Passover Rules

Passover was not exactly conducive to blogging...so theres a lot to catch up on.

So. My mom’s trip was great over all (at least I think so). On her last day here we took a trip to Jerusalem. I was really impressed with Jerusalem's landscape. I always knew that there was an area named Temple Mount, but it had never really registered that the Dome of the Rock and the surrounding city is actually built on and around a mountain. It makes for amazing scenery.
The day my mom left my friend Theresa arrived. We also had a great time. While she was here we explored Jaffa, enjoyed the beach and Tel Aviv’s night life, experienced out first Seder, saw the Bahai gardens in Haifa, and took an amazing road trip to Jerusalem, the dead sea and Masada. The weather was great for most of her trip and I definitely looooooved the dead sea area. We played in the mud and floated in the salt water and soaked up the sun. Sigh. It was really nice.

After Theresa left Tam’s family came to town and we headed down to Eilat and Petra. Also awesome. The weather was even warmer than its been in Tel Aviv – the best part being that it stays warmer in the evenings – and we had a great time. Eilat itself isn’t that special. Its very touristy and mostly hotels. We went to the underwater observatory which was surprisingly impressive. Half the observatory is a lookout over the red sea above the water and the other half is under water along the reef. It was really cool. We also went snorkeling along a coral reef. Tam has an underwater camera and we took a bazillion pictures. The water was a little chilly, but we had a great time.

Petra was…wow. I found it more impressive than many of the places we’d been to in Egypt. Its just so big and impressive. The buildings are carved right into the side of the mountains and the natural colors of the rock are incredible. Later in the day, we rode donkeys up to a monastery at the top of a mountain. We were really annoying, bumping people and stuff with the donkeys – and I am pretty sure my donkey tried to step off the edge of a cliff several times – but the view from the top was great.
Passover is now over – sad – and we’re back in classes – sadder. We’re starting to realize that our time left here is pretty short. In fact, Tam and I leave a month from now. Wow. So for the next few weeks I guess we’ll just try and enjoy the city as much as we can!