This week we did the tiyul I’ve been looking forward to most, Masada and the Dead Sea. The day before  hiking we went to old city and went to the Israel Museum, it was very interesting. They had a coffee shop and the guy gave me a free cup of coffee! Then we had free time in the Jewish Quarter and shopped! I got a ring from this store called Hadayah and a lot of the girls got matching rings that says לך לך, which means “to go” basically meaning to go find yourself or to leave. Afterwards we went to a youth hostel that was right on the Dead Sea in the front and in the back were mountains it was beautiful. There were all these Ibex’s (goat with horns) that were roaming around and it was so funny.

The next morning we woke up at 4:00 in the morning and took a bus to Masada and started climbing so we could make it to the top before sunrise. It was one of the hardest hikes I’ve  done so far, we took the Snake Path which is the hardest trail there. There were so many stairs that went basically straight up, I just remember telling myself that I wasn’t going to make it, which was pretty funny thinking about it now! However When we got to the top it was a beautiful view and the feeling of accomplishment, one of my friends brought an Israeli flag and we all took pictures on top and it was so pretty. Then we did a quick service in one of the oldest temples in the world it was so nice; for the next 5 hours we took notes and explored Masada, it was very pretty, it felt like we were in Rome because the architect was very Roman . After that we went to the Dead Sea, it was freezing and rainy, but I’ve wanted to float in the Dead see for such a long time. It was everything I imagined, one of the coolest feelings ever just floating on top of the water, it was actually very hard to swim because if we were on our backs it would be hard to flip over. Then we rubbed mud all over ourselves  and it was so fun, but we had to buy the mud which was kind of disappointing.by the end our skin was so soft!

Now that it’s been 4 weeks I’ve gotten into the groove of things and I realized that the hardest thing about living here is budgeting, because without my parents telling me what I can and can’t buy I’ve been spending without thinking.  To give myself the benefit of the doubt the food here is not exactly gourmet. So I’ll end up going into town and buy dinner or order food but then I’ll end up having leftovers that could last me for 2 days.

So this weekend was a free weekend and I ended up staying on campus and it was so fun! We had Shabbat dinner then we all watched a movie in the dorm and stayed up late talking and I had a sleepover in my friends room. On Saturday we woke up late which was great and we all went to the field and laid out and played cards. Afterwards we went to the strawberry field right across from campus and paid 20 shekels to eat as many strawberries as we wanted, they were so good and sweet! Much better than the strawberries in America, It was so much fun! It turned out to be a very relaxing weekend.