apparently it rains in the desert...

Hi - Here's a picture of me, Becca, and our madricha looking especially attractive on our hike last weekend. We were feeling pretty lazy and decided to not do the hard part of Mount Shlomo, so Dana led us down the mountain, got us lost with no phone reception, and provided an all-around amazing adventure that involved climbing back up the mountain we had just climbed down. Dana is currently cooking me and Becca dinner, and I have a spare 15 minutes before dinner-time to write about what's going on.

That's not a shadow on half of the mountains. This is the _____ ( I was obv. not paying much attention) where rocks that are 50000000 million years old meet up with some rocks from... today. It was awesome hiking along the mountains, going back and forth from the light rocks to the dark rocks.

I'm currently feeling a bit overwhelmed by life. I have 5ish more weeks in Israel (the countdown has begun) and I'm not sure how I feel. Israel and Be'ersheva are home. My friends and madrichim are family. I have a new way of dress (and it's pretty comfy), a new diet (of weekly falafel b'pita and daily 1.5 shekel coffee), and a new schedule (where waking up at 7:30am everyday is OK). Am I ready to leave this? Am I ready to go back to the "empty nation" that I call "home"? I miss my family and friends. I miss Brandeis. I miss crazy Boston weather (not that I don't love the weather here). I (kinda) even miss Los Angeles. But won't I miss Israel even more?

While in Eilat, I found out that Los Angeles and Eilat are sister cities. When I think about having to leave Israel, I'm somewhat comforted knowing that I'll be back soon. I know how much some people hated hearing that I was planning on making Aliyah when I feasibly could do so. It's time to get used to the idea. I'm straddling two very different worlds between the States and Israel. It's true, I occassionally feel awkward in Israel, not knowing the language (at least, not knowing it well enough to know when my roommate's boyfriend is asking if I want anything from the merkolet), but don't I feel like the same pangs of an outsider in the States? I still haven't quite figured out myself.

You can't really tell from the picture, but these clouds had formed a big circle around downtown Be'ersheva. I thought it was pretty cool. Dinner's ready.