Yam Le Yam

            Well, I’ve completed a hiking trip, and I have the scrapes, scratches, soreness, stiffness, sunburn, and slight sprain to prove it. It’s my left ankle this time; the good news is that my right ankle seems to be completely healed and trustworthy after last summer. This sprain isn’t nearly as bad; it hardly counts as a sprain. I hiked on it for two days without significant discomfort or discoloration, so that’s always a good sign, although I’ll have to cut down on my running for a few days.

            Anyway, enough about injuries. Last week I finished my last few classes before break. Everyone was pretty restless, as usually happens before break, and the affect was compounded by the fact that the regular university and the grad schools had last week off, so about a third of the students were gone from some of my classes.

            Early Sunday morning we headed up to the Galilee for some hiking. The Middle East, while it’s very arid, is not all desert; we spent our time hiking through verdant landscapes and wading through streams. We started hiking at the Mediterranean and then made our way over to the Sea of Galilee. The hike is called Yam Le Yam (Sea to Sea).

            We cheated, though; we spent our two nights in the north in the nicest hostels anyone had ever seen – we were convinced that they mistakenly inserted the ‘s’ and they were actually hotels. Not having gotten much sleep for a couple of days before, I slept very well, and the food was also great. However, it was still quite tiring to hike for several hours a day.

            There were about thirty students, along with our certified hiking guides, our student guides from the university, and our medics/security people. We hiked mostly as a large group. Sometimes the trail was quiet, and sometimes it was full of people. Everyone is off school, so there were lots of children’s groups running around. We also passed plenty of families and groups of soldiers.

            It takes a while to get used to people walking around with assault rifles, but on the other hand, it makes one feel more secure, and it’s good to know that all the Israeli leaders in your group are army veterans and know how to deal with situations that come up. Fortunately, nothing did come up except for quite a few sprained ankles, and we had a very enjoyable trip.

            The second night of the trip, we built a bonfire, sang, and introduced the concept of s’mores to most of the non-Americans. I don’t understand how America has exported so many other cultural concepts and not the infinitely more useful idea of s’mores, but we’re doing our best. And yesterday morning I woke up early and watched the sunrise over the Sea of Galilee.

             Most of my roommates are gone for the break – it’s a great chance to travel if you’re not too religious – so the apartment is fairly quiet. I spent most of today catching up on sleep and resting in general, writing some philosophy I thought of while wandering through the mountains.

            Well, I’ve been on a trip, but it wasn’t a particularly exciting trip; it was mainly a wander through the mountains. I philosophized some; discussed the meaning of life, and various other topics, with friends; and regained some energy and perspective now that I’m about halfway through my stay. There’s not much more to write, but I do have plenty of pictures, and I’m sure I’ll have more news after Easter and Passover. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Pictures: This is a picture of the sunrise; there are more later.

These are from our first day of hiking.

 This was the culmination of our first day of hiking:

 and our hostel for the night:

 Second day (this used to be a wine press)

 This is said to be Elijah's chair; as the guide said, "we're not discussing if that's true; that's not the point."

 I was very excited about taking pictures of the sunrise, as you can see (this is less than half of them.)

 Third day of hiking (I was about picture-d out)

By the way, I keep forgetting to mention - credit for all pictures of me for this semester go to my lovely friends. Thank you to all of you (and to everyone who read this far down!)