Enough about that. Let's see. The hostel where we stayed in the Negev was about 5 hours from our kibbutz, in Mitzpe Ramon. It was a lovely stay. The rooms were spacious and had lots of bunks and the bathrooms were really nice and I got to room with three great girls - Irene, Alaina, and Sara. The hostel sat right near the edge of a cliff overlooking a giant crater. Giant isn't even a good word. This crater was e-nor-mous. The evening we got there, a bunch of us climbed up and sat up on the cliff during the sunset. With the desert wind sweeping in chilly and strong, and the last rays of the sun illuminating the vastness of the desert falling away at our feet, there was nowhere else in the world I would rather have been. Everyone stayed up late and bonded, and we had breakfast and went field-tripping in the morning. We went to Shivta, the site of an ancient Nabatean town in the Negev. The tour was going really well, and we were seeing really cool things like a cross-shaped baptismal and a huge stone church...when I stepped down from a single stone step, landed on an uneven rock, heard a popping noise from my ankle, and was suddenly on the ground. I seem to remember there being people around me, and then Josh was there, and then we were moving, and then Josh was carrying me. Somehow or other I ended up in the shade with Jodi, Chad, Josh, and Seth, and a tiny bag of ice was miraculously produced and placed on my ankle, held there via my nerd sock being folded down (my idea, hooray for me). Chad and Josh stayed with me while everyone else finished the tour, and then Josh carried me to the bus and we all went to a Bedouin tent for lunch, where we sat on floor pillows around little tables and stuffed our faces with hummus, a goat cheese whose name I forget, cucumber and tomato salad, a spicy sauce, and pita to dip all these things. It. Was. So. Good. After the eating, we had coffee (or tea) and baclawa, then went outside to ride camels. Unfortunately, because of my ankle, I was told to stay behind, so I napped instead. After mourning my lack of camel ride, I fell asleep in a hammock under a tree, with cool breeze blowing over my face and music playing behind me in the Bedouin tent. It was heavenly. And when the group got back, I got set on a camel and it stood up, walked a few feet, and sat down again. My ten-second ride was fun while it lasted though.
Hmm. What else happened. Not much, I guess. There was more hanging out at the hostel, then this morning we went up to the edge of the crater again before we headed back toward Hakkuk Balev. There was a short stop for a hike to some natural springs, which I didn't do, then a long ride broken only by bathroom stops and a lunch break. Now we're back at our guest house, admiring our new dig T-shirts and chilling before our freedom ends and we go back to work tomorrow. Technically, I'll be in the lab tomorrow, but that's a minor detail. Hopefully my ankle will get better and I'll be able to go back to the site on Monday, but I won't worry about it now.
A couple of final thoughts before I sleep:
-Israel is so gorgeous. Even the Negev has a bleak, bare beauty that takes my breath away.
-Joshua has taken such good care of me since my ankle got twisted - he's wrapped my bandage, carried my things, carried ME (some pretty long distances too), helped me walk, propped my legs up on the bus, stayed behind with me even when the group was moving pretty fast/doing things I couldn't do, and overall been really, really sweet. I don't deserve him.
-Only a week and a half left! I can't believe it. Time has flown, and sometimes it's been really hard (and will probably get harder, actually), but this is the best time I've had in...years, probably, and it's still hard to believe I'm in this amazing place with all these incredible people, getting to do such exciting things. So much hooray.
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