לוויתן קטן בעיר גדולה: Whales and Desert Just Don't Mix

Lets be honest now, what sounds fun about three days two nights hiking down in the Negev… if your name is Sarah Naomi Ziskend (or Sarin for those who know…) then your answer would be absolutely nothing. Just to clarify, I’m the type of girl who enjoys mascara, couches, food, and air conditioning… not scorpions (yes we saw one), flies (saw too many to count), dirt, and sweat. So there is little need to say how NOT pumped I was for the upcoming desert survival trip. I was actually in such denial that by the time we were supposed to get off the bus I forgot what we were going to do. The first day wasn’t so bad at all (which completely shocked me), we hiked about 4 miles (6km… but im trying to do the conversion in my head so it might be wrong) and it gave me a great chance to talk to Cori (koren), Ilana, Lainie, and Jesse. In the beginning we were complaining the whole way about anything that we could, but then we made it fun by singing and dancing (oh the power of distraction is GREAT). We all laughed a lot hearing Elkana singing Brittney Spears with all of us in the middle of the Negev! We hiked for about two hours and then stopped for lunch in a really beautiful shady area. Everyone passed around cucumbers, bread, tuna, tomatoes, bamba, and various other passable foods. It was a lot of fun having an improve picnic in the middle of the desert! I loved to watch everyone share whatever food they had, it was truly a sight to see! Afterwards we hiked a little more and then stopped again to play games… well let me restate that: Those who were awake enough to play games did… other just watched and slept, it was a well deserved nap though- don’t get me wrong. Soon after we got to the camp sight and all started helping out in different ways. I chopped vegetables for our salad with Stashia, Brittney, Ethan, and Ally… because honestly if theres food then I’m there. Dinner was so good (I ate with my bff Gabe, Jonny, and Michael)! We had chicken, mashed potatoes, soup, veggies, Israeli salad, and Caesar salad. It was all around a great dining experience (and greatly appreciated after a long day of hiking). I don’t know if its right that the food in the desert is wayyyyyy better than base food (no offense beit nativ workers… sometimes its good, but lets be honest here- its not desert survival food). And then we had a bon fire and all went to bed… that was a really abridged version of the night but I can’t fit it all… The next morning started bright and early, and by that I mean that it was still dark when we woke up at 5:00 am. We all stumbled out of bed and waited in line for Becky to braid our hair, the only manageable hairstyle you can wear when hiking 13km. After a great breakfast of cookie crips (Israel style of course) and davening overlooking the desert we started off once again. Except this time it was much much much harder- were talking like vertical distance up mountains hard. There must have been a million times when I turned to Noah (No-bear) and said “wow there is NO WAY I can do that” but I pushed through and made it up all the mountains… and were not talking little kid mounds, I mean huge mountains that require much motivation (a thing I have little of in the desert). We stopped for a mid morning snack under a random tree and we weren’t alone. A scorpion joined us for lunch and we were all amazed. I have never actually seen a real live human killing scorpion up close, and now I never want to see it again. After our scare we trudged on and hiked up more mountains. Other than a fantastic two hour nap, the day was very long and very hard. We all appreciated seeing the camp site when we finally got there. Dinner that night included grilled turkey, hot dogs, pita, hummus, soup, salad, and Israeli salad. It was once again greatly appreciated and devoured within seconds. The next day started even earlier at 4:30 and once again Becky braided everyone’s hair, we davened, ate breakfast, and started our way on our last day of the trip. The beginning 4km were fairly easy since it was still fairly cold out, but once we got to a huge incline it started to get harder and harder to do. We all helped each other and made it up the hard parts of the mountain. The only negative from the hike today (other than being really hard) was getting lost from the group with Becky, Becca, and Lainie. We had to stop numerous times to pee (an actually fun experience in the desert once you get over the initial fear) and by the time we were all done we couldn’t see the group- so we followed the blue and white path until (about five or ten minutes later) we caught up to the whole group waiting for us… sorry about that guys… anyways after that we went up a huge mountain, one that everyone had trouble with. I was so grateful to get to the top that Lainie and I collapsed (after getting out my chocolate sandwich of course) and just over looked the view. Looking down from the top was gorgeous and (almost) worth the hike up. I felt so accomplished by the end! The trip wouldn’t have been complete without an AMAZING jeep ride at the end! It was like a personal rollercoaster! I rode with Lainie, Eric, Ethan, Stashia, and Judah. The guy passed back a ton of wafers for us to eat (they were greatly appreciated) and then we were off on a really fun adventure by jeep! It was so fast and bumpy-ahhhhh I loved every minute of it! I cannot even describe to you in words how much fun it was! I was smiling the whole way and wish I was back on it right now actually… Anyways that was very abridged version of desert survival but I’m exhausted and not in the normal funny typing mood… maybe ill go back and edit this after Tel Aviv (my friends and I are leaving to go to tel aviv in the morning…)… PS. As I side note from the desert adventure I learned that I love Jonny, David, Miri, Becky, Asaf, and many others (*cough* Jesse Turk*cough*).