Bloggggg.

Wednesday May 5th I hung out with Orly all day. Woke up late and went with her to Shuk. Got some fun things like earrings and cool pretty pants. Why do I feel like I wrote this already? We spent a lot of time at the shuk and then we went back to Katie's. We changed into nicer stuff and went to the Kotel for Boaz's (Jessica's boyfriend) army ceremony. Orly and I wandered off and met her friend Jessica who is fun and crazy like us, only English. We went to get sushi on the way home and took it back to Katie's. Ate and pretty much passed out.
Thursday. Actually did nothing. All day. I woke up early to go skype Ben but he couldn't really talk so I came back to Katie's. She was awake and said we were going to Beit Ar El that day. I was going to go with. She told me to go back to bed since it was pretty early so I was like okay and then I woke up to the sound of them leaving. Ouch. So I just stayed there with Orly. We watched a movie about dramatic ballet dancers, I can't remember the name. Then she went to meet her friend for a while. This girl Haley came over who I've never really spoken to but we talked for a long time and it was nice. Then there was another ceremony at the kotel for someone I didn't really know so I stayed home and watched The Pursuit of Happyness. Then went out and hung out with Joshey.
Friday I got up before everyone and got ready to go to my aunt's for Shabbat. I just missed the bus so I had to wait a bit for the next one. It took a long time to get a ride into Nokdim, but I got there and it was good. I was trying to sort out going to Petra and how I was going to get back to Arad, because the bus times just did not work out. I decided I would get a ride to the CBS with Stefan and Ella when they left the next day and just wait around until the buses started running. Had a really nice time being there, it had been a few weeks. I'm really going to miss going for Shabbat...
Saturday Stefan and Ella came over with the kids to celebrate their birthdays. Lot of fun and family and foods :). Joanna wanted to go with them to Cfar Saba when they left so I stayed and Jenene drove me to the bus station. Waited at the bus station until Katie, Haley, and Rachel came. We figured out more of what we are doing for Petra. Took a bus to Be'er Sheva and then a bus to Arad. Ale wasn't feeling well so she wanted me to come over. I decided to just sleep over, Orly wasn't home so I took her bed.
Sunday started early for me. Ale woke me up at 4. I called Alex and Har El and spoke to lots of people before we took a cab to the emergency room. Waited for a long time, they didn't want to see us unless we gave them 100 dollars and we didn't even have that much on us. They didn't seem to understand we had insurance but they finally figured it out. She was seen by a doctor and given an IV. Around 6 we left. I went home and packed for Sar El and blogged some. Got on a bus. Stopped at the same place I ran into Heather when she was on birthright. Got crunch ice cream. Stopped for lunch at the base Bat Sheva where half of us stayed. The rest of us went on to the Misgav base in the north. We met our madricha, her name is Liron. She looked super young, we found out later she's the same age as us. We got uniforms. After switching a few times we got uniforms that didn't fall off. We met with the commander of the base. He told us about the base, said it was mostly people working logistics. So, no combat soldiers. The base is pretty close to Lebanon so if anything ever happens they could organize supplies. We had dinner, there was lots of shoko. Yums. We talked to lots of soldiers around. They seem to like having us around. The rooms they had us in were really nice. Sheets on the beds and everything. I was with Orly so I was happy. The showers and bathrooms were clean. We were kinda expecting the place to be crap. I spoke to my grandparents and went to sleep.
Monday, first real day of Sar El. I woke up not feeling too well. We ate breakfast. Our room cleaned the bathrooms and went to the base's flag raising. We all took a bus to a different part of the base for volunteering. I helped a bit stacking mattresses but then I started feeling really sick and icky. So I kinda just sat inside a warehouse for a few hours. Eventually got up and went outside, and saw what breakfast looked like again. Fun. I was kinda worried, what with Ale having been really sick and being with her that morning. I didn't want to eat the rest of the day but Liron said I really should. I volunteered in the kitchen with Annie instead of going outside again so if I felt sick I could just go back to our room. We started working for a while but I got sick again. Made good friends with the medic and doctor on base. Got lots of pills and went to sleep until everyone got back. Felt pretty poopish. Went to the evening activity, which was learning about what the colors of the berets and patches and stuff mean in the army. Then forced myself to eat some dinner and went to sleep.
Tuesday I got up with everyone else but decided to stay in until lunch. Went with Orly and Monica to shrink wrap stuff with someone named Katya. We had fun. Shrinkwrapped bamba, a water bottle, and random other things. Went to dinner and then to the evening activity. We played Israeli Jeopardy and yelled at each other. Showered and went to sleep.
Wednesday got up at 7. There was pancakes, they were pretty yums. Went to work with Tamar, Orly, and Evie. Mada was there doing a blood drive. I couldn't donate because I already did a couple months ago. We went and played hide and seek in a tank warehouse. But then we had to pretend to tighten air valves and things because someone was coming to check up on us. Went to lunch. Went back to work after lunch but there really was no work so we sat in an office, then had to hide in a room when the commander came or else the soldiers in charge of us would get in trouble. Orly and I went with one of the soldiers to accompany him to give blood. Evening activity was getting Sar El shirts and hats and speaking about our experience.
Thursday was our last day there. We had to clean up the room pretty well and then we had breakfast and went to the flag raising. They sent us all to work at the same place, but there was really no work. So we hung out with soldiers and then went and packed up to go. We had lunch in our civilian garb and then we left. Drove to other base and picked everyone up, drove to Arad, drove to Be'er Sheva. Got off there and took a bus to Eilat. Got to Eilat and went to our hostel. it was really nice. We made friends with other english speakers staying there and hung out.
Friday we got up at 6 and were picked up by a bus at 6:50. We got to the border and waited around for a very long time. Eventually we started going through. It was pretty simple, they checked and stamped our passports and they checked our stuff. We were hanging out outside of some store waiting to get started. Some guys in the store talked to us and wanted us to try their scarves on and take pictures. Our group was a bunch of Americans and Europeans. We got on a bus and started driving to Petra. It was about a 2 hour drive and our guide was explaining Jordan's history and whatnot. Honestly, I really couldn't understand most of what he said. We got to Petra and walked through with the guide. Again, I couldn't understand most of what he said, so I made up some stuff that I imagined he might be saying...about dinosaurs. No but it was really cool. There were ancient burial chambers built into the mountains and lots of cool carvings and whatnot. There were camels and horses everywhere. The Jordanians try to get us silly Americans to pay for rides on them. They kept calling out to us "Horse, lady, horse!!" and I said, "I am not a horse lady". They did not understand. Some parts of it were really incredible. I think the most famous part is what they call "the treasure". It's this whole temple built into the side of a mountain, with lots of intricate carvings all over. We walked around by ourselves and saw more pretty cool stuff. Took lots of photos, so I'm sure they'll end up on facebook. If not I'll have them emailed to me and I can send them to whoever wants 'em. We had interesting conversations with the people trying to sell us crap. They pick up all of their english on the street, is pretty funny. We went to a place called Petra, A Magical Restaurant for lunch. This was already at 4 or 5 so we were super hungry. Ate lots. It was included in the tour. Drove back to the border and started going through customs. Israeli side is way more thorough. One of our bags set something off so we all had to evacuate and then get angry customs people yelling at us. It was Elana's backpack that has had issues in the past. We smoothed things over and got out of there. Later, she found extremely strong magnets in her bag. Yea. So we got back to our hostel and showered. A few of us went to an Infected Mushroom show but I stayed in and hung out with people at the hostel.
On Saturday (the 15th) we woke up late and got all our stuff together. This whole process took quite a while. We walked to the beach and stayed there a couple hours. It was really really hot outside but the beach was wonderful. We wanted to leave to make our bus to Be'er Sheva, but something always came up that made us wait until we might not have been able to make it to the bus on foot. So we had to take cabs. I was pretty unhappy about that, but it was hardly any money I was just annoyed at people. This weekend will be my last outing with more than just my core group of friends. I have a strong distate for people. We got on the bus to Be'er Sheva and I was sitting next to a randomer. We had a 15 minute break and I got a Magnum Desire ice cream bar. it was incredible. When we got back on the bus i started speaking with the person next to me. He asked if I wanted to watch a movie, so that made the rest of the bus ride a lot better. We started watching My Sister's Keeper. Didn't see the end though. We got to Be'er Sheva and split up with Katie, she went to her sister's. Then we took a bus to Arad. Yoni was supposed to come visit but he got on the wrong bus and that didn't work out. So I got home and remembered the water hadn't been working while I was on Sar El and freaked out, but it was better now. Orly came over and we were going to have a crazy sleepover that ended in her passing out on the couch and me talking to Ben until wayyy late. It was still a really nice night.