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.

adventure in Eilat,Israel and Petra,Wadi Rum, and Wadi Musa of Jordan

Wadi Rum

rock bridge in Wadi rum i climbed and was on top of

Wadi rum

the treasury in Petra as seen in Indiana Jones

The monestry, longgg hike but worth it!

Wadi Musa where I crashed a wedding

Eilat- the touristy city of Israel... not too big fan of it, but it's still cool



So this weekend I decided to go on a trip to Jordan. I mean come on it's Jordan, it's this mysterious country shown in Indiana Jones and it was going to be my first Arab/muslim nation that I was going to visit. So me and my friends decided to meet up in Eilat, Israel and then head over to Jordan by crossing the southern border to Jordan. There are only two borders to Jordan from Israel. But since my friends were comming from Tel Aviv they were going to leave at 12 am from Tel Aviv and get to Eilat at 6 am Thursday, but me living in a middle of desert of Sed Boker didn't have much choice but to arrive to Eilat by myself at 7pm Wed.

I got to Eilat and walked around the city, and I guess this woman could see that I was a college student looking around and asked me if I wanted a hostel for 100 shackles. Now that's about $30 but me being a college kid, and preferin the adventure told her that I was just going to sleep on the streets and meet up with my friends at 6 am. Now this woman wanting to rip some money off of me called me crazy saying that I will get drugged by people if I sleep on the streets. I said thanks for the warning and just walked off, but that kind of stayed in the back off my head throughout the whole night... So I just walked around the city and went to the North Beach of Eilat. They had amazing night life and night market and I walked around eye shopping and just chilling like a tourist. Then around 2 am I decided I should get some sleep and found a nice layer of rock next to the beach and went to sleep. I kept one eye open just incase lol (that stupid woman's warning haha) but slept an hour or so but I kept having to evacuate from one loacation to another not because of people trying to drug me but becuase of these whole bunch of couples who kept waking me up by sitting near me and making out and moaning. lol love birds what can I say, and I guess they couldn't see me because I was flat on the rock and it was pretty dark. So I finally found a nice quiet spot and slept until 5 am. I woke up brushed my teeth, got some water from the fountain and met up with my friends. Then we took a taxi to the Jordan border and waited until the border opened. But all in all, my adventure in Eilat was fun, but I was quite disapointed in the City. It was just way too touristy for me, with all these expensive hotels, bars, shops, all it really was just a huge money spenidng place with not much history or substance. But for just partying and hanging out it's a good place.

Border to Jordan opend and then we went in had security check, got visa, and the Israeli gov. Raped our wallet (we had to pay $30 to leave the country. wtf right? but moving on) we then took the taxi and went to our hostel which was in Wadi Musa (Wadi means valley btw). It was a pretty city with mountainieous regions but some how apartments and houses growing in these mountains, like fungus and mushrooms growing on trees. From our hostel we drove to Petra and entered Petra. Now Petra was gorgeous. It's name one of the new wonders of the world, and it was in Indiana Jones, and man it was quite a beauty. And I was amazed at how old this place was, and even few years ago people were still living in this caves and rock carved buildings. We did some awesome rock climibing, hiking, and saw the nature, and also hiked for a 1.5 hour to get to the monestry which was very high up. I did a pretty good bargain and bought some souvneers for a pretty good price. (look at the pictures attatched and you will realize how beautiful it was)

After petra we had dinner and then me and some of my friends saw this huge parade of cars and was wondering what is was (there was a truck in this parade that had a fire work luancher on it's back trunk, something totally illegal in the U.S haha, and they kept launching these huge fire works as it traveled) we asked a man next to us and he told us that it was a wedding, so we decided to crash the wedding and jumped in his truck and joined the car parade. we yelled "Mah-Brook" which means conrtaualtions, and clapped and hinked and etc, and just massed around. Then we got to the wedding, and people warmly welcomed us in as we danced on the streets yelling mabrook mabrook. The girls went in to dance and shake hands witht he bride, and we were sent to the man's side to have man talk and be with the groom's side. all in all we had alot of fun and then went back to our hostel.

The next day we went to Wadi Rum, which is a town with preserved natural beauty and where Lawrence of Arabia's home is (the general in WWI-watch the movie) and it was alot of fun and we climbed alot of rocks. and we got a jeep tour through the desert which was sweet. off roading in the desert was pretty bad ass. We took some sweet pictures and saw the sun set and then came back to camp and tent out in the middle of the desert. Then we washed ourselves and had an amazing bedwin(the name of people that live in the caves and in the desert) dinner and I stuffed myself with amazing food. After eating we made a bon fire, had some beer and just danced to some Jordanian songs and also danced to some modern music and etc. It was a pretty sweet party in the desert. Then for some reason, I had this amazing idea that we should go streaking. In my head what I was thinking was Tarzan from Disney or Mowgli from hungle book where you run with the wild and you feel like a wild natural man. So me and some of the boys mentioned it (I was completely sober) the other guys not so much, but running with the natural just sounded awesome so we all stripped and ran out of our camp site. But as we kept running what we didn't realize was that there was another camp few hundred meters away from us that could see us. Me and my friend didn't knwo so we jsut kept running around, but other guys who wanted to scare the other camp (they were clearly gone) got clsoe tot he camp and the other camp guys saw them and ran after them. They quickly hid but me and my friend not knwoing just ran around without realizing that they could see us... then we got the cue and hid as well and quickly made our way back to our tent secretly. But when we got back our other friends thought it would be a great idea to hide our clothes and we were scrambling trying to get something to hide ourselve with. I picked up a 4 leged flat chair and coverd myself and my other friends took some cloth and animal fur. Then our tour guide also wanted to play a prank on us and dressed up and a bedwin and dressed on of our friends as a bedwin woman and set in the camp fire, and the other tour guide came up to us and said these are bedwin people so you should put clothes on and stay quite. not being able to find our clothes we covered oursleves with rndm stuff and set quietly in the chair not knowing what to do, hoping he bedwin man won't kill us for being naked infront of his bedwin wife. (it's a muslim country so.. streaking and being naked probs wasn't the best idea...) but then we realized that this was a prank and then massed around with them and then just massed around a bit more and then asked them for our clothes. but of course our friends didn't give it back to us and we had to sit around the camp fire with furs around our private parts( by then i had ditched the chair and wnet for the fur)... then the cops came....
so the other camp seeing the we were naked called the cops and also made a noise complaint for the loud music. So when the cops came in me and my friends were danicng around.... bascily naked with a small fur thing around our selves. our tour guide told us to quickly sit down and we set nervous wndering what was going to happen.... so bascily we could have gone to jail for what we did.. but our tour guide smooth talked to them saying that we weren't naked and had fur things covering us and we were jsut acitng like native americans around the camp fire. The cops and our tour guide argued for about half an hour and they finally went away and our tour guide told us that he saved our ass, and that he will have to go to police station the next day to figute it out and may go to jail or not depending on what they do. So that was the end of the party and we all went to bed. the next day we went to Acka, Jordan (not sure about spelling) and street shoped. I made some arabic friends and shopped, and then finally crossed the border to Israel and went back home. But all in all Jordan was alot of fun and people were really nice. I was on guard at first because Jordan and muslim country is some where I never been to and it was a mysterious country for me, but I realized they were some of the nicest people i have ever met. They always went for hand shakes even when I jsut said excuse me and were very friendly people. One thing kinda anoing was that they all thought I was either Chinese, Japanese, or Jacki Chan, but I liekd Jacky Chan so I just kept that name in the trip. but all in all it was an awesome weekend, and I am prety pumped for next weekend! shalom :)

TEL AVIV LA/NYC of Israel

weird yoga guy at the beach


street market

ironically had lunch here- a place in the mall

huge mall i was at



all soldiers


above photo courtesy of Erika

So last Thursday I left for Tel Aviv to meet up with some friends and to celebrate some birthdays. And man Tel Aviv was amazing, it was alot of fun and pretty insane as well haha.
I left for Tel Aviv on Thursday morning with 3 hours on Wed night because I had to finish up my work. So I was pretty low on sleep and tierd going to Tel Aviv, and also I didn't have a phone or anything on me, and my only plan I had was to meet up with a friend at the train station in Beer Sheba (which is 45 min bus ride from Sede Boker (where I am)) but when I got to the station I couldn't find him and he couldnt find me so I jist took the train by myself without knowing what to do when I got to Tel Aviv. So I got to Tel Aviv with nothing. I didn't have phone numbers, a phone, or anything. So I asked ppl where the mall was ( I was planning on going to a computer store to use internet to get some ppl at Tel Aviv's number, and I also had to get a phone) so I walked about 40 minutes and got to the mall went to a mac store got the number, and a phone, and made the call from a pay phone, (they couldn't get my phone done in one day because they had to jail break it, so I had to pick up my phone the next day) but my friend didn't get off from work tll 7 and i was there at 2 so i just chilled at the mall and walked around all over the place in Tel Aviv which ws pretty fun. I walked around alot alot. But the reason why I went to Tel Aviv with no plan, and I just travel and walk around isn't just because I am care free and chill, but it;s that i feel really safe here, because there are soldiers everrryyy where, with huge power weapons, and I saw maybe like 500 soldiers through out my whole trip, they are just every where in civilian places and etc. and some of these soldiers (they have mandatory draft here) looked like they were 15 or so, and girls, (girls also have to do service here) they looked like they were 17 lol(probably because they were around 19) but most of them didn't but it was just really weird to see these really gorgeous and good looking girls in an army uniform, carrying huge power weapons. Idk it was just kinda weird, maybe only a scene in the movies haha. but yeah moving on, so I made some rndm israeli friends while hanging out by myself, and then I met up with my friend, and we met up with more friends from all over israel. Then we went out for a nice dinner (we were celebrating 4 of our friends b-day) then after dinner we went out clubbing and bar hopping. And then at 3:30 am 3 of my friends and I got out of the club and went to the un official gay beach. (we thought it would be cool to go to a gay beach haha no worries there was a girl with us) Of course there was no one there and it was just us four, so we decided to go skinny dipping in the mediterenian sea lol. I mean I kinda wanted to do it because I never gone skinny dipping and there was no one around, so hey if i am gonna skinny dip why not in Isreal in the mediterenian sea at 4 am , so we did that, and then swam for a long time and watch the sun rise, it was really beautiful, then I took a quick jog on the beach to warm up. Then we went to a near by bar to watch the Celtics and Lakers game.. which disapointed me greatly :(. then we went back to take a shower and go out for breakfast (yeah we pulled an all nighter haha) After Breakfast we went to go shop in the street plazas and then went to the beach, where I got a horrible sun burn and we spent most of our day there and then went back to my friends place to get ready for dinner. But before leaving for dinner i realized i lost my friends i pod, so i ran all the way back and searched the beach for an hour. I looked really dumb as I was walking around the beach shoveling the sand with my feet. Many people saw me doing this and probably thought I was weird and asked me what I was doing. I explained to them that I lost my friend's Ipod, and many of them even helped me find the Ipod. So there was about 3 of us shoveling sand with our feet. They were very nice people. After a long search I gave up and went back. When I got back my friend told me that she found it lol(it was in some other girls purse I think I put it in there after i used it thikning it was her purse lol) so yeah i was relieved. and it was also a very good run and exercise for me so I didn't really mind. That night we went to a nice restaruant called chocolate bar, where they make all these crazy food with chocolate. the girls in our group wanted to go :( lol, and me not liking sweets ordered a fish dish haha while everyone ordered these crazy heart attack chocolate meals, and after that I was way too tierd, so I went to my different friend's place in a city few miles away from Tel Aviv and slept there. And then in the morning me and my friend decided to get back to Tel Aviv but didn't want to pay for the Taxi it was like $30(we are college students OK? :P), so we decided to hitch hike and we hitch hiked our way back to Tel Aviv and met up with other ppl and had a lil more fun hanging out at the beach and then I went to catch my bus back to Sede Boker. all in all this weekend was pretty insane and tierding but it was alot of fun.