Coughing Up a Storm

It's official. I have taken my first sick day of the year. With a chest cold, I am holed up in my bed, coughing, sneezing, and resting. People have called it the 'Jerusalem Chill' aparently I am not the first victim of the season...

This past week has been like all the others, gone before you know it. But it was a good week. We went on Tiyul to the Negev (trip to the desert) for 3 days. There was some incredible hiking. Each day there were 2 options a more strenuous hike and a less challenging one. I did the strenube the not so proud recipient of the Jerusalem chill. The names of the hikes were the 'Big Fin', Nachal Gov, and Nachal Zevaiim. The Big Fin was just that a mountain with a narrow, steep ascent whoes shape strongly resembles that of a fin. Once at the top we overlooked the Machtesh HaGadol (the big Machtesh). Turns out Machtesh is a term used by geologists all over the world. Similar to the appearance of a crater it is formed by immense water pressure eroding sandstone buried under limestone. There are only 5 in the world, 3 in the Negev and 2 in the Sinai. Nachal Gov I think was my favorite hike. It was full of ropes, ladders, and rock slides. Then the final day we hiked Nachal Zevaiim. A 7 hour hike where we were told to be prepared to get a little wet. About 4 hours in we were all standing waist deep in water!

We got back Thursday evening, I went to the grocery store and then headed home. after a shower and being VERY achy I got ready for my out of town guests. Rach Margolies and Josh Klemons came in from Arad where they are doing the WUJS program. I stayed up chatting with them til about 1am and then headed to bed. In the morning we went to check out a breakfast place for pancakes (its no Portage Bay, but pretty good) met up with Annie and walked to the Hebrew U. stadium for the Jerusalem Pride Rally. We bumped into Jay Rosen, Tali Golan, David Bernay, Lisa Stella, and others. It was a good way to spend the morning especially after all the controversy that had been going on about it. There was only one very minor disturbance, but it was overshadowed by the beautiful weather, friendly people and a performance by HaDag Nachash (popular Israeli hip hop/rock group). After 3 songs Rach and I headed home to cook Shabbat dinner. Shabbat was really nice, 11 people for dinner and then lunch at Jenny and Max's.

Saturday night Annie, Jenny, and Esty all came over to eat leftovers and watch Grey's Anatomy. It was the first time since Monday evening I was able to just sit. I made it to school in the morning but after 2 hours of coughing my way through the beit midrash I decided to go back to bed. So here I am. I am planning on going back tomorrow and just hope this cough begins to go away!