Tuesday, July 10, 2007

July 10, 2007

First, I missed something very important in my last post! After lunch, we were driving around the building when I realized that I had been here before. This was the grocery store that we had stopped at with the Center! We couldn't turn down something as beautifully wonderful as a grocery store, so we parked and went inside. There we bought bread and peanut butter and juices and grapes and chips, and cereal and everything else that looked good. And the best purchase of all--pop rocks chocolate. Oh my goodness, you have never eaten anything so wonderful in your life. (Well, except those of you who have had a piece of this divinity.) It is simply a chocolate bar filled with "exploding candy" (more commonly known as pop rocks). The very taste of it will make your mouth dance and sing! Never should a person go to Israel without buying a bar of this. In fact, you should buy two and bring me back one. Or, if anyone can figure out how to order it on the Internet, I would be much obliged. Needless to say, we bought some. 8 bars of it, in fact. We brought it back to the hostel where, luckily, we had a little fridge. Which was good, because between the store and the hostel, the chocolate had already started to melt.

And now we return to this post.

Another morning at the hostel. By this time we had decided that as much as we wanted to sleep somewhere else, it was pointless to try to find another place. We had wasted so much time on it before and it just didn't seem worth it to do again. We woke up, then went out to the lobby, this time prepared for breakfast. Armed with the box of granola we had purchased the day before, we ate to our hearts content, taking back with us a handful of plastic knives to use with our peanut butter.

Next order of business, laundry and internet. The day before we had spotted a laundromat just a few doors down from the hostel. Up to this point, our only laundry services had consisted of a shower, shampoo, and a hair dryer. We were in desperate need of clean clothes. After dropping off our laundry, we headed a few more doors down to an internet cafe. It had been several days since we had communicated with anyone, and we figured Mom would want to know we were alive. Much to our dismay, the Internet was down in the Internet Cafe. Is that allowed? They gave us vague directions to get to another Internet Cafe and we left. Deciding our day would be better used in sight seeing than searching out Internet, we headed out to Dan.

Dan is one of the most beautiful places in all of Israel. In the middle of desert and brownness, Dan is green and lush. I was rather excited to go back. The great part of not being with a tour group is that we could go at our own pace. We could backtrack when we wanted. We could stop for 10 minutes to take pictures. And trust me, we did all of the above. It was here that Travis taught me about HDR. It's a method of taking a bunch of pictures (5 I believe) at different... exposures? (Oh goodness. It's been far too long and I obviously learned this really well... [rolls eyes]) But the point is, with each one, you get detail in different places. So, if you combine them, you can get detail in shadows as well as in the highlights. We got to see Winnie the Pooh's tree, which we didn't get to see when I went with the school. Also, many other places. We wandered around for most of the morning, backtracking when necessary to see everything, or simply because we missed a turn and got lost. Have I ever mentioned that I love hiking through trees and water and beautifulness? It kind of makes me want to go home and hike Cress Creek... simply for the reminiscing factor. Also, because now I'm kind of craving eating cress with Catalina dressing. Also, is it called Cress? Crest? ... I dunno. And maybe find some beautiful (yet relatively easy) hikes around here. I've been on a few since I moved down here. I should do that more this summer.

We finally left the park and found a picnic table by one of the buildings. Having gone to the grocery store the day before, and having raided the hostel of plastic knives, we came prepared for real peanut butter sandwiches. Also, grapes and chips. There were great stories there. Birds eating the bread crumbs, ants in the peanut butter and bread... yeah. We have bad luck with food, methinks. Needless to say, the food went up on higher ground that night... not on the floor. Or was it in the fridge? I think it spent some time in both places.

Then it was back to Galilee. As I unpacked stuff from the day, Travis went down and got our laundry. It wasn't until later that I realized he did not return with my pajama pants. The rest of the trip was spent with me sleeping in a skirt or the oversized pair of pants I would randomly borrow from Travis.

Next was an adventure to find Internet! We wandered down the street the closed Internet cafe told us to go down... at least the one we thought they told us to go down. We wandered aimlessly through a bunch of slightly underground shops... to no avail. Finally we took to just wandering the streets until lo and behold! An Internet cafe was found. I was well pleased to find all of the emails and Facebook wall posts all wishing me a happy birthday. You all love me. Thanks. :) Also, we finally got to report in to Mom that we were still alive and well.

Internet out of the way, it was back to touristy stuff! Next on the list was Bet Sh'ean. This was one of the ancient cities of the Acropolis. This is where Bro. Merrill sang to us in the amphitheater. This is where we find the public outhouse... with just slabs coming out of the wall to sit on. And a sign that tells you that instead of toilet paper, they used a stick and leaves. (Still, I just want to know how they know such a thing.) This is also where we took Travis' next project picture. Samson. Here we simply see the bottom of two pillars and their shadows. Between the two pillars, we see Travis' feet and his shadow stretching across. Y'know, when Samson was chained to the two pillars.

Next was Mt. Tabor. Well, by this point, the church was closed (it was nearing evening), so we couldn't go in. But we were at the top of a tall mountain, Travis couldn't let the opportunity go to waste, so it was off to take more pictures. So, an attempt was made of photographing the Mount of Transfiguration. It had a beautiful view but you could have just as easily made the argument to name it the Mount of Refuse. There was garbage everywhere. Heading home, we saw a Burger King, so we detoured to get dinner. Of course, knowing our luck, it was closed. So we kept going. The highway we were on was so dirty. It made me so sad. My recommendation is that the Center do a service project. Highway Cleanup! There... my idea is out there. Somehow, it will filter through cyberspace to the powers that be...

Further along the drive, we realized that it was finally time for our first fill-up on gas. We found a gas station and, as if we were in Oregon, an attendant came out and filled up our gas for us. Very nice of him. The only part I thought strange was that he entered our license plate number into this little device he carried. Who cares? Maybe they put a limit on how much gas a specific car can use in an allotted period of time? Maybe it's just for stats? If anyone knows, let me know.

For dinner, it was back to the Garfield-adorned burger shop where we decided to be brave and try one of the sandwiches pictured up on the wall. A long hot dog with french fries between the hot dog and the bun. Why not be adventurous? Sure, it's seemingly an American kind of food, but I've never eaten a hot dog with french fries in the US. Perfect for a foreign country adventure.

Finally, it was back to the hostel where we spent the time packing up everything, rearranging our stuff so that the things we needed were all in one or two bags, all while listening to our nightly Harry Potter and then it was off to bed.

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