Back in the (donkey) saddle

This morning—and by morning I mean noon because that’s when 2/3 of us woke up—we saw on the news that an 8.9 earthquake had hit off of Japan and caused tsunamis in Japan (and the tsunamis were aimed to hit Hawaii and even California in a number of hours). The footage was mind-blowing: a mass of rolling black (ocean water) coursing steadily across the beach, barriers, and finally farms as it pressed inland. Cars and even houses were swept into its flow. By now (some 6 hours later) the videos are even more insane. Ships being swished off course and getting stuck under a bridge. A major concrete bridge being demolished. A sea of roiling cars.
It seems like every time I leave the country for an extended time, something intense happens on the world stage. I was in France when Hurricane Katrina happened in 2005, and it was so crazy hearing about what was happening, and being so far away. This was particularly true since my sister was in Houston, which was really close to the action and was involved in the recovery (refugees were sent to the Astrodome, etc.)

Then in the summer of 2009 when Carla and I went to South America, Michael Jackson died basically when we were in the airport to leave. Even though that’s not exactly a “disaster” it was a big piece of news that Americans were following closely, and we were far away from it all. And now this. I feel so sorry for the Japanese tourists I met just a few days ago—because this is all taking place in their home, and they’re far away, and are probably terrified about what may have happened to their homes, friends, and family. What if they no longer have a home to go back to? Are they grateful to have been spared, or sorry to have been away from their communities during this crucial time?

Putting that aside for a moment, I will give a quick synopsis of my last almost-week.
I arrived in Israel about six days ago. That is unbelievable!! I can’t believe how much has taken place in just six days! The first thing I did after I arrived was find Carla in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv. Then we got to catch up on the last few weeks since we’d been able to talk last, while walking toward Tel Aviv to Maya’s place. It was great to see Maya! It had been over a year since I saw her last. Maya and I met on a Birthright trip in 2003, and we have been long-distance friends ever since. In college I would often join her family for holidays at their home in LA, and since graduating I have seen her in Berkeley (where she went to college) and in New York, where she recently lived for two years.

Carla’s new friend Eve joined us (they just finished a Birthright trip together) and the four of us went out for dinner and dancing to celebrate Maya’s birthday the next day. Even though it was supposedly 7 hours earlier on my body’s clock, I had slept maybe 5 hours in the previous 36 hours, and that was in small increments, so I was really havig to make an effort to stay awake and cheerful. We went to bed in the wee hours, after bar hopping with some of Maya’s friends who work in the foreign service.

Sunday we woke up at noon and went through the market on our way to the beach, where we picnicked, talked and napped for a few hours. We had tea in a nice café before going home and getting ready for another little birthday party at more friends’ house.

After all that I had another late night, this time probably due to jet lag. I was in bed by 1 but probably didn’t sleep till 4… and then we woke up at 6:30 to catch a bus to Eilat, in the south of Israel. I slept some on the bus. In Eilat we took a cab to the border, crossed into Jordan, and took a private car a few hours to Wadi Musa, the town right by Petra. That night we ended up befriending some English girls who sold us half of their 2-day tickets (tickets to Petra are 50 JD for one day and 55 for two, aka $70-77. Really expensive, but there are no controls against different people using the same ticket on subsequent days, so we were able to pay about $35 each for a day there). We also got chummy with some of the hostel owners when we started a dance party to go with their music making.

Our day in Petra was intense. We woke up at 6:30 and were in the park by 7:30, and we walked practically the whole time until 5:30 that night. My feet were really unhappy by the end. Petra was amazing and it was so good that we went that day (and only that day) because the next day it was windy and cold and everything was blanketed in fog—the park wouldn’t have been as pretty.

On Wednesday we slept in, had a chill morning, and then took a private car to a hostel in Dana Nature Reserve, which was a beautiful canyon. We hiked that evening for some 4 hours (feet were angry again) and got back just as the light was fading and the weather was getting really cold and windy. The hostel there was even more awesome than the first, so we stayed up late and had another dance party. The next day the weather was really intimidating, so we didn’t do much but get in the car and go back to Israel. That was yesterday. And we ended up partying till 4:30 this morning with amazing Israelis!! It was one of the top 5 party nights of my life! Then I woke up at 9 this morning and went to see Eilat again by day, and then Carla and I went to a beach that was supposed to be good for snorkeling, but it turned out to be really, really cold so though I went snorkeling for some 20 minutes, mostly we just sat on the beach and relaxed.

Tomorrow we will go back to Tel Aviv. Even though the pace of our trip has been fast, I’m loving being able to see so many places!