The birthday tour

My birthday seemed to drag on for days - not that it's a bad thing. It started on Friday (my actual birthday) by heading off to Tel Aviv and the beach, of course. Later in the evening on the way to dinner I found 20 shekels on the ground (appx. $5)! Who ever finds that much money on the street?? Obviously my lucky day, and yes it was real money. At dinner I went out with a number of friends, some of whom I have not seen in over half a year.

Saturday was spent again at the beach. The waves were particularly strong today and I was able to ride the waves on my stomach (anywhere from 10-15 meters), which was wicked cool. Later in the day it was off to Jerusalem to party once again with my friends who were in Jerusalem.

Sunday was spent hanging around Jerusalem before I was picked up to go to another party with family in Ramat Gan - outside of Tel Aviv. This party was a combined giyus (army enlistment) party for my cousin Ido and I, as well as birthday party for about 5 or 6 of us that had upcoming birthdays.

The cake reads: Ido and Alex - to a good army service

Monday was spent visiting different relatives before there was a Bar Mitzvah party for a different cousin.

After that I needed a rest from all the festivities. It was a great extended birthday.

I haven't been blogging much, because I haven't really done much more than the usual - which has become visiting relatives, going to Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem.
The weather here is awesome. It is best described by this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QLSRMoKKS0
Quickly a few things that I have done:
- See the Church of the Holy Seplecher in the Old City. I was with some friends who bumped into their friends in the Old City. They were going sightseeing, we were doing nothing so we decided to go exploring.
- Wine festival in Jerusalem: over 300 wineries present for the event. Given my previous experiences of tasting wine, I decided to try my hand at winemaking.

Vacation

I haven’t really been doing much lately. I have been taking a vacation from my vacation, as you could say. I’ve been hanging out and visiting relatives. I have spent a few days in Tel Aviv, where I went to the beach. I also managed to see the movie Bruno, which was absolutely hysterical.

I went back to the army enlistment office to have a meeting with the lone soldier department. Amongst other things they will be assisting me to find a place to live. I also received my official enlistment paper indicating that I enlist on August 20th! The first 3 and a half months will be an ulpan (learning Hebrew).

I saw this note a while back attached to a pole inside the old city of Jerusalem. I got a kick out of this because in Israel there are stray cats EVERYWHERE. I have no idea who would keep one as a pet. This would be like asking people in Canada if they have lost their pet rat.

Best trip EVER

The AEPi Jerusalem road trip concluded on the weekend after spending another Shabbat in the Old City. Some of the other things we did that I did not blog about were:

• Go Karting
• Western Wall tunnel tours for a 4th time.
  
• City of David tour (again - even though I had gone a week and a half earlier on my own. The tour guide this time was not as good, so I was glad that I had gone previously)
• Tour of the Golan Heights winery - including taste testing.
• Volunteering by picking onions for the charity. Not as delicious sounding as picking oranges, which I had done on my last trip. In about an hour and a half we had picked 2.5 tonnes of onions!
• Pre and post Shabbat concert with crazy hippie Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser
• Post shabbat dinner chills (twice) with one of the wealthiest guys in Jerusalem, and a newly initiated brother of AEPi! Hilarity ensued both times.
  

We also did a lot of hanging out in and around the old city, as we lived right outside the walls of the Old City. We lived in what was coined a compound - all 70 of us in the same complex where we had our own courtyard and picnic tables. It made the place a lot like a frat house minus the crazy parties (no guests allowed). Most of the rooms had about 10 people, with the room I was in being the largest with 18. The 3 downsides of living where we did were:

• Church bells ringing EVERY 15 minutes. I wish I was kidding.
• Waiting for showers: The water decided not to run on the 3rd floor, so those of us living on the 3rd floor went downstairs to shower, thus there were 6 showers for 70 people as opposed to 8.
• No internet access - I had to walk 10 minutes into the old city to get on the internet.

This was the best trip to Israel imaginable. There are no other trips to Israel through any organization as awesome and extreme as this one. Given the hiking that we did, its hard to believe that any regular group of tourists to Israel would ever go on such extreme and borderline insane excursions. For 3 weeks we had the chance to experience living in Jerusalem, being right outside the Old City and less than a 15 minute walk from the Kotel which was another amazing aspect of the trip. One of the highlights was being present for history in the making, where AEPi initiated the first group of fraternity men in Israel! I met a lot of awesome brothers from all over the US and definitely made a lot of lifelong friends over the past 3 weeks.

'AEPi Stands With Israel' at the Kotel!!!

Pictures from the 3 week trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2251057&id=122600898&l=29b2c7aa2b

North Trip Hike

Today was the second hike of the trip. Just like the first one in the desert, we were told that EVERYTHING will get wet again. There was much more water on this hike and it required a fair amount of swimming. It did not take long before we encountered water and thus I spent most of the 6 hours on the hike in soaking wet running shoes and socks. I did bring my camera on this hike and stored it inside 6 ziplock bags. Thankfully the camera was the only thing that did not get wet.

Our first destination on the hike was a pool with a large waterfall. We were able to go for a quick swim or climb up on the rocks and jump off the cliff into the water. The first jump was from about 20 feet up and I had just enough time to scream ‘holy cr’ before hitting the water. It was scary as heck, but a hell of a lot of fun once it was over and done with. That prompted me to jump again, but this time from about 30 feet in the air. This time I was able to scream ‘holy crap. AAAAAAAAAAH’ in the air before I hit the water.

Me ready to jump!

We continued our hike until we reached what you see in the picture below. At this point I packaged the camera up and put it away. I then put on my repelling harness and made sure everything was inside my backpack and my shoes were tied tight. I threw my backpack into the first pool of water and jumped in after it. I then threw the bag a second time and jumped again into the bottom pool of water. I then had to swim across the pool in order to repel down to who knows where. The repel was a bit scary because I was not able to grip onto the rock face as my shoes were soaking wet, and the waterfall kept the rocks slick. I made it down to the bottom and released myself from the ropes into a third pool of water.

The repelling started where the guy in orange is standing

After a short swim, another jump and a walk through another pool of water (as seen in the picture below) I made it to the end of the first part of the hike and time for lunch. We waited and hung out on the rocks for everyone else to catch up. I was hungry, but I had to wait for my lunch buddy to catch up. What is a lunch buddy? Before we started the hike everyone got a lunch which consisted of a schnitzel sandwich, piece of fruit, drink and a plastic bag. We were instructed to buddy up because we needed to double bag our sandwiches so they would not get wet. So 2 people would put their sandwiches together and double bag them. I was waiting about 45 minutes for Jon to bring me my sandwich – and just like everything else, the sandwich got wet and was a little bit soggy. It was somewhat gross, but it was the only food available, and we still had about 3 more hours of hiking ahead of us.

End of the first part of repelling and jumping

After more hiking, and just enough time in the sun for most of my clothing to dry, it was time for more swimming. From the picture below, we were able to climb down to the first pool of water, and then swim across to where we would be repelling. The second picture was taken after the repel and a long swim. Again, we waited here for most of the people to catch up. I took off my shoes and socks so they could dry in the sun, and went for a nice swim, which included jumping off of more cliffs.
By the time we started hiking again, my shoes and socks were relatively dry. This was the end the water aspect of the hike. From here on the hike was dry – or so I thought. While trying to cross a stream, my foot slipped on the rock and got completely submerged in the water, so I had to continue the hike with one dry foot and one foot soaking wet. Just my luck. After a long walk through what seemed to be a jungle, we got to the Stairmaster 440 – 440 steps leading us out of the canyon. After that intense climb we still had another 45 minute walk an even terrain back to the bus.

On the bus back to the camp site we were surprised and told that instead of camping for a second night we would be staying in a hotel!!!! This was arguably one of the best moments of the trip. After a nice shower and a buffet meal I felt like a million bucks!

North Trip

The highlight of the AEPi roadtrip is the trip up north to the Golan Heights. We started by going rafting down the Jordan River, which is more like a stream or a creek versus an actual river. This ‘lazy river’ ride was 3 km which included one rapid. After rafting we went ATVing. I was able to drive both an ATV and something that resembled an all terrain golf cart. While I was a passenger in the golf cart I was able to take pictures. We drove ourselves to al ookout point where we could see the beautiful view of the Golan. A second stop was to see a tree that sustained a direct hit from a Katyusha rocket from the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Nearby there was also a destroyed Pagan Temple.

Marty and I with the Golan Heights in the background

Tree that was hit with a Katyusha rocket

Pagan Temple ruins

After a long day we headed to the Sea of Galilee where we were camping for the night. We pitched our tent on the campsite and head a BBQ dinner. We arrived after dark so there was not much we could do after dinner, given that we were also in the middle of nowhere. I ended up going for a swim and the water temperature was perfect as it was still hot outside.

As we got ready for bed, we noticed that the tent also resembled a sauna since it was much hotter inside the tent than outside. Sleeping outside the tent was not a great idea because of the bugs and cats. The 3 of us in the tent decided that if we moved our tent onto the beach then it would be cooler from the breeze and the sand would be better to sleep on. In this last minute decision at 1230AM we picked up our tent which was fully assembled and walked about 200 meters with it to the beach. We thought that regardless of where we slept we would probably have a horrible sleep. Therefore it would be way more awesome to wake up on the beach and be able to walk right into the sea for a swim than waking up on the campsite with everyone else. As we suspected we woke up after a horribly uncomfortable night sleep. Once we got out of the tent and saw the view now that it was light outside we made the right decision to sleep on the beach. The short walk to the water was also nice, as the swim was refreshing and helped to wake me up.

view of the beach and my tent.

Haifa

Instead of spending another day on the beach in Tel Aviv I decided to take a day trip to Haifa. Our first destination was the Baha’i Gardens. We got a bit lost and arrived there shortly after 1PM. Unbeknownst to me, about 95% of the gardens closes after 12PM. There are 3 different tiers to the gardens and we were at the top of the second tier. We were able to see a little bit of that area and then decided to walk up to the very top of the gardens to get an even better view of the gardens and the city. Since the gardens were closed we had to take an indirect route to get there – up the hill and around the gardens via the roads. This would not have been as bad if I was not lugging around both a backpack and a bag that had all my clothing for 3 days. After about a 35 minute hike we finally arrived at the top and got an amazing view of the gardens, the port, and the city of Haifa.

The Baha'i Gardens: Matt, Marty, Me and Jon

From the Baha’i gardens we walked to the BodyWorks exhibit. In this exhibit they had full human bodies sliced and diced in every which way imaginable; All this was done in the name of science and art. They had full bodies, fetuses and individual organs on display. The museum did not allow pictures so the only one I could get was the sign outside. It was an interesting exhibit, but really REALLY REALLY weird and creepy.

Paintball

Today was a great day. We got to sleep in because we didn't have class in the morning and we got to go paintballing. The second bus had to wake up at 7AM to paintball, while we didn't have to leave until 11AM. Paintballing was a lot of fun. There were 3 different missions we had to do as the group was split into 2 different teams. In the last 2 minutes of the game, I had a lot of paint balls left and decided to go out in the open and go on a rampage. I ran out in front of a tree, and as I took cover, or at least thought I took cover, someone to the right of me who I did not see sprayed me with 9 bullets. It seems as though I have a lot to learn in the army :-P


After paintballing we were given the weekend off where we could travel where we want. Since paintballing was in Kfar Saba I decided to see some relatives and have Shabbat dinner there. After dinner I headed to Tel Aviv to meet up with people on the trip to party. Saturday was spent walking around – we ended up walking to Jaffa – the oldest port city in the world. After the almost 2 hour journey we headed to the beach to cool off and then spent the night partying again.

South Hike

Today we awoke at 4AM to go hiking in the desert. The ONLY things i had on the hike were my clothes, hat, sunglasses, backpack, 4 liters of water, crocks and shoes. It was heavily stressed to us that EVERYTHING gets soaked on the hike. EVERYTHING. Part of the group did the hike last week and said that it was possible but difficult to avoid getting your running shoes wet if you have crocks or sandals with you. This became my mission for the hike. We started hiking at 7AM and hiked uphill for 45 minutes before we started repelling. The remainder of the hike involved 7 repels and 3 cliffs to jump off of into water.
After the second repel there was a large pool of water (the water was disgusting because it was remnants of flood water) that we had to walk through. This pool was about 15 feet long. As I was changing out of my shoes and into crocks, my friend at the other end said the water was not that deep and only up to my thighs. The second step I took into the water I sank like a sack of bricks. Instinctively my hand that was holding the shoes shoots straight up in the air above my head. As I'm sinking and attempting to keep my head and shoes above water I can see and hear laughter at the other end. I struggled to swim with one hand as my crocks are about to slip off my feet. I survived and somehow managed to keep my shoes dry. After I caught my breath and pointed out my friends were jerks we had a good laugh as we played the same trick on the people behind us.

The next pool of sludge water we got to I was able to throw my shoes across to someone else and then leap off a 10 foot cliff into the water. After climbing out of the water soaking wet again I then had to throw my shoes off a 30 foot cliff and far enough to cross the 15 foot pool of water. As I repelled down the cliff I had to release myself in mid-air lying horizontal to the water, and fall in.

The last pool of water was about 20 feet long and again I threw my shoes across before I had to jump in. As the shoes were in the air, my heart stopped. After all my efforts to keep my shoes dry it looked like I did not throw them far enough and they would land in the water. The shoes bounced off the front face of a rock and I thought oh no, the shoes are going to bounce back into the water. Thankfully the momentum forced the shoes onto dry land and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The largest repel we had to do was over 100 feet high. Half way down the cliff, the rockface dissapeared and there was a huge cave and nowhere to put my feet. At this point I had no idea what to do. I couldn't see the instructor at the top so I couldn't as him what to do. If I released the rope further I would have lost my foothold and swing and be dangling in the air bouncing off the cliff face. There was only one person around and he was at the bottom of the cliff but he had gone down the cliff on a different rappeling line. He had no idea what to do either. The only option was to go with it and keep releasing myself and hope for the best. I ended up dangling and not holding onto anything as I lower myself the rest of the way to the ground.

After one of the repels

Jon, Matt, Me and Marty at the top of the hike overlooking the dead sea and the Jordanian mountains

It was antoher 45 minute hike until we got back tot he bottom at the bus. The hike was amazing, but we were told that we are doing a hike next week which is even better than this one. I can't wait. After the hike we went to the Ein Gedi spring. We relaxed and finally got to swim in some cleaner water.

Marty, Matt and I jumping into the water

After hanging out there for a bit we went to the dead sea to float. We finally got back to Jerusalem in the evening after a very long but awesome 15 hour day.

Coolest Shabbat EVER!

Today we met up with the AEPi board of governors who were on their own Israel trip for a photo-op ath the Western Wall. Everyone was given the 'AEPi stands with Israel' t-shirt, and all of us (approximately 90 people) congregated in the Western Wall Plaza for a picture. We also got a small tour of the new Aish building including the roof which had an incredible view. We had a few classes in the morning and spent the afternoon relaxing and hanging out before shabbat.

Before Shabbat there was a concert with this crazy hippie rabbi followed by services at the wall. For dinner we had a FEAST for all 90 of us in the Aish building overlooking the Wall. By far the coolest shabbat experience ever.

Me atop the building at Aish HaTorah

AEPi is awesome

Today we went to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. We went to receive an award, as AEPi has raised over $100,000 for the hospital. We were met at the hospital by two clowns. The hospital uses medical clowns integrated with the rest of the medical staff to help treat patients. We got a short clowning around lesson which was very interesting.

We then had a tour of the Knesset, which was pretty boring. We were supposed to hear from a Knesset Member, who is also a brother of AEPi, but he got tied up and was only able to speak to us for about 5 minutes.

In the evening there was a nice alumni reception in Jerusalem, and the initiation of brothers into AEPi from the first school in Israel, making AEPi the first fraternity in Israel. It was awesome to be there for a historic day for AEPi!!! You can even read about it in the Jerusalem Post.