Live from my apartment:
Carra: Rachel, there’s a cockroach in the bathroom.
Me: Ok, here’s the plan. I’ll try to catch it with this plastic container, but if it’s too fast and I miss, you get to kill it with your shoe.
Carra: I’m scared.
Me: Too bad we’re not Israeli. Then we’d be used to this sort of thing.
Carra: No, actually, I don’t think that there’s any way that this could not be terrifying.
Last week, Pardes went on a tiyul (trip) to the Negev (the desert in southern Israel) from Tues-Thurs. It was nice to take a break from classes and get to spend some time with other Pardes students in a new environment. I decided to try out the “challenging” hikes, and I’m really glad I did. I thought that I’d be the puffing and panting slowpoke, but the hikes weren’t actually all that challenging, and I got to spend 7 or 8 consecutive hours a day outside—which for me was the best part of the trip. I felt more energized than I have in a long time. It’s amazing what sunshine and exercise can do.
The first day, we hiked in Nachal Mishmar. Nachal means river, but this one was dried up. We started out hiking in the riverbed, then climbed up and looped back along the rim. At some point during the ascent, we turned around and there was the Dead Sea behind us.
The second day we hiked to and up a maktesh. Often translated as a crater, a maktesh is a unique geological formation. Essentially, you’ve got a hill/mountain where one side is steeper than the other, and the top layer of rock is harder than the rock underneath it. Water flows down the steep side, slowly cutting its way through the hard layer, until it reaches the soft layer underneath. It then carves out the soft rock underneath, until the whole thing collapses on itself and drains out to a wadi. As our guide put it, imagine pouring water on a soft roll with a hard crust.
If you asked me before last week to play word association with the word “desert,” I probably would have said, “sand.” Now, I would say “rocks, rocks, rocks.” Throughout the second day, there were many times when the path was nonexistant, just rocks and rocks in the desert, and sometimes a rock with a trail blaze on it. The best was the end of the hike, when we first had to climb down sheer, smooth rock at about a 60 degree angle for quite a ways. Not exactly my definition of the word “trail.” I did it crab-walk style.
The third day, we hiked at Ma’ale Akrubim. The descent down at the end was on a road that the Romans had partially hewed out of the rock.
On Friday, my roommates and I volunteered for an organization called משולחן לשולחן (from Table to Table). They collect unused/leftover food (from weddings, large events, etc) and donate it to food pantries and soup kitchens around the country. They also harvest fruit and vegetables from farms that otherwise would go to waste. Along with some other Pardes students and a whole crew of (mostly young American and British) volunteers, we went to a kibbutz near Rechovot to pick clementines and oranges. Another beautiful several hours spent outside. Picking clementines fell into a rhythm that was really relaxing. It felt great to be actively doing something with my hands that both connected me to agriculture/the earth and also helped provide food to those who need it.
On a somewhat related note, my apartment recently joined a CSA. So nice to get fresh, local veggies delivered every other week! A bit of an eclectic selection (beets, kohlrabi, and daikon, all in one box?)--it will force me to experiment with new recipes. :-)
The pictures are a little out of chronological order...
hike 1: view from the top of the Nahal, looking at the Dead Sea
hike 1: the Nahal
hike 3: roomates about to head down the Roman road
hike 3: mountain goats!
hike 2: view on the way down from the maktesh
hike 2: Maktesh!
hike 2: more mountain goats.
Carra: Rachel, there’s a cockroach in the bathroom.
Me: Ok, here’s the plan. I’ll try to catch it with this plastic container, but if it’s too fast and I miss, you get to kill it with your shoe.
Carra: I’m scared.
Me: Too bad we’re not Israeli. Then we’d be used to this sort of thing.
Carra: No, actually, I don’t think that there’s any way that this could not be terrifying.
Last week, Pardes went on a tiyul (trip) to the Negev (the desert in southern Israel) from Tues-Thurs. It was nice to take a break from classes and get to spend some time with other Pardes students in a new environment. I decided to try out the “challenging” hikes, and I’m really glad I did. I thought that I’d be the puffing and panting slowpoke, but the hikes weren’t actually all that challenging, and I got to spend 7 or 8 consecutive hours a day outside—which for me was the best part of the trip. I felt more energized than I have in a long time. It’s amazing what sunshine and exercise can do.
The first day, we hiked in Nachal Mishmar. Nachal means river, but this one was dried up. We started out hiking in the riverbed, then climbed up and looped back along the rim. At some point during the ascent, we turned around and there was the Dead Sea behind us.
The second day we hiked to and up a maktesh. Often translated as a crater, a maktesh is a unique geological formation. Essentially, you’ve got a hill/mountain where one side is steeper than the other, and the top layer of rock is harder than the rock underneath it. Water flows down the steep side, slowly cutting its way through the hard layer, until it reaches the soft layer underneath. It then carves out the soft rock underneath, until the whole thing collapses on itself and drains out to a wadi. As our guide put it, imagine pouring water on a soft roll with a hard crust.
If you asked me before last week to play word association with the word “desert,” I probably would have said, “sand.” Now, I would say “rocks, rocks, rocks.” Throughout the second day, there were many times when the path was nonexistant, just rocks and rocks in the desert, and sometimes a rock with a trail blaze on it. The best was the end of the hike, when we first had to climb down sheer, smooth rock at about a 60 degree angle for quite a ways. Not exactly my definition of the word “trail.” I did it crab-walk style.
The third day, we hiked at Ma’ale Akrubim. The descent down at the end was on a road that the Romans had partially hewed out of the rock.
On Friday, my roommates and I volunteered for an organization called משולחן לשולחן (from Table to Table). They collect unused/leftover food (from weddings, large events, etc) and donate it to food pantries and soup kitchens around the country. They also harvest fruit and vegetables from farms that otherwise would go to waste. Along with some other Pardes students and a whole crew of (mostly young American and British) volunteers, we went to a kibbutz near Rechovot to pick clementines and oranges. Another beautiful several hours spent outside. Picking clementines fell into a rhythm that was really relaxing. It felt great to be actively doing something with my hands that both connected me to agriculture/the earth and also helped provide food to those who need it.
On a somewhat related note, my apartment recently joined a CSA. So nice to get fresh, local veggies delivered every other week! A bit of an eclectic selection (beets, kohlrabi, and daikon, all in one box?)--it will force me to experiment with new recipes. :-)
The pictures are a little out of chronological order...
hike 1: view from the top of the Nahal, looking at the Dead Sea
hike 1: the Nahal
hike 3: roomates about to head down the Roman road
hike 3: mountain goats!
hike 2: view on the way down from the maktesh
hike 2: Maktesh!
hike 2: more mountain goats.
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