4th July - Sunday
Everybody was exhausted so there was a subconscious collective sleep in. We start the day late with a seminar on politics, geography and whatnot in Israel and the Middle East. I think my brain has had all the information it can take at the moment and I don't really absorb anything, just sort of space out.
Our bus rides between places take us through endless sparse terrain. The land is brown, rocky, sandy; the sea is blue, and the mountains seem to stretch on forever. Our first stop is the City of David, where we start by eating felafel, and Inbar shows Yael and I her favourite tree - the pomegranate.
"Sisters! Come, I want to show you my favourite tree... It's like a crown."
Yeaaah... we are in a tree.
Everyone then heads indoors to watch a short movie on the history of the place, and I stay outside with the soldiers (me: informationally exhausted, them: just exhausted).
They are very easy to get along with, even though they're all (obviously) different people. Asaf is a clown and we get along like a house on fire, or some other more sensical metaphor; Tzlil and Adi are more shy but super sweet, and Mali reminds me a little of me in some ways, but then again she is a shooting instructor (!!!).
Asaf + Inbar
Mali
Adi
Tzlil
The city has an underground water system, kind of like a shallow tunnel of water in a very narrow cavelike passageway. We are supposed to walk through it - it takes about 45 minutes and I am really reluctant. It's supposed to be very claustrophobic, and I am somewhat anxious. Inbar tells me it's amazing and refreshing - she is really trying to convince me, so in the spirit of being an Israeli, I decide to brave it.
actual darkness
It's very narrow and low at times, but walking through the cold water is beautiful, and afterwards I'm glad I did it. I think being so small helped in making it not so scary.
The bus rides pass in a blur as I continue to nod in and out of consciousness, dozing against the window. Marc is so tolerant of his sleepy bus companion and has taken to calling me 'sleeping beauty' when he talks to Tim and Yael.
We ride in an armoured bus to the city of Chevron, and the bus driver asks us not to stand because the little windows at the top are not bulletproof. Weird.
Chevron is a holy place to the Jewish people because it's (apparently) where the forefathers and mothers are buried, but of course there is some kind of political dispute about who owns the land, so we are escorted by an extra guard aside from Inbar. Our tour guide also carries a gun. It's a very strange place, old and stony - it kind of gives me the creeps, and not in a good way. The only people we see are religious people praying, and we have been asked to wear long skirts and cover our shoulders which totally shits me.
I suppose a place like this will always be dangerous, for as long as it remains rooted in belief. There will always be those willing to kill to attack it, and there will always be those willing to kill to defend it.
Only a few days later do we find out about the huge controversy our trip to Chevron has caused - we are the first birthright group to EVER have been allowed to go, and it turns out that the approval we were given was an oversight. We find out that Chevron is actually in the West Bank, and that there is now media from all over the world contacting our group leaders for statements and information about our trip there.
A video of our group, accompanied by a sort-of article.
At Chevron, we discover the beauty of the continuous shooting setting on my camera.
(I have so many sets of these silly things... I must learn how to make gifs)
Saturday was supposed to have been our night out, but because of our tour through the Kotel tunnels it has been changed to Sunday. Daniel and Yonit are super helpful in organising a fun evening for us, and I feel kind of bad when everybody starts whingeing that we have to be back on the bus at 11:15pm. Yonit and Daniel argue with our grumpy bus driver and eventually organise it so that we can take taxis home.
(we sit on the bus being beautiful while they sort it out)
Mali, Adi and Tzlil mention that there is a waffle shop nearby so I walk with them to indulge my sweet tooth. Apart from the fact that it's still strange to walk around streets where everybody is Jewish, it's even stranger to enter a waffle shop and see people eating desserts and chilling next to their rifles.
Because of the kosher factor here (no mixing of meat and milk), some places have non-dairy icecream and such. This was one of those places, so the girls decided to go elsewhere. Yael, Tara, Daniella, Inbar and I walked the shopping strip for a while and haggled with some Israeli shopkeepers, then went and found everybody else at a bar down the road.
Tania, Tania + Margarita
With only an hour or so, everybody started drinking and getting into the free hookahs - I was just happy we found a dance floor that played some Weezy. While some people got a little loose, most of us were just happy to actually be out in the world.
I sit outside for a little while with Joel and Adam (who is one of the most with-it 19 year olds I've met), and feel pretty good about being social instead of overanalysing it and getting cynical. At midnight, we Cinderella it back to the meeting point and take a taxi home. Our cabbie is Arabic and laughs at Tara's drunken attempts at Hebrew. It's funny how in Australia I feel like it's really unusual to randomly encounter somebody Jewish, whereas here it seems strange to encounter somebody who isn't.
Daniella, Yael, Tara and I manage to haggle the cheapest cab ride out of the group. Back at the hotel, most continue drinking. I eat some cereal and talk nonsense with Tara and Asaf, then bed.
(brand new says:
everything that i own starts to pile up like bones)
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