Sylvesters and Vacation!!

Although I would like to pretend my vacation was the MOST exciting thing in the world... really it was a lot of time spent on buses.  The short summary is as follows:

Tzfat - Jerusalem - Ashkelon
Ashkelon - Ofakim - Be'er Sheva - Yerucham
Yerucham - Be'er Sheva - Ashkelon
Ashkelon - Be'er Sheva - Eilat
Eilat - Tel Aviv

What follows is a slightly longer and hopefully more interesting explanation:

So, after Livnot ended I stayed on a couple of days.  I was supposed to go to Eilat to go scuba diving but I got sick and... plans change.  So, I went to Ashkelon and visited Eli, dropped off my huge pack in Ofakim and went to Yerucham to visit Shauna and Lauren.  By the time I got to their house, I was exhausted but we headed off to dinner at the house of someone they know in Yerucham.

We had a wonderful meal and met a few other people who lived in Yerucham.  We also met two girls, one from the UK and one from Oregon (I think?) who were studying in Jerusalem for the year.  Throughout the course of the meal we talked to a bunch of different people and ended up getting invited for lunch the next day at someones house.  So, we slept in on Saturday and headed over to Lunch at Leah's house.

She is originally from Tunisia and made a whole lot of wonderful food for us to enjoy.  For lunch it was just Shauna, Lauren and I along with Leah and her daughter.  It was so nice to get to spend time with them and be welcomed into their home.  Leah's daughter is 12 years old and is having her Bat-Mitzvah soon (which is a little different as they are Orthodox so she can only read the Torah in front of other women) and we were all invited.  They even suggested that I come from Ofakim to celebrate with them, which I would really love to do but its a lot to try and do on our 2nd weekend in Ofakim.

After Shabbat ended I headed back to Ashkelon and hung out with Fantanesh and Eli.  Fantanesh is an Ethiopian girl who lives at Beit Canada.  She moved in next door to us about a month before we left and we became fast friends.  She is so sweet and really great to talk to.  We talk about so many things and even though our cultural backgrounds are very different we find that we have a lot of common ground.  On Monday morning I was supposed to get up early to head to Be'er Sheva to meet Shauna.  Unfortunately, I got food poisoning (go figure) and ended up needing to sleep a few extra hours before attempting a 4.5 hour bus ride from Be'er Sheva to Eilat.

I finally made it to the bus station and Shauna and I (after waiting a few hours) boarded the bus to Eilat.  The bus ride itself was very scenic but absolutely terrible.  Some sweaty middle-aged bald man fell asleep on my shoulder and nothing I was doing was keeping him awake.  Finally I gave up and he slept on me for a while.  When we got to Eilat we headed to our Hostel which was pretty close to the beach.

We had two room mates the first night but really only got the chance to meet one of them.  She was so cool!  She was a 29 year old from Latvia who was traveling around Israel on her own and was planning to head to Jordan and then Egypt the next day.  Shauna and I went out to dinner with her and had a couple beers before heading back to the hostel to sleep.

The next day Shauna and I woke up and went snorkeling.  We rented some equipment, took a bus to the stop before the Egyptian border and 10 feet off the road, entered the Red Sea.

My expectations were pretty high but what I saw there, but a few feet from the road, totally BLEW MY MIND.  Things that I had only dreamed about seeing and thought that I wouldnt be able to see without diving were right in front of my face.  Beautiful purple tangs, green bird wrasses, amazing parrotfish, anthias, clownfish in their anemones, green chromis, heniochus butterflies... you name it, I saw it (along with the obligatory school of sergeant major damsels).  I CAN'T wait to go back and see more.  We also saw several octopus, one of which was feeding, and several eels that I had never seen before.  It was also cool to see different species of lionfish in a place where they are not considered invasive and they aren't being killed (they need to kill them off the coast in the US, but its nice to see them in a place where they belong).

We spent as long as we could in the water and then went back to the hotel.  We met up with Lauren, her mom and her mom's friend Marlene for dinner and then just walked around a bit before heading back to the hostel.  The next day we decided to go snorkeling again (duh!).  This time at breakfast we met our new room mate from the night before, Sulty, and a guy that she had met while traveling, Frank.  Frank came snorkeling with us and was totally crazy.  It was pretty cold and it was raining.  Everyone told us that it was the first day of the year that it rained in Eilat... and it was December 29th.  So, we rented some wetsuits and hopped back in.  Frank didn't bother to rent a wetsuit but still came with us.  Shauna and I lasted a few hours in the water before we decided that it was just too cold.

When we got out of the water we ran accross the street to the place that we rented the wetsuits.  We had a quick hot shower and ended up staying for a bit to dry off.  While we were sitting there one of the guys who works there came over and hung out with us.  He told us about a bar that the locals like to go to and suggested that we meet him there that night.

So, later that night we headed out to "Debar".  Sulty, Frank and Lauren joined us and we arrived at around 11.  The place was empty except for the bartenders and one girl.  Slowly but surely the bar filled up with locals and the party started to get a little bit crazy.  There was dancing on the bar, stripping bar tenders and in the end, a few drunk tourists :)

The next day we had to leave to head up to Tel Aviv.  We were in a bit of pain and the bus ride was certainly far from pleasant but we made it in one piece.  I spent the next couple of days relaxing and crusing around Tel Aviv getting ready for New Years Eve!  Eli came and spent Thursday with me but couldn't stay for New Years because this year, it was on Shabbat.  So... I went over to the apartment that Lauren was staying in with her Mom and Marlene.  What an interesting group we were.  Lauren, Lauren's Mom, her friend Marlene, Madeleine and her boyfriend Jonathan (who speaks Hebrew and French but almost no English), Shauna, Richard (who Shauna ran into on the way to Laurens) and me.  We toasted together at midnight before headed out to a club together.

We had a ton of fun dancing and hanging out with Lauren's Mom and her friend.... but I do wish that my Mom had been able to be there too!!!  I talked to my family and wished them all a happy new year, and even talked to my brothers new girlfriend who I called a giant.  Oops.

After a day quiet on the 1st, I went out shopping on the 2nd.  Didn't really buy much but enjoyed getting to know Tel Aviv a bit better on my own.  After a nice relaxing manicure (I treated myself) I headed to my next housing arrangement which turned out to be really amazing.  It was called Eden house and although when I first saw it I was completely terrified (by the outside and the office), it turned out to be one of the nicest places that I have ever stayed.  I really loved it!  The room was huge and the accommodations were very very nice.  For the same price as a small hotel room, I had a suite.  It was AWESOME and I wish that I had found it sooner!

On the morning of the 3rd I had to wake up early and I made my way to Jerusalem to reunite with my OTZMAnikim and get ready to start my next adventure.  Part 2 in Ofakim!