or rather, it will be visiting the dead sea, as i'm headed there tomorrow for one last 'shanti shanti' shabbat before school begins sunday. i'm bringing chocolate, coffee, a yoga mat, shabbat candlesticks, the fishtail lace scarf (FLS from now on, i'm getting carpal tunnel syndrome typing that out, although I realize I just made it worse by typing that out. Aaah! The cyclical nature of life bites me in the ass again!), some new and luscious Koigu socks--my first pair ever, and oh! the lusciousness! the color! the everything! They are intended for my mom for her yearly Hanukkah socks, but since she doesn't know I'm making them for her, she won't know that she didn't get them, right? Oh, and hiking shoes to stroll around the nature preserve that's next to the youth hostel, and a swimsuit for the Dead Sea, and every intention of relaxing, also.
Here are some pictures, via this helpful website. Ignore the bad English.
Not too shabby, huh? The Dead Sea is about 40 minutes outside of Jerusalem, in the Midbar Yehuda/ Judean Desert, and close to Qumran, Masada, and all sorts of interesting stuff. The waters and the mud are considered to be a great treatment for all sorts of skin disorders, and it's next to impossible to get a sunburn there, although for the sake of all your bits, you really don't want to stay in the water for too long. And don't even think about shaving down there. Just don't.
I'm really looking forward to it. Because of the war, I haven't left Jerusalem since I got back almost two months ago--no day trips to Tel Aviv's beaches, no relaxing nothing up North. (It's still hard, really hard, to picture what it must look like after all the rocket damage. The Jewish National Fund says it will take more than 60 years for the forests to recover.)
And just to throw some knitting in here, I ordered both Rusted Root and Green Gables from Zephyr Style today. I have stash yarn earmarked for both already; now I just need to wait for the Denises I bought off Ebay to get here. (Do not even get me started on the impossibility of finding needles here. You just can't. It is a total failure of the Zionist enterprise. (Just kidding, I love me that there Zionism!) ) I'm looking forward to both, since I've decided that this year is the Year of Lace and Non-Sock Items. Catchy title, no? That's why Hallmark wants me so damn bad, fer my rocking skill as a wordsmith.
Anyways--how about a competition? I'll send a postcard from Israel--funny, pretty, cheesy, whatever--to the first (non-spam) commenter on the blog. C'mon! Be the envy of all your friends! Make it look like you traveled the world when really you just surfed the Internet in your cubicle!
Shalom, Y'all--
Jessie
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