Done with Finals, and in the Promise Land

60 hours ago, I was typing furiously into my laptop as everyone around me finished up their torts exam. The proctor called time. We saved the file into our flash memory drive and handed it in. And then I was the first one who jumped up and hugged C, who sat in front of me.

"It's over! It's over! It's over!!!"

Now, I am in Israel, in a Kibbutz hotel in the middle of the desert, watching the sunrise over the enormous crater

We flew into Tel Aviv via London, and with the help of 2 exedrin PMs I was able to sleep for both legs of my trip. The first leg of the trip to London was the most pleasant flight I had ever taken. There were so few people on the plane that each of us had the entire row of seats -- 5 of them -- to ourselves, and I was able to lie down and even stretch out.

London-Heathrow was deserted as well. The second flight was delayed for a bit, so I used that time to call my parents with Skype (Boyfriend recently got this service and loves it. The quality of sound is amazing and it is so cheap). My dad sounded very worried about me and kept on telling me to not get kidnapped. He also read somewhere in the newspaper the previous day that 300 pilgrims in Mecca was trampled to death, and since in his mind (and really, in mine, as well), the entire Middle East was this vague glob of land, he was worried that it might affect me.

I promised that I would call him as soon as I got into Israel.

The Ben Gurion Airport at Tel Aviv is beautiful. Gorgeous. I think it's new, since not even Boyfriend's father who's here like 3 times a year has seen it yet. The entire building is paved in golden and tan marble slabs, with enormously high ceilings and water fountains in the middle of the hall. All steel and marble and glass.

We got our rental car and started driving south. Soon we were in the middle of the desert. I had never really been in a desert before. There was an endless stretch of yellow and gold and white. In the distance there are rolling golden hills of sand, and still further you can see the green shadow of the mountain. At first, we could still see factories and scattered farmland from the road, but soon there was nothing but sand and the occasional gas station.

Soon we were driving inside the sandstone mountains, up and down, up and down. When we were at the top, the view down across the sandy plans was breathtaking. There were very few cars on the road, and the highway stretched endlessly before us into the next curve. Our car was so small and the sandstone mountains were so enormous. The clouds had interesting shapes and curled above the mountains and the plain.

I took over 100 photos, and will post some here as soon as I download them into my laptop.

The only scary parts: Israelis are CRAZY drivers. They tailgate and go 10-20 km above the speed limit. While I was driving, it occurred to me that the chance of some crazy Israeli driver driving me off the road is much higher than perishing in any terrorist attack. I told my dad this and he did not seem relieved.

We got to Mitzpeh Ramon, a small town in the middle of the desert, 4 hours later. I immediately collapsed upon getting into the hotel, around 4 in the afternoon, and slept for the next 10 hours. Today, we are going to drive south some more until we reach the beaches of Eliat.

I am reading Amos Oz's book "A Tale of Love and Darkness". It's about growing up in Jerusalem in the 40s and 50s. It's the perfect travel companion to a trip to Israel, and I am very much looking forward to visiting Jesusalem.