Israel wrap up, for those of you who wanted to know

So I will have been back from Israel two weeks tomorrow. I suppose this is as good a time as any to wrap up the trip, since I just uploaded all my photos onto Flickr

So all in all, I have to say that in retrospect, I had a good time. While I was there, I was homesick like mad, probably more home sick than I've ever been before, but I came out of the trip with some great new friends, and saw things that I've never seen before, which is always enjoyable. I think the best thing that I got out of the trip were my friends. I have seen people from the trip both weekends I have been home, and will see them again this coming weekend. It feels great to really have a crew again, I haven't had that since Smith, and that really has been the only thing I've missed about college. I really feel like I have the opportunity to keep getting to know these people, and it's exciting. I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about the trip.

So, I think that it got off to a rough start because we started the trip in the middle of fucking nowhere. We spent two days in the middle of the desert at Mitzpeh Ramon, a town centered around a military base and an inferior crater (inferior because it was not caused by an asteriod, not because it was lacking in size.) So, I felt sort of lost there. The first night I woke up in the middle of the night, I had no idea what time it was, no idea where I was, and I bugged out. I called Sean in a panic and learned that it was 4:30 am in Israel and that I was, indeed, in a former military base whose owners could not spell the name of their hotel coorectly (I was informed that I was not staying in the "Clab Ramon" as the sign next to the door claimed, but instead the "Club Ramon," an only slightly more logical name. There was nothing club-like about the place. But after this conversation my nerves were significantly calmer and I started to loosen up a bit. But I think the fact that the next morning began 12 hours of high intensity Jewish goodness, I got a little bitter again. Schwarma eventually calmed my nerves on this front.

Anyway, after the initial bout of homesickness things got better. It remained somewhat, but by and large I dealt with it. And as I said, I made friends, and it made the trip so much better. I don't feel like going into details about every day. I came on the trip with a cynical outlook on the thing. I know that the trip is designed to make you love Israel, and I certainly don't hate it, but I won't be returning any time soon, either. Like I said, the best thing I got out of it was definitely the friendships.

After the trip ended I spent a few days with Rena. It was great to see her, and to play with Asher, and meet everyone who's important in her life there. It was nice to see the way that life really is in Israel, as opposed to the way Birthright shows it during those crazy ten days. Karen and I had a good time together and I'm looking foward to her being in NY next year so we can get into some trouble.

So yeah, I think that's just about it. Hope everyone found that enlightening.