and Hannah at one point though, because Ben got stuck in some very deep mud that took him a while to get out of. When we caught up with the rest of the group, it was in a little valley. From there, Chen told all of us to spread out, take a seat and have about 15 minutes of meditation/peace time. The most at peace I could ever be is at a high point taking pictures of an amazing view. So that’s what I did. I climbed as high as possible and took pictures. Mike #1 and I were the only two people to climb. It was pretty spectacular. But not even the peace brought me all the way to nirvana. That moment came just after the peace when everyone continued the hike while Andrew, Kyle, Papa Bear and I stayed behind. Now since the dawn of the Birthright age, many a men have attempted to roar topless for the sake of being a man. What they didn’t know is that there was a manlier man out there. Out of all the roars I have ever heard come from topless Jewish men- you know what, I’ll even throw all the Gentile roars in there too- none have been executed with such ferocity and vigor as the one I heard on that day from the man, the myth, the legend, Papa Bear. Against popular belief, the stumble after the roar was not from clumsiness, but from the exhaustion due to the sheer magnitude of energy exerted during the roar. We even got a thumbs up after the stumble from Papa as acknowledgement that he went head first into that dangerous endeavor and made it out alive. That, ladies and gentlemen, was the moment I reached nirvana. If there was a word to describe something more powerful than a roar, that’s what I would use to describe what I experienced. That’s why I came up with my own word. From now on, I will refer not to it as “Papa’s roar”, but the more powerful and meaningful “Papa’s chen”. The rest of the hike can’t match what just happened, so there is no point in describing it. After the hike we went to Ben Gurion’s home, which is now a museum. It’s up high and has a great view of the surrounding desert canyon/mountains. We all had lunch up there as well, at a place 200 yards from the museum. After lunch we had about 10 minutes to waste before we left. So, in a move that SHOULD be unexpected from a group of 22-26 year olds (but really didn’t surprise me with this group), everyone went over to the playground and went down the slides and rode the bouncy horsies. You should only lose your inner child the second you die, because if it’s any earlier, you might as well be dead. That’s why I loved this group so much…unlimited amount of inner child. We then got on the bus and headed to a kibbutz where we picked a bunch of fresh produce including carrots, tomatoes, basil, cumquats (tiny orange type fruits about the size of large grapes), mini lemons and mini limes. With the cumquats and mini lemons/limes we made necklaces. Some people also got to hold homing pigeons and release them in one big moment of glory. Before Eugene let go, he let me and a couple other people take pictures of him kissing his pigeon. Whenever I feel down now, I just think of that image and it makes me smile. There is actually an innumerable amount of moments on the trip that would make me smile, but this image is just a notch above. After that we headed to Tel Aviv and did a very interesting text study/discussion before we went to our hotel. Almost the moment Kyle, Andrew and I got to our room, Kyle went to do his business. I’m sure it was lovely, but it’s obviously something most people prefer to dispense of as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it clogged the toilet (well done Kyle) and it wouldn’t flush. So we called to the desk for help because the hall and the elevators already smelled like #2, and we didn’t need our room to as well. So he came up and had no tools in hand. He asked what happened and confidently strolled into the bathroom. About 10 seconds later we heard a loud noise and a scream from the bathroom. Andrew and Kyle ran to check on him and he calmly responded that he was ok. He then just poured a bunch of water into the toiled and flushed. Clean as a whistle. After that and Andrew’s 6 hour shower, everyone went out to a bar right on the Mediterranean. Tal met up with us in Tel Aviv and came out to the bar with everyone, which made my night. Viktoria, Dan, Stacey and I left the bar after a little while to go walk on the beach for a couple minutes. When we got back to the bar, some people were about to head to a club and some were heading back to the hotel. I was pooped so I headed back and fell asleep soon after.