trippin on a hole in a paper plane

the morning after i last wrote, our group left on our first trip together to get a little taste of israel. we went on a very difficult and hot hike (i think i almost died), then kayaking in the jordan river. it was really awesome to do it again, although i almost didn't because i was so tired. al and i went together and it was a really relaxing little experience. we ate dinner at the campsite with another birthright group, and coincidentally sat down with one of their staffers, daniel, who participated in the first ever ISC group. he had some very interesting stories about the school where he volunteered (likened to school in 'lean on me'... yikes) and also gave us some words of advice about what to expect and to be self motivated as far as developing our own volunteer ideas so that our experiences will be as rewarding as possible.

after dinner, we drove to our hotel which happened to be the same hotel that al and i stayed in on our birthright trip, in which we had one of our most fun nights. since it's the summer, the pool was open this time so we went swimming and then hung out with a couple of guys from the adjoining birthright trip. then i went back to the room to relax and write in my journal. al came back and we watched american pie 2 and laughed until 2 AM. "deep and slow is the way to go"

the next day, we went to the golan heights with our tour guide, reut. and i finally understood the chronology and historical significance of the 6 day and yom kippur war. very interesting stuff. after this, we went to a viewpoint overlooking kineret lake, which is israel's main water source, and very important strategic political and cultural factor for israel and it's neighbors. ANYWAY, then we went to a mall and i bought the most amazing shorts ever so i can wear them under dresses when i go out and i won't chafe. yeah, that's right. chafing fucking sucks. and now i don't have to worry about it EVER again. lalala

so yeah, we finally go back home and al, jodi, and i decided to venture to this 60's party in tel aviv at mike's place that one of the guys from mike's place (tal) invited us to. we got all 60's up (magic pants on under dress--- pics soon), and inbal and matar met me up there. met a sweet german sound engineer named stefan who claimed to have worked at a studio that bob dylan attempted to record at. i drank a bit too much, but had fun anyway once we left the party and went to the beach. i basically just crashed out in the sand and rolled around. alli and jodi got me home safely and i took 2 showers to unsand myself. it kinda worked, but well enough to get to bed.

today, we woke up and just hung out around the house, and i uploaded photos from the last few days (i think i'm almost caught up!!!) then we got ready for shabbat dinner. naama and some of my roomates went to the shuk (market) earlier to get food. ofir and naama came over with todd (another oranim employee) and we said blessings, lit candles, and naama explained the http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifsignificance of these rituals as well as the meaning of the parsha for this week. something about jewish law. pretty cool. the dinner was amazing and i ate too effing much. then we got a rousing game of beer pong going. luckily i won, so i didn't have to drink anything. now we've just been hanging out listening to music and dancing around. it's been a good night. i really feel our group coming together. i really need to take photos of our house and all my roomates. i'll do that. tomorrow we're going to the beach with ofir. really excited. more later.

OH, i've posted more photos:

flickr.com/photos/blackmarketfunnelcakes

love,

sally