Paradise

After my Hebrew final exam last Wednesday, and the end of the first Ulpan Session, it was my plan to take a much deserved trip to the South of Israel in order to enjoy some fun, sun, and relaxation. Eliat is a town in the most southern part of Israel and is literally between Jordan and Egypt. It plays host to some of the most beautiful beaches, coral reefs, and luxury hotels in all of the Middle East, and during the months of June, July, and August is at its hottest. Of course, I had to see the Rea Sea (for cultural purposes) and I was also interested in going to Petra (in Jordan) and the Sinai (in Egypt). I got together about five people from my Ulpan and one friend from outside the Ulpan to go on a voyage, leaving early Thursday morning and coming back to Haifa on Sunday Night. Our beginning itinerary was for us five girls to stay at the Aruva Hostel for three nights, check out the beaches of Eliat, and go to Petra for the full day on Monday. However, in the true nature of living in Israel everything of course did not work out the way we had planned, but we all left feeling great, relaxed, and of course tan.

We took the Express Bus from Haifa to Elait which takes about six hours in total. It really is so convenient to go anywhere in Israel and it’s hilarious to me that I’ve chosen to live in another country that really is the size of New Jersey. Regardless it was an easy ride down and when we got to Eliat around 12. There we met with an Israeli friend of one of the people I was staying with called Shiron. She was the girlfriend of the brother of the guy who owned the kosher coffee shop in the Columbia Hillel, a hilarious connection but nonetheless very fitting to the bulk of my relations to people here. Shiron works at the Red Sea Radio station in Eliat and gave us a V.I.P tour of where she works. We got to see all the DJ’S, radio jockey’s, and celebrities come and get interviewed. It was so sweet of Shiron to take us around and she even took us to a great place for lunch. Afterwards, the five of us girls went to seek out our Hostel and put down our bags.

Our Hostel was one of the nicest and coziest places I have ever stayed at. It truly was a family atmosphere and we ended up meeting and talking with people from all over the world. It was my first time staying at a Hostel and I was relieved to find it clean, safe, and really affordable. In Eliat one of the city highlights include scuba diving in the coral reefs, but due to my and the rest of my friend’s lack of training, we ended up buying snorkeling gear and went to coral beach on our own. The Sea is absolutely breathtaking and the Jordanian mountains in the background are unlike anything I have ever seen before. I truly felt like I was living in Paradise, and decided that this would not be my last trip to Eliat, but rather the first of MANY cultural excursions down south. Aside from Scuba diving and watching the fishes play all day, we lounged on the beach and enjoying Eilat’s infamous nightlife. Our first night in Eliat we went to this bar called Moscow New York! It was a lot of fun and the trip was really such a great escape from Intensive Hebrew 5 hours a day.
However, on Monday after waking up at 5:30 in the morning to be the first at the Jordanian border to go tour Petra, I was met with another, “you know you live in Israel when” moment. After paying our border fees, exchanging our shekels into dinars, and crossing the 100 yard stretch between the Israeli and Jordanian border, my Romanian roommate Ana was told she was not allowed to come into Jordan and needed a Visa.. We were all faced with the dilemma of what to do, and I decided to stay in Eliat with Ana while everyone else went to Petra. I knew this would not be my last opportunity to see Petra, and a friend of mine Greg Sheppard, who also has a blog and is a Rotary Scholar, will be doing his year in Amman, Jordan. Greg and I are already making plans to travel together and I am sure I can do Jordan and Petra when I have more time than just a day.

However, as we were leaving to go back into Israel, one of the guards starting giving both Ana and I a lot of trouble for no reason and tried to detain my friend Ana because she had a tourist visa and not a student visa. Luckily, we got out of their really quick and chose to pamper ourselves for the rest of the day by buying floatable lounge chairs and sipping cool drinks in the sea. I had a great day with Ana and in the end it turned out to be a great bonding moment for both of us. Then later that night we boarded the midnight train to Haifa and headed home.
Last week I forgot to mention that I went to my Host Rotary clubs meeting on Thursday and was blown away by their size, importance in Israel, and structure in which they operate their meetings. There must be at least 100 members in the 1 of the 7 clubs in Haifa I have seen. The speaker at the meeting I went to was a life coach, who explained his incredible life story. Growing up he was always told he was stupid because he never had teachers who believed in him or taught to his learning style. The boy ended up even dropping out of high school only to teach himself how to play piano (and is now considered one of the 3rd best piano players in the world), get an invitation to teach at MIT, get his GED, University degree, and become the President and CEIO of two of the largest cell phone companies in all of Israel. I was blown away by this man’s story and had to go up to him afterwards and shake his hand.

I was also excited to see Yael the district governor, Hani, the man who wants to get me involved with the Triumph project in Haifa ( a group that gets Arab and Jewish high school students to start dialogue about the Arab Israeli Conflict), and I had the privilege to meet my amazing host Rotarian Tzi Fridman. I could write a book on how amazing Tzi is and his full life story. However, because I have a year to write all about my life here, I will pace myself and save Tzi for the topic of another memorable blog entry!

On a serious note, I really want to say thank you to all my Buddies in San Diego who are reading my blog and all my friends who keep emailing me and making me feel very loved and missed. I want you to all come visit me! Well I will write more soon, today I am off to Tel Aviv and tomorrow my classes start again! However, I have a trip planned to the Golan this Friday and cannot wait for the Olympics!

With Love,
Annelise