We get there, set up camp in a huge campsite full of tents then walk around. Along the beach, there were stages for different kinds of music including, rock, reggae and hip hop. They also had lots of shops to buy jewelry, clothes, sun glasses, etc. At the end of the beach there was a vegetarian/vegan tent, a yoga/spirituality tent and more things like that.
In the middle of the strip, there was a body paint hut where it was mandatory for anyone who wanted their body painted to be either topless (for girls) or in a loincloth (for boys). Of course, my friends at I all wanted to step out of our comfort zone, be free and get painted. I got a tree painted onto my front torso while my friends got flowers, the star and the moon, feathers, a butterfly and other beautiful designs. We walked around, got lots of looks then the attention began to be too much for some of us. So after about an hour, I took the paint off and resumed my bathing suit summer attire.
That night was Muki, the first hip hop/rapper in Israel, who I had also seen at the Masa cultural event on March 24th. We went to bed at a decent hour even though our next door tent neighbors were loud and you could hear the club near by very clearly.
Friday:
Walked into Eilat, only a 20 minute walk, did a little bit of shopping and ate some delicious kosher for passover ice cream. I laid on the beach while Ilyssa and Michele went for a dip in the stunningly beautiful Red Sea water. We headed back to Boombamela for a little bit. At 4, there was this awesome activity at the yoga tent. It was an activity getting comfortable in your own skin and with other people. I missed the first few minutes, but it started out with about 10 of us, 4 were strangers, and we went around just poking each other. The next step was stroking everyones arms and getting comfortable doing that. The final exercise was a combination of all the pervious steps but with paint. We all painted each other! They put music on and it was a mini paint party, so fun!
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| Elana, Brinley, Me, Ariela, Ilyssa |
Ilyssa and I ran back to Boombamela for Kabbalat Shabbat run by a group of religious Jews at the festival to feed us. We had a free dinner in a Year Course group and had our very own "Ima" and "Aba" for the night along with a new baby sibling that Ima and Aba had. We sang Shabbat songs and told old Jewish stories.
I went back out into Eilat to have a few drinks with some friends because we couldn't bring alcohol into the festival. I had been in contact with an astronomer. We planned to meet up for the meteor shower but he couldn't get his telescope and equipment into Boombamela so we met up on the boardwalk on the beach. He showed me Saturn and he was nice enough to give me and my friends a free look through his telescope when he usually charges 10 Shekels. He is an American who made Aliyah many years ago and now teaches at an Eilat High School. We talked for an hour about his telescope and astronomy while my friends got Kosher for Passover Crepes, you can really get anything in Israel and only in Israel. We went back to the festival, hung out a little and went to sleep.
Saturday:
Michele and I woke up and started walking around. We stopped at the Vegetarian/Vegan tent and started talking to them. We got into an argument with the vegans about the treatment of dairy cows. Michele ended up doing most of the talking and telling the vegans that there are some farms that do treat their cows well, including Moshav Nahalal in the north and how they get milked when they want and get a lot of other treatments that the major industries don't do. We walked away because the conversation wasn't going anywhere. Our main point was just that they need to be targeting the major industries that are treating the animals in horrible ways instead of trying to make us vegans, even though I am half way there by being a vegetarian.
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| The girls and I ready to boat! |
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| Banana Boating!!!! |
I went back to Boombamela, packed up my things and walked to the bus station to go home to Jerusalem. I got back with Michele and Hannah at 2 AM.Sunday:
What to do on Easter Sunday? How about go to the Christian Quarter of the Old City with Jared and Rebecca? Good Idea. We walked through the Arab market to accidentally find the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus was resurrected, now celebrated as Easter. No where else in the world can it be so easy to go to incredibly holy sites to so many religions. The church was packed!
Jared then lead us to a beautiful Christian hotel in the Old City. We casually walked in pretending to be guests there and walked up to the roof overlooking the Old City. The site was beautiful. After a little bit of time we headed back home.
Monday:
I went to the Old City again but this time with different people. The Church was packed again and I finally learned what some of the holy things were in the Church. There are 3 important things in the church: 1. Jesus's tomb/where he laid to rest until he came back to life, 2. a flat stone with oil on it replicating the Jewish burial ritual in Jesus's day, and 3. the stone which the cross Jesus was killed on used to be in.
At night, Sam Forman and I met up to go visit Itzik, a camp counselor, up in Haifa. We arrived in Haifa around 11:30.
Tuesday:
Itzik is a high school teacher for seniors and as the school year is ending, his students are putting on a musical that they needed to practice. We got to see parts of the play and also walked around the mall next to the convention hall. It was great to spend time with Sam and Itzik before camp started. Itzik is going to be the head of my campers from last summer so hopefully if I have my old campers again, Itzik will be my boss this summer! We left Haifa around 5 and headed back to Jerusalem.
Wednesday:
I woke up late and was going to go to the beach in Tel Aviv with people, but I got lazy and just hung out and got things done in my apartment.
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