I'm Too Tired to Think of a Real Title--Sorry

Only a week and a bit late: Eilat was amazing.
Lovely desert views, relatively challenging hikes (the second day more so than the first, but both were really pretty), cooking משותף.  I chopped veggies for the salad.
Friday night we slept outside--וואי, איזה קור!--and had one and a half kabbalat shabbat services.  The first was a spontaneous Carlebach service, made possible by one siddur and a few curious participants (some knew the words, some did not, but who needs words when you're swaying kumbaya-style?).  Unfortunately, we were asked to stop our slightly more traditional service to join the official International School one, which consisted of kiddush around the bonfire.  I guess that version had its merits, too (warmth for one, bigger group atmosphere for another), but the intimate makeshift service definitely did more for me.  Aside from my general preference for the traditional תפילות, I always take a lot from group singing.  When harmonies are involved, the resonances always seem to me to reach to שמים.
Sleeping outside on Friday night was definitely an experience.  Freezing, but no animals, thank goodness: nighttime visits from baby rattlesnakes and their desert equivalents more than once a year is more than I can handle.  The stars apparently out in the wee hours of the morning, but while I was likely awake at that time I didn't think at any point to turn my head up to look at the sky (that would have meant facing not only the stars, but the wind, too).  So, sadly, no stars, but at least I was able to keep my face warm.
After a full day of hiking on Saturday, we had a free night in Eilat.  That ended earlier than you might expect since, sun-tired and hungry, most of us went to sleep right after dinner (yummy all you can eat laffa and salads at a mediterranean place a little bit off the beaten track--next to an abandoned lot, in fact, though the location says nothing about the venue or its food).
On Sunday morning, the girls and I walked around the Eilat mall until it was warm enough outside to go to the beach.  There, we found out that customer service is somewhat unheard of in many parts of this country.  Example from the שטח: Most of the stores in the mall were just starting to open, and a Claire's-like accessories store caught our collective eye.  The door was open, so we walked in to look at their headbands.  All of a sudden, an angry Israeli woman came up behind us: Couldn't we see that the doors were closed?  We're not open yet!  Get out!  Now, first of all, one of her doors was open, so speaking to us like idiots who had walked into a closed store was just plain inaccurate.  Second of all, taking that tone with potential patrons was a sure way to guarantee that none of us would ever walk into her store again.
We left the mall soon after that episode and spent the rest of the morning in the sun, rude cashiers forgotten.  Eilat's beach was certainly nothing to sneeze at--very rocky, with 20-shekel-to-sit lounge chairs polluting most of the sittable sand--but we found some open sand/rocks/glass that fit our sunbathing purposes quite nicely, and camped out there for a few hours.  Then came the bus ride back home to Haifa, an appraisal of the day's tan (definitely visible, but the SPF 30 prevented any true Eilat color--I should be thankful, I guess), and some much needed sleep.
Monday night I went out with Gilly (apartmentmate), her boyfriend and miscellaneous International Schoolers to the Irish House bar in Merkaz Hakarmel, which was fun both because it just was, and because it was a Monday night (I still haven't gotten over the weeknight fun culture of Israel/study abroad).  Thursday night a group of us went to Duke for St. Patrick's day--another Irish bar and another great time.
Friday I met Doreen in Tel Aviv, and from there we went down to Ashdod to stay with her cousins for Shabbos.  A really sweet family, great food, lots of Hebrew, and a beach nearby.  I learned the Hebrew word for "to tan" (להשתזף--which I actually did this time!), found out what it means to poyke on the beach (don't get any ideas--a poyke is a type of pot used for slow-cooking veggies and meat), and still made it back to Haifa in time for אגודת הסטודנטים's (basically the Student Union) Purim party at the Haifa Convention Center.  Excellent DJ, though the main event--an Ivri Lider performance--didn't start until 2am, and my friends and I ended up leaving the concert after only three or four songs.  Given that my feet hurt from dancing, my throat hurt from the smoke (when will Israel make it illegal to smoke indoors??), my head hurt from not having eaten enough between a late couscous lunch in Ashdod and the rager, and given the fact that I was less than thrilled with the beginning of Lider's performance, I was happy to head home.
On the table for this week:
Class, International School Purim party, volunteer orientation (I'll tell you more about that when I know more about it), and Shabbat in Hashmonaim.
Talk to you later :)