All 80 of us students on top. This was our 'silly' picture
1 .a.m. Bang Bang Bang! "Good Morning! Prepare for your departure." I don't believe I have ever been less excited to wake up. Those hotel men came and woke us up WAY to early. I rolled out of bed, put my jeans, jacket, and headlamp on, and I was ready. I easily could have slept another 40 minutes and been fine. Because we had time to kill, my roommate and I went and layed by the pool and looked at the stars. We eventually went and picked up our sack breakfast (3 rolls, a hard boiled egg, and a bag of chips). As many times as I have eaten crap at 1 a.m. I couldn't force myself to do it this time. A short drive later, and we were at the base of Sinai. I had been a little worried about this hike because, well, exercising is not something I perfer to do in my spare, or for that matter, structured time. I was surprised at how many people got up this early to hike up to the top of the mountain. As we made our way up, all the bedouin men kept trying to sell us camel rides. Camels are smelly, grumpy animals. I got snapped at by three just on the way up. Right as I started the hike up, a girl from my group named Heidi came and asked me a million questions and we ended up talking the whole way up. She is an exercise science major so she totally loves this kind of stuff. I don't think she knows it, but she kept me going at a good pace and made the trip up fun and short. After about 2 hours of hiking, 750 steps, 2,285 meters, and one bag of pretzels later, I made it to the top. It was still dark when I reached the top but I found some of my friends and sat by them. Just as I was sitting down, my friend accidentally spilt her water bottle on a European couple snuggling below her. He kept yelling and yelling at her saying "You must understand, you need to be careful! You need to put the lid on your bottle! You must turn your lights out!" At first I thought it was kind of funny, but when he didn't stop after 5 minutes, I was getting annoyed. Then my friend came by me becasue she was embarrased and felt bad. The Webb blood in me began to boil. The headlamp dad got me was the crown jewel of the hike. It illuminted the whole path and blinded anyone looking in my general direction. Just to irritate the man more, I flipped my headlamp on full power and looked right at him. This sent him into another bout of complaints. I just laughed. Then another one of my friends nudged me and said "Mikael, be nice." To this I replied "Moses would just drop it is someone spilt water on him." then the guilt hit me. I was in a holy place, on top of the mountain where the ten commandments were recieved, and here I was being spiteful. I turned my head lamp off, apologized, and decided to just let it go. For the first time since coming over here, I was freezing. We all were. It was also the first time we could all snuggle up and not feel guilty. You would think none of us students had ever had human contact before. Since we are not allowed to even give high fives in many areas, let alone hug, snuggling for warmth was so much more than snuggling for warmth for many. Then the sun began to rise. It was absolutely beautiful. If there were one thing i could change, it would have been less people up there. After the sun rose, our religion professors talked to us for a few minutes concerning the importance of where we were and what mountains represent. We sang a few hymns, and then made our way back down the mountain. A group of us started talking to some Kenyan's on the way down. They were very kind and it was so fun to become at least a little bit familiar with another culture. When we got back to the hotel, we were allowed to swim for a while before loading up for the long drive back to Jerusalem. And a long drive it was. Although I was not ready to leave the adventure of Egypt behind, I was ready to step back into a modern country again where I can drink from the tap.
All 80 of us students on top. This was our 'silly' picture
1 .a.m. Bang Bang Bang! "Good Morning! Prepare for your departure." I don't believe I have ever been less excited to wake up. Those hotel men came and woke us up WAY to early. I rolled out of bed, put my jeans, jacket, and headlamp on, and I was ready. I easily could have slept another 40 minutes and been fine. Because we had time to kill, my roommate and I went and layed by the pool and looked at the stars. We eventually went and picked up our sack breakfast (3 rolls, a hard boiled egg, and a bag of chips). As many times as I have eaten crap at 1 a.m. I couldn't force myself to do it this time. A short drive later, and we were at the base of Sinai. I had been a little worried about this hike because, well, exercising is not something I perfer to do in my spare, or for that matter, structured time. I was surprised at how many people got up this early to hike up to the top of the mountain. As we made our way up, all the bedouin men kept trying to sell us camel rides. Camels are smelly, grumpy animals. I got snapped at by three just on the way up. Right as I started the hike up, a girl from my group named Heidi came and asked me a million questions and we ended up talking the whole way up. She is an exercise science major so she totally loves this kind of stuff. I don't think she knows it, but she kept me going at a good pace and made the trip up fun and short. After about 2 hours of hiking, 750 steps, 2,285 meters, and one bag of pretzels later, I made it to the top. It was still dark when I reached the top but I found some of my friends and sat by them. Just as I was sitting down, my friend accidentally spilt her water bottle on a European couple snuggling below her. He kept yelling and yelling at her saying "You must understand, you need to be careful! You need to put the lid on your bottle! You must turn your lights out!" At first I thought it was kind of funny, but when he didn't stop after 5 minutes, I was getting annoyed. Then my friend came by me becasue she was embarrased and felt bad. The Webb blood in me began to boil. The headlamp dad got me was the crown jewel of the hike. It illuminted the whole path and blinded anyone looking in my general direction. Just to irritate the man more, I flipped my headlamp on full power and looked right at him. This sent him into another bout of complaints. I just laughed. Then another one of my friends nudged me and said "Mikael, be nice." To this I replied "Moses would just drop it is someone spilt water on him." then the guilt hit me. I was in a holy place, on top of the mountain where the ten commandments were recieved, and here I was being spiteful. I turned my head lamp off, apologized, and decided to just let it go. For the first time since coming over here, I was freezing. We all were. It was also the first time we could all snuggle up and not feel guilty. You would think none of us students had ever had human contact before. Since we are not allowed to even give high fives in many areas, let alone hug, snuggling for warmth was so much more than snuggling for warmth for many. Then the sun began to rise. It was absolutely beautiful. If there were one thing i could change, it would have been less people up there. After the sun rose, our religion professors talked to us for a few minutes concerning the importance of where we were and what mountains represent. We sang a few hymns, and then made our way back down the mountain. A group of us started talking to some Kenyan's on the way down. They were very kind and it was so fun to become at least a little bit familiar with another culture. When we got back to the hotel, we were allowed to swim for a while before loading up for the long drive back to Jerusalem. And a long drive it was. Although I was not ready to leave the adventure of Egypt behind, I was ready to step back into a modern country again where I can drink from the tap.
3 comments:
It looks beautiful. Was it worth the early morning after all? I think so.
You are such a stinker- I wonder who you get it from (DAD?)
I cant find you in the picture on top of Sinai? Unless your the one picking your nose????? Please tell me I am wrong? lol
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