They also had some guy teaching traditional dances and some DJ playing what had to be the biggest party he'd ever played (200 or so Americans at the kibbutz bar). It was fun stuff, and there was lots of drinking and some hooking up (obviously not me).

There was a lot of hooking up throughout the trip, actually. It was amazing how quickly everyone's long-term relationships back home turned into "open relationships," as people wanted to keep their options open. There were even hookups that happened when the whole bus was sleeping in the same big bedouin tent. One girl slept with our Israeli guard while on her period, and she had some four-year boyfriend back home. Ridiculous.

Anyway, during this period, we saw more stuff in the Golan heights, including on this big overlook where there used to be a military bunker. The Golan has been a big area of conflict, and it's still pretty militarized. Recall in the last set of phots the mine field that was still live. Anyway, some of these shots are just looking out from there, some are inside the bunker. The first picture below shows a mountain in the background. Somewhere on the left slope of the mountain is the border with Lebanon. The highest point in Israel is therefore at the border on that mountain, though the slope continues going up further on the Lebanese side. The shot of the kids in the bunker are a bunch of the UCF people, who were all pretty cool.

These shots are random places up there. One of the days up in that region, we went rafting on the Jordan River. Me and Pete took a two-person raft that was basically like an inflatable canoe. They mistranslated all rafts as "kayaks," which was funny. The rafting was pleasant and serene, with the exception of one big drop that I'd call a Class 3. If the water flowed faster, it would be a 4 or even 5.

It was mostly lazy, paddling to keep up with friends and me showing off my paddling skills from two summers of being a canoe instructor (amongst other summer campy things like lifeguarding, snake handling in a non-religious way, making smores and hot chocolate over a fire, fishing, etc). Anyway, the most interesting thing that happened while rafting was that at one point a large, pristine grapefruit floated by. I got Pete to pull it out of the water. I tried to convince him to eat it with me, and he peeled it but refused to eat it. So, I had to handle the whole thing myself. It was amazing. The sweetest, reddest grapefruit I've ever had, by far. The Jordan isn't the cleanest river, but hey, it had its peel on until it came to us.

A couple of these are in the parking lot outside the rafting place, showing Jake and Jenna. They were hilarious because Jake always refused to pose with any sort of normal expression. This made for lots of fun. Also shown below is a picture of a hookah outside at the first kibbutz. People smoked a lot of hookah ("nargila" in Hebrew) on this trip, and lots of people bought their own to bring back. We also played a lot of poker out there, and I left with more than I came with, although there were ups and downs.

Tzefat was a cool city. They had a really awesome old synagogue in an ornate style very different from all the others I'd seen. Apparently it was a Sephardic synagogue, most of the pieces of which were transported from Spain by Jews fleeing the Inquisition. There was also some random little girl crying behind a gate in front of mountains. It was a cool little town, and was one of the places in Israel that seemed the most different from the US.

Before going to Tzefat, we picked up eight Israeli soldiers, whose mission was to stay with us for several days and get to know us while we got to know them. It was like a one-way exchange student thing. The idea is that they convince us Israel is cool and the military is cool, and then we make Alia like the good little Zionists we should be, and come and live in Israel. We got four guys, four girls. Two of the guys in the group ended up hooking up with two of the Israeli soldiers. Anyway, they were all really cool (some very shy, though).

At some point we went to the factory and store for Naots brand shoes. They are a lot like Birkenstocks and sell for similar prices here. In the US their sandals are are $70-$90, and at the factory store they were like $55. Basically, the only reason we went there was for our leader Gary to stock up on sandals. They also had some of those ridiculous rubber clog type shoes that we modeled below.

One morning we went to the Israel-Lebanon border crossing in the North at Rosh Hanikra. Apparently US passports will get you right through the border, but Israelis have a lot of hassle getting through and need Visas. There are basically good relations with Lebanon, but border crossings are still pretty strict. I wanted to cross the border and stand on the other side, then come right back over, but our group leaders wouldn't let me because of security concerns. Note the sign saying "Military Area: No photography."

The border crossing is right next to the Meditteranean. On the shore and down from it is Rosh Hanikra. Rosh Hanikra is a group of chalk cliffs on the sea that have been eroded over time and have formed a network of grottoes underneath that are very pretty, with the sun streaming from the sea into the caves. To get down there, we took a cable car. At some point in history the British blasted through some of the cliffs in order to create a crossing (the mountains there were difficult to cross). Now they have a movie theater in one of the train caves that showed a film about the formation of the grottoes, and finished by spraying the audience with water when the surf is shown onscreen. Anyway, it was all very beautiful.