Eilat

So much has happened in the past few days, I hardly know where to start. The most exciting part was definitely our trip to Eilat. Just like everything else with the course we took, the day was jam-packed and pretty intense. It was also daylight savings the night before, so Gidon (our instructor) showed up an hour early...oops. We started by going to the Mariculture and Marine Biotechnology Center, a government-run facility that is tasked with finding economic and "environmentally friendly" ways of producing fish and other sea life that can then be exported. It was pretty interesting to see some of the methods that they are trying, but it felt weird to be in a place that is funded with the intent of exploiting marine life. I suppose that's how people make money, though...

We then went to the aquarium and the underwater observatory where we saw some really great corals and fish. We also saw sea turtles, sting rays, and sharks. The observatory was built in the late 1960s basically into the reef. I don't know how they managed to do it with destroying everything around it, but coral and all of the other marine life is pretty amazing to watch.

The best part was snorkeling, though. We met up with a PhD student who is working on an artificial reef - it is a cement structure and corals have been transplanted onto it. It is currently in the Gulf, so we swam out to it and then looked at other parts of the reef. Well, I'm not sure how good a look I actually got at it. Conditions were pristine, a hot (104 F) clear day, but I couldn't wear my glasses under he goggles and I don't have contacts. The parts that I could see were spectacular, but I know I was missing things. Gidon tried to point out a bottom feeder that was hiding in the sand. It was a nice gesture, but I had little hope of spotting something 20 meters below. I did try to dive down to see it, but attempting to go underwater with fins is not as easy as it looks.

It was also really incredible to see Gidon in action. He seemed so natural in the water, and it was clear that this is really his passion. It came across to an extent in class, but you could tell he was in his element among the corals. It was fantastic enough just to see parts of the reef, but it was really special because we got to see it with someone who has such a deep appreciation and love for it. Ok, I'm done with the sap now.

After a long day of being talked at, walking in the sun, and swimming, we ended the trip with dinner at a Bedouin restaurant. It brought me back to my summer in Jordan - Turkish coffee, tea with sage, amazing flatbread (not pita), hummus, and ful! We sat on these disgusting old couches outside and feasted on this amazing food. And we finished it all off with some nargila.

Of course, no trip to Eilat is complete without a visit to the mall. We did that too, for about an hour. Mostly to change money and go to the pharmacy for some essentials that can't be found on the kibbutz. But still, it epitomized Eilat - tourism galore. But you always know you're in Israel, as we had to go through security to get in.

It is actually quite amazing to be at the southern tip of Israel. You aren't more than a few kilometers from either the Jordanian or the Egyptian border, and you can see Saudi Arabia in the distance. There is such opportunity for collaboration and for that area to become a truly international place, but alas, politics and history get in the way.

I'll leave it at that. I'll post some pictures soon, but now I have to pack because we're moving out of our rooms first thing tomorrow and I'm heading up to Jerusalem for the hag.

- M