weekend of 17th 24th and 31st

I am picking up art again haha


ibex skull

camel

Lior!


party

night hike

like a boss


cliff diving




water hole

Bedouin Children




Hey guys sorry I haven't uploaded my blog in a long time haha. too much fun, so not much time to spend on comp lol :P

but anyways I will give you guys an overview

So July 17th Weekend.:
I didn't go travel because I went to a city about an 1.5 hour away to volunteer to teach Bedouin children in English through an NGO. That was actually alot of fun. I personally made the worksheets and the kids were adorable haha. They were giggling and laughing when they saw me because I guess they have never seen an actual asian person. They see them only in to movies lol. So as you may have guessed, they called me Jackie Chan as well haha. In fact I felt like I was a panda bear in a zoo, they were touching my hair and smiling and laughing at me haha. But they were all good and sweet kids. They wanted to share their snacks with me, they asked me to write their name in Korean and they wrote my name in Arabic for me. And I gave some of them English names. there is a boy named Zacheria. and I told him he should be Zachery, Zach . In fact he's one of my favorite students there. he's very very smart and he works as a student slash a translator for me, because he understand what I am teaching, and he explains it to the class. He's a great guy.

After teaching the kids, I came back and had lunch with the post doc student I work with. His name is Lior, I don't think I mentioned him in any of my blogs (I need to start talking more about ppl around me at work haha I just don't talk about work that much in my blog lol) But he's a really cool guy, helps me alot, over sees my work, and a funny guy. On top of that his a pretty amazing cook. He makes real good dish with egg plants. I hung out with Lior for a while and also Leilah, the girl I went with to tutor the Bedouin children. She's really nice and fun person as well. So we hung out and then we were invited to dinner, so we all went to dinner together at a our friend Adi's house. The meal was good, and I had a great time with more of our friends whom we met at the dinner. Haha and me being American, and Israeli people having stereo types of Americans, they try to get me drunk by giving me this banana liquor that was actually really good. And for desert we had this alcoholic frozen slush that had lemon and some grinded fruits in it, which was amazingly delicious, and I am actually working on it right now to make my own haha. After the dinner the next day I hung out with Lior and other friends more. Me and Lior went out to do Tae-Kwon-Do, yah I teach Tae-Kwon-Do here haha, and we also went out for a run. The run was amazing. Sede Boker is a beautiful place with amazing things to see and I had a great time.

July 24th weekend:
This weekend my friends decided to come up to Sede Boker and come play in my back yard. haha yes I can proudly say that my back yard is the Zin Valley, Ein Avedat and Avedat. Right behind my guest house I have an amazing view of the valleys so we decided to hike there. We went hikin to Ein Avedat and avedat, whcih is amazingly beautiful. We had a great adventure, where we acutaly lost the trail mark and kind of had to make our own path towards Avedat, as we could see Avedat form a far distance. So we jsut walked toward that direction. Also we found an ibex skeleton and we thought it was pretty awesome and brought it home. After getting to Avedat t we asked Lior to pick us up (what a nice guy haha) and he drove us back home. Be on our way back we stopped at a camel farm and checked out the camels. As I have told Lior before how I think camels are amazingly cool. Then we came back and relaxed and that night we went over to Lior's place for dinner. I made korean panckaes to take to the dinner party. It was a party in Liors Yard, and we had bonfire, amazing food cooked in this black pot and wine, drinks, and people chilling and having fun. the food was amazing, night was great, people were very nice, and me, my friends, and my israeli friends had an amazing time. After dinner, my friend Solomon, took me and my friends night hiking. It was a full moon so we could hike through the valley without any light. The valley is beautiful during the day, but oh boy it was more beautiful at night, with everything releflecitng off the full moon's light. Then me and my friends went to the bar for a drink. we got to the bar at 2am right b4 it closes haha. and got some beer and walked around. We looked at the beautiful night sky and I also showed them the solar center.

The next day we wanted to go on a hike to the spring. This spring is pretty amazing. In the middle of desert there is this beautiful spring tha just pops out in all the dry sand. It was quite a hike though. We had to go up to the top of a plateu, then we went to a beaoudin tent for lunch and amazing tea and cofee. The woman was very very nice. then we hiked for few hours. We got to this cool rock where it had chalk powder over it. we made some drawing on the powder and moved on. then we got to this amazing cliff, and me and my friends (being kids at heart) had alot of fun throwing over huge boulders and making big explosions haha. Don't worry we checked there were no animals or ppl. Then as we hiked more through the dry desert udner the sun. we finnally go to the spring. The spring was gorgeous and the spring was surrounded by huge cliffs. And there were some beadouin guys there who were doing insane diving, cliff diving and etc. They asked me to join and I cliff dived from the high cliff. It was kinda scary that you couldn't see the water from where you were jumping off from, but it was alot of fun and i kpet doing it over and over again and got hooked on to it haha. Then we made some cool friends at the spring, who gave us a jeep ride back to my place, it was a bumpy but a fun jeep ride. The back seat that ws free only had two seats and there was 4 of us that had to fit in the back seat, so half of my body was hangingout as I was riding on the edge of the jeep. (the jeep was roof less) so I was kinda riding it like a horese. and yes, ouchie on my family jewls but hey no pain no gain, it was alot of fun. That weekend was great and I made sure my friends got home safe and I crashed to sleep as I Was very tiered. The next day I went hiking again with Lior. Lior teaches me not just in physics, solar energy and academical things like that, but he also teaches me alot about food, history, and the knowledge he has. And we also have great conversation about philosphy our thoughts and etc. He's a great mentor, but even a greater friend. So this time he wanted to teach me how to read and navigate through the nature, Must be something he learned in the military service (boy and girls have mandatory military service and thye have reserves, where thye have to go back few times a year to train again) I had alot of fun hiking and running through the desert and we saw some cool historical sites and also the water hole that people generations before who were living there left. So it was a great weekend filled with lots and lots of hiking.

Weekend of 31st.

during this weekend I went to teach the Bedouin children and had alot of fun. And that night I got invited to another dinner with my friends and had a great time. and the meal was very very delicious. Also during the week before the weekend. I did few things like helping out to set up the music room in Sede Boker. They had a drumset and everything, but they never set it up, so me and my friend Asaf went to set it up and cleaned the room a little bit and had fun jamming on the drums. We are planning on adding more instruments and getting ppl to come to the music room so they can have a jam session. And also this week a friend of mine from great britain was leaving back home, so we grabbed a beer and went to the valley and drank as we said our good byes and good lucks, which was alot of fun, drinking and chilling under the beautiful sky. And my weekend is yet to be finsihed, but I am planning on just relaxing this weekend, as I have had sleepless nights. good bye everyone, and shabbat shalom :)


But in general, other things I have been doing are, I have been trying to get closer to my religion, christinaity and I have been going to bible studies during tuesdays, also I started my trading account to learn more about trading, and on top of that I have been practicing cooking and am becoming a master chef ;). also I am learning how to make drinks and I have been practicing my bar tending skills haha. Right now I am working on this pine apple/grape vodka slush, and trying to master it. haha. I am just having fun over summer. also there is a possibility that i might be coaching American football for an israeli city team in Beer Sheva, a near by city. How fun would that be! :)
algith I am done haha good bye!

July 3rd weekend, belated 4th of July BBQ, and MISTI organized trip of July 12th

Baih Garden

view from my hotel room

where Jesus was cleaned and prepared after being crucified

Under it there is a rock where Jesus was crucified on


Spot where Jesus rested his hand during his walk to be crucified

Western Wall


hotel Dan courtesy of MIT




Ein Gedi amazing beauty



Masada

SUN!

sun riseee

top of Masada, like a champ

Masada

bench press at the dead sea lol



Hey guys, sorry I slacked off on my blog :P heh heh. I been busy having too much fun and a lil tired from too much fun lol. And also working of course. So I will update you on what I did starting from July 3rd weekend.

So that weekend I decided to go to swim in the Dead sea and to visit Ein Gedi (one of the most beautiful nature wonders I have ever seen) So I got to the dead sea with couple of my friends, swam for a long time in the sea and then slept under the starts on the beach till about 11pm. Then we woke up and met up with the other group who arrived at 11 and we decided to walk 11 miles to the Masada(in order to save money lol) We walked at night for about 3 hours so we were almost there to the Masada and then we got hitch hiked by the police officers. It was kinda sketchy because the police officer seemed alright, but the other car he brought was a huge junky truck.. looked kinda dnagerous, and of course the group voted me to be the one riding in the truck while they get to ride in a nice sedan with the police officer who seemed legit, while I was left with these two guys who seemed a little sketchy. yeah sure let Richard Yoon get his ass raped, while we safely travel..... lol jk jk, I volunteered to take the sketchy truck anyways lol. But these two guys were real nice and they brought us safely to Masada. At the Masada it was about 2am and the security guard at the masada wouldnt let us in, and infact try to kick us out to the camp area, so our polcie buddies went to work on him and told them that we will be staying at the bus stop right next to Masada, not the camp site 4 miles or so down. (yeah damn right son, I roll deep with my israeli popo's get at me) anywyas so we jsut slept at the bus stop till it opend at 4 am, and we hurridly climbed the masada to catch the sunrise. The hike was awesome, and the view was amazing. After the clmib, we went and clmibed many valleys in Ein Gedi and also swam in the pulls that were in the valley. We also walked through the water route where we were walking through swamps. I felt like an adventurer. It was fun. Then after alot of hiking and hanging out, we went back to the beach to go to sleep. sleeping under the night sky was pretty amazing. Next day we went and clmibed more and more valleys and had alot of fun. And then problem sturck, it was shabbat and no buses were wroking and there were no buses to Beer Sheba... where I have to go in order to get to Sed Boker. So me and my friend hitch hiked, and go hitch hiked by cool tourists from sweden. then bargained a cheap sheruti and got to jeuraslm. Then form Jeursalm we took the bus back to BeerSheba. It was a pretty epic time.

For 4th of July since I just got back from my trip, I didn't prepare anyhting, so me and my postdoc decided to have a huge party on 5th of July, belated 4th of july BBQ. We went shoping for food, hot dogs, burgers, saldas, beer, wine, etc etc, and threw a party. Alot of ppl came to the party that night, and some even brought their own food and some brought wine :), and it was alot of fun, music through the night, chilling, joking around, not much of dancing, but yeah. I had alot of fun hangingout with ppl and being a good host, hosting ppl and etc. I got few compliments after the party saying that was a real good party and that I was an awesome host/chef heh heh :) but that night went well.

Now for the weekend of July 10th, I went on an organized trip with MIT. We went to lots of places ranging from Jeuraslm, Caserea, Bahi Garden, Tel Aviv, Sea of Galilei, and etc and it was a ton of fun. We also had numerous guest speakers that englightend us with technological and social information and studies. We visited the holocause museum, which was very interesting and amazing. although quite depressing. And we also went to an israeli concert by a guy named Kobi Aflalo. He was pretty good. [one of his popular songs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfBXTDDh9eY) We also went and had dinner at the drooves,-a different religous group that lives in Israel. Also at Jeuraslm I visited many places, touhed the western wall, and touched the stone where Jesus was crucified, where his body was prepared, and where his hand laid to rest during his walk to be crucified. I also bought a shirt that said Guns and Moses, except the shirt guy messed up the stiching on so my shirt is horribly crooked :( but it;s ok it makes it authentic ;) Also on Saturday I went to a synagouge for a service, and it was a very interesting experience. I was very surpirsed at how relaxed and easy going the people were at this services, and how modest these synagouges were. No golden jewlery and decorations, but just men and women with the Torah in a room, it was quite inspiring. But all in all this weekend was awesome. And this comming weekend I will probably go hiking near Sed Boker, and won't travel far. The reason is because I am volunteering with some NGO's to go teach English to Beadowin children. Infact I jsut came back from 3 hours of preperation, and I will be teaching this friday morning for 2 hours. haha preapring the material, drawing figures, and making work sheets, reminded me of my time back in the days when I was learning English. Knowledge is treasure eh? And I am very excited to be able to share my knowledge with these children. alright, I am pretty tiered, I will stop rambling on. Shalom my friends. Leila Tov -good night.