Bedouin tents

Please excuse any spelling/grammatical errors, these were written on my phone during a bus ride. 

2/22/14

Today was a relaxing kind of day. We woke up late, had services outside, then headed off to the Dead Sea where we spent most of our day at the Ein Gedi spa. Before I get into telling about that, I just want to say that it was so cool to be having services and all you had to do was turn around to see Masada right there. Okay, now back to the dead see. After we got there I'm sure you can all guess what we did first. Did you guess right? It was mud! After covering ourselves in the mud, then we walked down to the Dead Sea and the floating began. We rode the little train back up to the spa and ate lunch. After lunch I went with my friend Jenna and we layed in the sun to dry off a little more. Can you believe that they don't have the pool open because it's winter? It was like 80 degrees out and everyone was in shorts, tank tops, and bathing suits. What type of a winter is that?? Anyways, then I went and hung out with some friends in the shade with some couches they had and got some ice cream then went upstairs to shower and get the salt off. We had like 30 minutes left after that so I went back down to the couches and took a cat nap with Ilana and Andrew. We got back on the busses and drove about 2-3 hours to the Bedouin tents. We set up our stuff in our respective sides of the tent and then went for Havdallah and dinner. The food was so good! And it was so  fun getting to eat on the little mats on the ground in the tent! After dinner was bonfire time followed by star gazing (because what else do you do in the middle of the desert?). It felt like a mix of camp and camping. 

2/23/14

I don't recommend sleeping on the ground, even on a little mattress it is still extremely uncomfortable. We woke up and got ready then went to breakfast. Chocolate spread on pita? Seems like a healthy breakfast to me! My group got to talk to a Bedouin first. He showed us how they grind coffee, played some music, and told us about their culture. Next was...camel rides! I rode with Chloe and we named our camel after one of the J-Hist teachers. It was a lot of fun! Then we went to the little school/plaza by Bengorions grave. One of my madrahim used to do a program there so she give us a little tour. After some free time there, we got on the bus to Gadna where we will be until Thursday afternoon. I'm excited but a little nervous too.