That Time We Had ODT

Twas a long, but fun day.

It began the way that all days begin: an 8:10am departure time, a brief meeting on campus, and then off into the world of the kids. Except at 9am, instead of heading into the lecture hall to learn about Java, we headed toward the entrance of Hebrew University to board a bus.

(this is one of my favorite pictures...)

Ted laid out the ground rules which were simply: English only and stay seated while the bus was in motion. HA! The kids are loud and rambunctious. (I later found out from Max that there used to be many more field trips, and one of the main reasons that it was decreased to one is because of their behavior on the bus.)

We arrived at the caves, and were warned by this sign that we were entering at our own risk.

It turns out that someone had been wandering around the Caves at night only a few weeks before, and had fallen to his death. To combat such actions, the signs were put up by the parks and recreation folks. But it didn't dampen our spirits! Down we wandered into the caves.

The purpose of today's trip was a combination of ODT (outdoor training) and teambuilding. While the kids have been having teambuilding/leadership activities for the previous several weeks, nothing was as intense as this full day experience. My recitation, along with Alice's recitation, began with the teambuilding segment.


1. Moving together.
The first challenge was a simple one. Stand in a circle, extend one arm and an index finger, and balance a hula hoop on everyone's fingers. Then, lower the hoop in unison. This was more challenging than one might expect, but with a few minutes, we succeeded. The second challenge was to hold hands, and pass through a hoop while ending up in the same configuration in the end. Also, easy as pie.

2. Object in the untouchable circle
From there, things got more challenging. The students stood around a rope circle, and had to get to an object in the middle without touching the interior of the circle. Their solution was to make a stack of tires, lay two sticks across them, and have the smallest team member (Husam of course!!!) crawl out on it.

3. The safe
The next challenge involved a "safe". The kids had to "enter the combination" of the safe by stomping on the numbers 1 through 30 in less than 60 seconds. They failed.

4. Games challenge
The kids had to solve two puzzles in 20 minutes. The first involved 9 hula hoops on the ground, with 4 people on the left facing to the right, and 4 people on the right facing to the left. Each person could move only forward, and could only move one space or two spaces by skipping over a person. They solved it in less than 10 minutes.

The second game had a large chess board, ie an 8x8 board with alternating black and white squares. There were 8 pieces, each of which functioned like a queen in chess: they could kill anything in the same row, column, or diagonal. The object of the game was to place all 8 pieces in such a way that none could be killed by the others. They failed. ;-)

The kids hopefully learned some valuable lessons about teamwork and leadership from these exercises. They do not yet have the skills of leadership, listening to each others opinions, respect, etc, and this made each of the games even more challenging to them.

(A brief aside: I'm somewhat sad about my camera situation... Leemor took it so she could take pictures of all the kids rappelling and such. But she left it on for a long time, so by the time I got it back, the battery was pretty much dead. I have a lot of pictures of people doing cool things, but not MY kids! Awwwww. But, it's still not as bad as Froy... Mustafa took his camera, and fell, and broke it. Ick.)

After the teambuilding games and a sandwich lunch, my recitation group headed up to the surface of to do some rappelling (or sneppling, as it's called in hebrew)! Here is what the hole looked like from the inside:

And from the outside:

My group suited up:

And went in. Here's Sagy (my best coder!) starting his descent.

Tali wouldn't go, despite my pleading.... and my threats to throw her in without a rope if she wouldn't go with one. Pfft!

These isn't one of the kids from my recitation, but here's what it looks like during the descent, inside the cave:

Huzzah! After all of my students (minus Tali) had descended, I too took the plunge. It was friggin SCARY!!! Afterwards, we went to another extreme activity called the Omega. It's basically a zipline, but you sit in a chair harness instead of having to hold on to anything. I wasn't able to see all of my kids go, but Tali did take a picture of Katia while I was gone.

And I got a picture of Ala'a, right before my camera died. ie, Right before I jumped!

When I jumped, my kids wanted me to say something funny. So I did. In fact, I thrusted myself forward and yelled out "Something Funny!!!" as a flew through the air. After we'd all ridden the Omega, and taken a group picture which will supposedly be posted on Facebook, we headed back down to the cave to try some rope climbing.

Omri looking cute while climbing

Ted, showing off his agility, as always

On the ride back to Hebrew University, Liel and I listened to some of the greatest songs of all time... like BACKSTREET BOYS SONGS! Harhar. After some ice cream and soccer at the campus, the kids headed home, and we had our end of day meeting. Oddly enough, we ran into Omri again while on the grassy area outside of Sprinzak. ::shrug::

Back at the house, while sitting on the couch we moved outside to the stoop, we decided to go to PizzaMeter in the German quarter. It is a pizza place that sells pizza by the meter, if that wasn't too obvious from the title! Unfortunately, it turned out that it was recently closed, so we settled on Pizza Sababa instead.

Bo is serious about this corn pizza

Quote of the Day: "I've got my green camo shirt, and my black pants to blend in with the nighttime." [crazy hand motion, crazy hand motion] -Theodore

Next Post: That Time I Had My Final Recitation :-(

That Time We Went to Meat Burger

MEET Synopsis:
-Lecture by Froy on Interfaces.
-Recitation immediately afterwards in a random room.
-Lunch, followed by LAB!
-Lots of lab, including Frogger, which was morphed into a baby-killing game by one of my groups, just in time to share it with a visitor. Sigh.

MEAT synopsis:
- A delicious all-beef patty, including goat cheese and garlic mayonaisse, plus french fries, and a cold, bottled Coke.

Next Post: That Time We Went Sneppling

That Time We Swam in the Dead Sea

Some woke up with the sun, but I tried to sleep in as late as I could. Sleeping on a hard surface next to someone who snores does not make rest easy, so I didn't quite get enough sleep. But that's perfectly okay.

(Note that everyone is up except Leemor.)

Breakfast was plums and hummus and pita and tea and whatever else was around. We quickly ate, then packed up everything into the 4 vehicles and headed off for a day of offroading in the desert. Humberto, Kim, and I rotated who was driving, but Alice doesn't have a license, so she decided to pass. We were on the offroad beginning at a little after 7am, with Kim at the wheel.

The route that we intended to take initially was blocked off for military testing. This sign was pretty common in the Negev.

We dealt with the problem by playing soccer while Amir found a new route.

Back on the "road" we traveled through one of the river beds toward a lonely Negev tree. This part of the trail was particularly challenging, because the surface was nothing more than loose stone.

Eventually, we came across one of the loneliest trees in the world, an acacia tree in the middle of the Negev. Amir explained that back in the biblical days, one of the standard meeting places was a tree. This is because trees were not only rare in the desert, but also because trees provided shade. (The difference in temperature between sun and shadow can be up to 20 degrees!)

I climbed the tree of course, then we returned to the car. Once again, we passed a "scary" sign regarding landmines.

During the various wars, particularly between 1948 and 1967, Israel placed landmines in the Negev to deter both military and non-military peoples from entering. They have never been removed, but there isn't exactly much pedestrian traffic through the desert.

I collapsed in the desert due to extreme dehydration. (Kidding, of course)

And grabbed a lovely shot of Leemor.

Easy Mike as a sunglasses pirate.

On the way to our next destination, we encountered some hot chicks with guns guarding a lookout near th Egyptian border, several large cisterns, and another Makhtesh.

And finally, the Dead Sea! The Dead Sea is a salt lake and is also the lowest point on Earth, at 330m below sea level. The Dead Sea is actually the second saltiest lake, loosing out to Lake Asal in Djibouti, but is still plenty salty. In fact, it's almost 9 times saltier than the ocean. Some people believe that the salts and mud of the Dead Sea have special healing powers, but our wounds from climbing near our camp site merely burned and burned. (But after we rinsed off, they actually DID feel much better!)

The sea is so salty that you have to float. In fact, you can't stand up even if you try!

And, instead of sand at the bottom of the ocean, there is salt. Seriously. Instead of a sand castle, you could build a salt castle, if only the salt would stick together.

On the way back to Tel Aviv, we stopped by a Bedouin restaurant. Outside, there was some interesting pottery, like a pair of shoes.

Inside, we sat on cushions on the floor, and enjoyed the usual meal of hummus and laffa and vegetables and olives. I snapped a picture of the group sitting behind us, and then promptly fell asleep.

We drove back to Tel Aviv, and I slept part of the way and drove part of the way. In the city, we waited with Amir to get into a parking lot, and the sun began to set.

At the end of the journey, I took a picture of the trip-o-meter. We traveled 673.5 kilometers from the time we picked up the cars to the time we returned them, plus, with 58 km between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, that's an additional 116 km. Which comes to a grand total of 789.5km, or 491 miles for those on the English system.

Next post: That Time the Kids Stole My Camera for a Scavenger Hunt.

That Time We Swam in the Desert

It's been awhile since I've had time to update this blog. I've finally finished a large chunk of work, so today and tomorrow I'll hopefully have a chance to more or less catch up on everything that's been going on.

First of all, I drove more in the past two days than is good for the soul. Fortunately, I love driving! :-) Where did we go? Oh... where did we NOT go!! This weekend's trip was two days in the desert. It sounds both hot and boring, but it was neither.

We began our amazing weekend excursion at the bright and early time of 10:30am. Our original departure time was 8am, but it was moved back because we were all so sleep-deprived and the higher-ups felt sorry for us. We loaded up the cars with enough food to last us about 40 years in the desert, and headed off to a town near Tel Aviv to pick up the 4 Jeeps. On the way out of town, we passed this montrasity.

The Chords Bridge or the Bridge of Strings is a cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge in Jerusalem. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava, a Spanish architect, and it was created as part of Jerusalem's light rail project. While the bridge serves as an incredible example of civil engineering, it seems quite controversial. Of the many Jerusalemites I have encountered, I have yet to find one who enjoys the bridge. It is beautiful in all the ways that innovative construction can be, but it kind of scars the city's skyscape. Then again, everyone hated the Eiffel Tower when it was built, and it quickly became a powerful symbol of Paris. This bridge was created in the same mindset, perhaps, and maybe decades from now, when you think "Jerusalem" you'll think "that one crazy curved bridge with one mast thing and lots of cables".

After getting lost and missing exits and U-turning at inopportune times, we finally found the parking lot where we met Anat, Amir, and our Jeeps. Although, they weren't Jeeps at all. They were a pair of Mitsubishi Hunters, and a pair of Mitsubishi Pajeros. Following some joking about it being an "easy" car to drive, I ended up being the main driver of the Pajero. But I didn't really mind this "easy" label, because the Pajero is by far the nicest car I've ever driven.

Humberto and Kim rocked out in the back seat, while Alice chilled up front.

Off we went. We drove toward Be'er Sheva, heading South the whole time toward the Negev. More on the Negev in a moment, but first... Camel crossing signs!!!

And art!

We never saw any camels crossing the highway, but we certainly saw herds of camels on the side of the road. As for the art, I'm not to sure. It's possible that the art was created by the Bedouin communities. Bedouins are Arab nomadic peoples, and at one time, were the only inhabitants of the Negev. They have inhabited the Negev for thousands of years, and it wasn't until the more recent past that their lands began to be taken away from them, and the modern standards of living began to be forced upon them. Sad story. In any case, many Bedouin villages are seen doting the Negev, and these artistic structures are often nearby, perhaps indicating a connection.

So what IS this Negev anyway? The Negev is the desert region in the South of Israel, which accounts for about half of the land area in the country. Unlike what you might be expecting of a desert due to idealized versions in movies in such, it is not collection of completely barren dunes. Instead, it is rocky with a wide range of colorful sands and mineral deposits in addition to a wide range of desert flora. It is barren, but not empty, and certainly not lifeless.

The first stop on our Negev expedition was Midreshet Ben Gurion near Sde Boker. Ben Gurion was the first Israeli Prime Minister, and he is buried alongside his wife in the Negev. Part of his vision for the country included a revitalization of the desert to make it habitable for the citizens. Here we met our first Nubian Ibex (a goat antelope found in only five countries)...

And got our first scenic view of the Negev.

We learned that the "rivers" of the desert can be identified by the plant life. Because the Negev only gets rain about 5 days out of the year, there is no constant flowing of water. However, when it does rain, the sand of the desert quickly locks together, preventing the water from seeping into the soil, and instead, allowing it to flow for miles and miles. In this riverbeds, green plants soak up every bit of water they can. Their presence in the dry season marks the promise of a water source on rainy days. In the picture above, you can see to the middle left part of the picture a sort of dark line snaking through the sands. This is the "river".

Amir then told us that we'd be traveling to one of the desert springs, En Akev. The Hebrew name translates to "Spring of the Heel", as the spring is located on the heel of the Zin River. We shifted into 4x4 mode, and began our off-roading experience. There are no words to describe how incredibly cool it was to go 4-wheeling, but there are videos. And one day, those videos will be on YouTube. In the meantime, just imagine the car shaking nonstop, and occasionally, you get thrown so hard that you practically hit the ceiling, but in the awesome way. And all the while, it's hard to see because there's nothing but dust in front of you that had been kicked up by another car, and behind you, the came thing. And your stereo is blasting Arabic music coming from a Jordanian radio station in Amman called Fann FM. Awesome!

We parked in the lot near En Akev, and walked a little ways to the spring. And there it was: a big pool of water in the desert. Complete with British tourists.

Post-swim, we walked back to the cars, and Amir pointing out these hiking signs. Apparently, there are trails from the Southern-most tip of the country to the northern most tip. The trail sign on the right indicates that trail, while the one on the left just marks the way back to the parking lot.

We 4x4ed our way back to the main road an continued on our journey, stopping at the aptly-named Ramon Rocks to get a view of the Makhtesh Ramon.

There is no real equivalent in English of the Hebrew word Makhtesh. It's translated as a crater, but it's not really the same thing. A crater is created when a meteor strikes the Earth, leaving an indentation. And a canyon is made when a river slowly cuts through a flat surface. A Makhtesh is formed when the soft minerals inside a mountainous structure get slowly washed away while the outer crust remains in tact. Eventually, the outer surface collapses in upon itself, leaving steep canyon-like edges and a rocky interior. Makhtesh are pretty unique: only three major makhtesh are found in Israel, and the only other Makhtesh are found in Egypt (two are there).

After viewing the Makhtesh from above, we drove down into it to get to our camp site. Once again, this required going off roading, though the path to the campsite was not nearly as treacherous as the path to En Akev or the paths we would take the following day.

We found a good place to camp, and began setting up the site. One of the Hunters had been carrying wood for the entire journey, and we started by tearing it apart and converting it to a cozy fire.

Then a large portion of the instructors ran off to climb a hill and catch the sunset, while the responsible adults began cooking dinner. The picture below has a little yellow dot on it... that dot is Zach!

Up up up we went. Some wore sneakers, and some of the more foolish wore sandals (my bad...) En route there were a few mishaps, like a rockslide that was triggered in my general direction which resulted in my sliding a few feet and getting a little scraped up. But, no worries. A few battle scars, nothing more.

We made it up to the top. And the Heineken made it to the top!

And we were rewarded with an amazing sunset:

By the time we got back down, dinner was ready. Amir and Anat are simply too kind. The food was abundant, the fire was warm, and Ted's life story kept us entertained, as did Sam's guitar-playing.

The stars began to dot the sky, more stars than I've seen in a very long time, exceeded only by the stars in Yosemite. I began to count shooting stars, and got up to 16 by the time I went to sleep.

Next Post: That Time We Went Off-Roading for Hours and then Swam in the Dead Sea