Tuesday 23-12-08

For some reason I woke up at about 4:30. Angie and I were texting until some Arabs broke in for our wake up call. I was so scraed cuz they were in full uniform and didnt speak english. I thought they were going to shoot us. I was like "Who are you?" And he answered "Good." I said, 'No not HOW are you, WHO are you?" and he goes "Wake up!" and then walked out.

We get dressed and ready for the hike. I was truly running on adrenalin and had no problems staying awake or getting through the hike up the Roman Ramp. We all watched the sunrise on top of Masada which was lovely. Masada is the site where the last battle against the Romans during the First Uprising occured (67-73 C.E.) All the Jews committed suicide before the Romans could reach them. Pretty intense. Then we hiked down, playing would you rather most of the way. During lunch I met some people on an Oranim trip and one of the staffers was telling me she wasnt getting along with her tour guide and it sucked. But this trip was different because the first time you go on birthright, you are going for selfish reasons and the second time you go as staff, you are going for selfless reasons. You are there to make other peoples trips better. I also met a medic who faked an Israeli accent for th first 4 days of his trip and on the 5th day told them he was actually from Florida. Yoni was awesome and we kept in touch the rest of the trip. Facebook is pretty funny cuz all the Israelis are obsessed with it. Im glad though cuz I have been able to keep in touch with many of them.

We skipped Ein Bokek and went straight to the Dead Sea. At first I wasn't going to go in but I did and I am happy I did. I burned like crazy and was freezing but worth it. I was pissed they got rid of mud baths though. Apparently it was a health violation but I think it's just a scam to get you to buy their mud. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth. For Big Mike, it was opposite day. We said don't dunk your head, he did. Don't rub your eyes, he did. Don't bring your cell phone or passport into the water, he did. A-mazing.

We had a lunch, I got locked in a shower, and then we got back on the bus to go down to Eilat. Angie and I had Mike in our room because he had some leg problem and had to go to the hospital but didnt have a phone, money or insurance so after that we needed a break. Everyone was pissing us off and we had to do our review anyway. So everyone else went out to dinner without us and we just relaxed for a while, walked on the boardwalk ourselves and met up at the disco later. Daniel was the first on the table to dance and after that, no one got off the tables. It was really fun and we all chilled after for a while. I was officially exhausted.