Once again, I apologize for being out of touch. But I have good reasons and good stories! So hopefully you all will understand my absence after this post.
I hope things are going well in the USA, I am sure glad that I am only getting about 1/2 of the election media nonsense, only 15 more days yes? Funny, I thought I was getting away from all of that over here!
Things with me have been busy busy busy. Haven't had class in the past 2 weeks, we start up again on Wednesday... but my friends and I have managed not to stay put. I can't exactly remember what day this was, but a group of 12 of us from the International School headed to Jordan a few weeks ago. The trip started with a midnight-6 AM bus ride to Eilat, where we would cross the border into Jordan. However, of course the bus ride could not be easy for us. Somehow the bus company had no reservations for our group and some of the kids managed to convince the driver to let us all sit in the aisle, for the entire ride! So yes, 12 of my friends and I rode for 6 hours in the aisle of a bus. It was quite the experience that's for sure, I'll never be ungrateful with any seat on a bus again, as long as it's a seat and there arn't feet in my face.
Once we got to Eilat, we sat out on the beach for about an hour, watching old men dance and then took a cab to the border. Being at a border crossing for the first time was a bit intimidating, especially when they took us aside due to a security problem... but I am totally excited to have more stamps on my passport!
Jordan, as a whole, was quite the experience. I am very glad I went, but I think it might have been a bit smarter to do my first world traveling to a country a bit more easy to handle. I learned the true meaning of "haggling" while I was there, from the taxis to the supermarket, you had to haggle if you did not want to get totally ripped off by people who think you are just a stupid tourist, which I guess I sort of was :) Anyway! We stayed in a fairly nice hostel in Petra, the owners were pretty cool dudes, always willing to give us rides and offer us advice about where to eat and visit. Of course I have to mention the delicious Challyah dish, which is Jordan's signature dish, and is made out of stewed tomatoes, onions, spices, and lots of salt, yay! With fresh-baked pita, it was so delish! I also tried some traditional street bakery desserts, one of which I thought tasted like macaroni and cheese, ha, but I think they are all supposed to be mostly hearty as opposed to sweet. Okay, enough about food... for now.
Petra was also quite the experience. Lots and lots of walking... well, technically we were offered various forms of animals at every corner by Jordanians, I could have gotten to the Monastery (one of the main attractions) by riding a horse, then a camel, and then a donkey. But we decided to save our money and deal with the constant haggling instead, ONE DINAR FOR RIDE they would say at every corner. It was incredibly beautiful there, and I did some intense mountain climbing, even though my friends called me chicken when I often was on my hands and knees trying to climb.
We spent about a day and a half in Petra and then 3 of my friends and I headed on a bus to the capital, Amman, for a night. Amman was quite the shocker after coming from the old, traditional city of Petra, it was highly industrialized and we all pretty much felt we had been driven into a major US city, complete with skyscrapers and huge billboards with english writing. The hostel there was not as nice and my friend Gabi and I found in incredibly humorous that our room happened to be RIGHT ACROSS for a mosque's loudspeaker, so at 4 in the morning we were woken up for prayer! Well, we found it funny after the screaming and chanting had died down...We got back into Israel the next day through the northern border, which was a lot easier to deal with than the one near Eilat, and somehow we managed to get back to Haifa several busses and taxis later.
A day or two later the International School took about 30 of us on a trip to Masada, the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. We did the typical tourist stuff the first day and then stayed in a Bedoin tent and cooked ourselves dinner at night. The second day we did about a 7 hour hike through Ein Gedi, which was exhausting but beautiful. Lots of nature for Orli!!!!!
And today I just got back from Rebecca Rosenwasser's family near Tel Aviv. Her cousin Stav took Gabi and I shopping everywhere! We did not buy much though, just spent the day running around trying to see as much as we could. I did get some Israeli sandles though, not made from cows! Her family is wonderful, they made us feel right at home, it's so nice to meet such wonderful people who I have really done nothing to deserve such love from, but are still kind as ever.
As always, I love and miss you all. I should be able to post more often once school gets underway, although there is apparently talk of a strike by the students and teachers here... so who knows when the Israeli school will actually start up. Our classes should stay fine though.
Oh and Addie's wedding on Wednesday, so I will update about that when I return!
LOVEEEEEEEEEE, ORLI!
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