Wind!!!!

Kyle and I just got back from the Kinneret where we were doing some kiting for the last 3 days. The scenery is beautiful and the wind is strong! It is not the friendliest beach to kite at however. There is no sand, just rocks. We also got our first taste of the get-to-the-point Israeli way. I had heard that Israeli people could sometimes come across as impolite, but never really encountered it. Some of the kiters where real a-holes! The first day we were there was on Shabbat (Saturday, the day everyone goes to the beach!) and it was packed. There were about 60 kiters and 20 people on jet-skis. Not to mention about another 50 people in the water. This is all on a rocky beach about the size of one football field. It was like a weekend war zone! People yelling and getting mad at each other for crossing lines. Not exactly a relaxing day of kiteboarding. Sunday and today proved to be much better. The wind is really strong and the fresh water is a nice break for my eyes and mouth, as the Gulf of Mexico does not taste very nice. As of now we are going to try to plan the next couple of weeks. Later this week we are probably going to rent a car and travel through the northern parts of Israel. I will be sure to post what we are doing as soon as I can. On a side note, gas is over 7 shekls per liter. With some rough math that is over $7 a gallon. So don't get so mad next time you have to pay $4 per gallon, it could be worse : )

To the Sea or the City???

Well we officially have two apartments in Israel. Thats two more than we have in the U.S.! We have one in Herziliya and one on the Sea of Galilee. The one in Herziliya is by the Mediterranean and the other one is at the Sea of Galilee, which is actually a lake about 2 hours away. The kiteboarding is really good on the lake so we will be heading up there when it is windy and chilling in Herziliya during our down time. We met up with some of the kiteboarders I have been talking with on the internet and they have helped us out a lot. Its not what you know..... As for some other plans. We are considering going for a long weekend to some of the Greek Isles and also a road trip down to the Red Sea in southern Israel. Nothing really planned, just following the wind! Above right we have the view from on top of Masada during sunrise. To the right of the mountians is the lowest place on earth, The Dead Sea. That was crazy swimming in there! On the right is the Sea of Galilee....actually a lake......where Jesus is said to have walked on water......where Kyle and I will be flying over the water!! The one of me floating is in The Dead Sea, the waterfall is in another desert oasis that was by The Dead Sea. In the middle is one of Masada before sunrise and to the right is Kyle and I at the Western or Wailing Wall. Hope you enjoy and give me some feedback. Until next time, stay Sababa ( Slang for Cool) .

Phone ###

Just got a phone. I didn't want to because it kind of felt wrong having one while traveling, but it wasn't much more expensive than a phone card. Anyway, if anyone want to contact me my # is 054-9029116.

Getting Organized

Now the real fun begins! The birthrite part of the trip was absolutely amazing. We saw as much as one could possibly see in the ten days that we toured Israel. Each day we were up by 7 and visiting sites until sunset. It was very tiring, but an amazing experience. Last night we took the train from the airport to Tel-Aviv where we stayed with one of my friends roomates from college. His apartment is really small, but its two blocks from the beach so its all good. Today we are just relaxing and planning our next move. I am talking with one of the Israeli kiteboarders about getting an apartment on the Sea of Galilee for the next month. That will be our homebase and we will just take it from there. I have not been able to find a computer that has a connection for my sim card, so I can't upload any pics. However, some of the kids that returned to the states yesterday have a lot of pictures that they are going to send me. I will be sure to put them up as soon as I recieve them. I havn't really talked about the food that we are eating. You see, I love hummus. Israelis have hummus at breakfast, lunch and dinner. So I am pretty much in hummus heaven! The other foods are really good also. Shwarma is much like a gyro that can be found pretty much everywhere. Many different types of salads are also eaten with all of the meals. As for the language.....it is hard! We can kind of read hebrew, but that doesnt do us much good. Almost everyone speaks english, but it's always nice to try to learn the native tongue. I know some of the basics, toda (thank-you), Sababa (cool/its all good/no worries...). Hopefully we will be able to expand my vocabulary by more than a few words by the time we leave. Kyle doesnt want to write anything because he is short on words. So I will say for him, he is also having a great time!

Tel-Aviv

We have done a ton of things the last couple of days. We toured Jerusalem and the old city two days ago. Jerusalem is an amazing city with so much history. Inside the Old City we saw the Dome of the Rock, the Western Wall, the place where Jesus is said to have been crucified and the room that the last supper was in. There are winding roads and hidden alleys ways throughout the interior walls of the Old City. One could easily get lost in the maze of buildings and underground walkways. The Old City is divided into 4 quarters, Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Armenian. We were required to stay in the Jewish quarter. Not by law, but for safety reasons. After Jerusalem we drove to the desert where Masada is located. We woke up the next day at 3:30 A.M. and hiked the mountain to watch the sunrise. Masada is a beautiful mountain that overlooks The Dead Sea. It was here that the Jews made their last stand against the Romans about 2,000 years ago. Remains of the buildings are still there today. After the sunrise we hiked down and went to another awesome desert oasis. It was amazing that there was so much dry land and then this beautiful stream with a series of 5 large waterfalls. I was sure to get some pics of the famous pose in front of all of them!! : ) After that we swam, or rather floated, in The Dead Sea. It was the craziest feeling! It feels like zero gravity in the water. If you ever go make sure you have no cuts and don't get it in your eyes! I found that I had cuts I did not even know were there. It was so cool. You could go deep and put your hands above your head and float almost half-way out of the water without tredding. After that we headed deep into the desert to sleep in a bedouin camp. We rode some camels around the camp when we first got there. Next time I need to make sure I wear my Wranglers for the bumpy ride! The desert was super hot during the day, but cooled down nicely at night. Yesterday we arrived in Tel-Aviv and got our first taste of the Mediterranean. A rather large jelly fish welcomed me with his tenticles as soon as I got in. Kyle pissed on my back and made it all better. Just kidding, I peed on my own back. No, actually I rubbed some vinegar on it and it was all good. Well, got to go. We are heading back towards Jerusalem now. Tomorrow everyone else goes home and Kyle and I start off on our own adventure!!

Day 3?

Not sure what day it is. Spending all that time at the airports got me all messed up. Anyway here is a little update. We arrived in Jerusalem earlier today and it is a beautiful city from what we have seen. We arrived just before sunset so we did not tour around too much. Right now we are in the new city and tomorrow we will be going to the old city where all of the history is. Jerusalem is the one of the holiest cities for the worlds 3 largest religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. I am not the most observant Jew, but there is definitely a certain spiritual feeling from being in this city. Today we talked with an Arab-Israeli woman who gave a unique insight into her situation as a Muslim in a Jewish state. For those of you who do not know, Israel was created as a Jewish State in 1948. Since then it has been a pretty crazy history. It is really cool to learn about this history from first hand accounts. Arab-Israelis are people of Arab decent who where in what was known as Palistine before Israel was created in 1948. When Israel was given its independence in 1948 the Arabs that stayed were granted Israeli citizenship. Today, they live in separate "Arab" villages scattered throughout the country. Discrimination and un-equal treatment exists even now. Talking with this woman about her feelings on the issue was great. I will not go into too much detail about things like this as they are very complicated even for those who are involved. If you would like to find out more you can do some research on some of the things and places that I will mention. Each place we visit we are meeting and talking with Israeli people about different subjects. Obviously Israel and the Middle-East are in the news almost everyday. It has been really educational to learn about these situations first hand. Israel is actually at war with Gaza at the moment . I bet some of you did not know that......I didn't. They are also bordered by two countries that do not even recognize their statehood (Syria and Lebanon) and two in which they are in a "cold peace" (Egypt and Jordan). The situation here is unique in that Israel is in the middle-east and religions and cultures have clashed here for thousands of years. Talking with people and thinking about ways to solve these problems has made me realize just how complicated it is. On a different note, today we also visited some natural springs in the northern area of Israel. Israel is a small country. Only about a 6 hour drive top to bottom and 2 across. I find this is the easiest way to get a feel for just how tiny it is as we all drive everyday. The springs were beautiful. It was like a desert oasis. Mountains were on both sides and palm trees lined the banks of several large pools for about the span of 1/2 a mile. The pace of the trip has been fast so that we can see and do as much as possible in the short amount of time we are here. Tomorrow we will go to the old city and tour the many historical places there. Will update you as soon as I can. Internet is like 10 shekls per minute which is like 3 dollars. So this was like a $30. I put a lot thought into these writings!! Just kidding, not too much! The pics on here are of the spring we went to and the other one is of one of our guard/guides named Galid, which means eternal happiness in hebrew. He was in the Israeli military, as all citizens are required to serve 3 years for guys and 2 for girls when they turn 18. He carries the gun everywhere, including the bars! Not something your would see in the states. However, Israel is safe despite what you may see on the news. At no time have I felt even the slightest bit threatened. Enjoy and Happy Fathers Day!!

We Made It!!!!

We finally made it to Israel! We spent the night in the international terminal at JFK. Kyle and I slept on a bench in the food court. It was not the best night of sleep I have ever had. We were not able to get on the first flight for stand-by but made the second one that night. We arrived in Israel yesterday afternoon. An Israeli girl named Gia picked us up and took us to meet up with the group. We are in northern Israel, by the Sea of Galilee. This is actually a lake, and is where Jesus is said to have walked on water for those of you who read the Bible. The area we are in now is really beautiful. It is pretty hot during the day (about 90), but cools down nicely at night (60's). The Sea of Galilee is one of the places that we plan on coming back to for some kiteboarding. I didn't bring my connector for the camera, but I will try to put up some pics as soon as I can. We are 7 hours ahead of EST so I have changed all of the posts to show the time that it is here. It's good to finally be here and I will be updating as soon as I can.

Hitting the road.......Again........

As of now we are about to go to the Atl. airport to fly to NYC. We will arrive in NYC at 8:30 tonight. Next, we have to go to our Israir gate and fly stand-by to Tel-Aviv. Should be interesting! Wish us luckkl, and hopefully the next time I write it is from Israel : )

Mother @!*#%!*$

Nature that is.....Well, she had different plans for us last night. Storms across the SE and in NYC delayed our flight for 5 hours yesterday. We finally left the gate at 11:30 with time to make our connection in NYC. However, we left the gate and then pulled right back in!! The pilot had apparently worked over the FAA regulated amount of hours allowed. So we needed a new one. He would not arrive until 2 AM, putting us passed our connection flight. Currently our bags are in NYC and I am writing this from my Mom's house. There is a flight to Israel Thursday that they are going to try to get us on, but nothing for sure. I hope the rest of our trip is as exciting as this!!! lol.......

Hitting the road!!

It's time to go! Bags are packed, Lonely Planet:Israel has been purchased and all necessary precautions have been made. We filled up the gas tank and are ready to make the journey in "The Beast" (Pictured above). For those of you who do not know us, I am on the left (Chase) and Kyle on the right. One way to tell us apart is I am the taller one. I am 6'4 and Kyle is 6'3 and 4/5. Israel is 6,447 miles away, so according to my calculations if we get 14 mpg and gas is $4.oo per gallon it will cost us $1,842 one way. Still cheaper than flying both of us out there. We would also save about $250 in extra baggage charges because of our kiteboarding gear (no joke). Unfortunately the Atlanta to Tel-Aviv land bridge has not been completed so we have been forced to fly. The Beast will now be able to get some much needed rest! We fly out of Atlanta tonight at 10 pm and arrive in NYC around 12. Our flight to Israel departs at 4 am from NYC and we arrive in Tel-Aviv after a 13 hour flight at 9:40 T.I.T. (Time in Tel-Aviv)