*tap tap* Is this thing on?

[bironic]

Alive! Exhausted and have no clean clothes left in the suitcase, but alive! Full of photos and stories, too, such as The Time We Climbed Masada By Foot At 4:00 In The Morning After Hiking In Marl Formations At 11:00 The Previous Night And Then Instead of Resting We Went To The Dead Sea And Toured Jerusalem, but all of that will probably wait until I'm back home early next week.

After ~14 days of traveling around Poland and Israel, I said goodbye at the airport at way too early o'clock this morning to the 40-some-odd participants who weren't staying in the country, and with the help of some of the soldiers on our trip, navigated my way to the delightful roga's place by train and taxi, where a bit of sleep was finally enjoyed. She's in class now but knowingly included this laptop on the tour of her apartment. Which means, yay, I should have some Internet access from now on -- but I'm trying to limit it, since I'm not here to look at a screen.

Next up on the list is to see some more of Tel Aviv, since we didn't spend much time here with the group, hang out more with my hostess, meet a cousin of my grandfather's, and spend a day in Jerusalem before returning home. Very much looking forward to all of the above, with the bonus of not being on a hectic schedule.

Haven't yet had a chance to catch up on anyone's journals (although it feels as if I've been in contact because I've been writing you post cards), but I hope you're all doing all right, and talk soon!

Comments

[jadesfire.livejournal.com]

*yells* IT'S ON! WE CAN HEAR YOU!!! *g*

Good to know you're in one piece and having fun :) Look forward to hearing (and seeing! Photos!) all about it :D

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*waves madly* I don't even know how many pictures I've taken, but there should be enough for a fully illustrated account of everything, plus other people's photos to fill in any gaps (for instance, I didn't bring my camera down to the beach at the Dead Sea because it was so hot/sunny out).

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I'm so excited to hear about your trip! It sounds great.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yay! I am also excited for certain other things that are happening next Friday. :D

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Woot! \o/

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Yay!

I think on Shabbat afternoon roga is going to bring you to J'lem where you will meet up with lomedet and me and we will play in the Old City and then go to Abu Ghosh for what is apparently the best hummous in the world.

\o/!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

\o/ indeed! I am really looking forward to it. What I got to see of Jerusalem on the trip was... let's see... a couple of hours in the Jewish quarter where the shops are, a walk from there to the Kotel, then the Knesset/menorah, Yad Vashem, Mt. Herzl cemetery, and way too much of Ben Yehuda Street. Plus a view of it all from the Haas Promenade across the way. So actually, quite a lot; more than most other places we visited.

[musicisbelievng.livejournal.com]

woooo... she's still alive and not texting at odd hours of the night! :) Have fun and see you at the airport. If you can, gimme a text from the airport so I know if the flight is on time

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I can definitely shoot you a text from Warsaw, and then call you from my regular phone when we land at JFK. There's a way to track the flight somewhere online, too, I'm sure. I'll need to get my bag from the claims area after customs, so I'm not sure whether you'll want to park and come in (I can cover you) or what...

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

*pokes head in*

You can use flightview.com to track both domestic and international flights. Very easy to use -- all you need is the name of the airline, the flight number, and the date. I use it all the time to keep an eye on Mr. Nightdog's flights.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. Usually I just use the airport or airline's web page, but that sounds universally useful.

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

Hello! Glad you're having a great time and that the hectic pace will slow down a bit.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hiya! Yes, it's already been much more relaxed yesterday and today than during the majority of the trip (which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy all the sites we got to cram in in that time), and I'm about to attempt to catch up on my journaling since there wasn't much opportunity for it before.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

Wheeeeee! Keep enjoying your trip 24/7 -- you can sleep when you get home!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

And I plan to. :) Thanks! And how has your summer vacation been going?

[purridot.livejournal.com]

The ol' vay-kay was awesome but now it's over! I'm hittin' the books.... tomorrow. ;-)

Can't wait to hear your stories and see any piccies you want to share!

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Hi! It's great to see you back online! I can't wait to hear all about your trip—but make sure you get some sleep first when you get home.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

And on the plane on the way, I think. Mm. "Sleep" is one of my new favorite English words.

[zulu.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it's been omgawesome. And you get to meet roga in person and all! I'm jealous.

[roga.livejournal.com]

Well. hey, you know I have a bed all set up for you, whenever you want to visit!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It's quite a comfy bed, too. :D But yeah, it's been a good time so far, overall, and promises to be more of the same in these last few days. Hopefully I won't forget too much of it before I get around to writing it all down.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Missed you -- can't wait until you're back and tell us your traveling adventures!

*hugs again, just for good measure*

♥

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay. *hugs back*

I went to the Eretz Israel museum today, chockablock with antiquities from all over the area. There were fantastic exhibits of coinage, pottery and glass, among other things - I wanted to get you a post card with some of the Greek and Roman coins, but there weren't any at all. But the coins had such beautiful designs of cows and birds and snakes and lions and pomegranates and the usual rulers' portraits.

But you can have this photo I took of a bird at the summit of Masada:

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j312/moony2/stephaniepics611.jpg

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Oh, how cool!

Hm ... with that beak, it looks like a blackbird or small crow ... and with tha orange stripe, I'm wondering if it's some version of a red-winged blackbird.

Something to research! Yay! ;-D

ETA: Found him. It's a Tristram's Grackle. *beams*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, nice! And the Wiki photo was taken in the same area.

There were storks with massive nests when we were driving through the Polish countryside on the way to Treblinka camp, but I didn't catch a picture of them for you. The nests turned out to be man-made to help the storks repopulate or something, but they were impressive.

[recrudescence.livejournal.com]

*waves!* That sounds incredible. I'd love to see Jerusalem someday.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I hope you have a chance to! What we saw of it was beautiful - all old stone, narrow side streets, and churches beside mosques beside temples. There's apparently a building ordinance in the area that says everything must be constructed with the same pale Jerusalem stone, so the whole city has a coherent look.

[celebriangel.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. That sounds awesome. Poland! Do you speak any polish? I have some polish colleagues at work, so: Dzien dobry, Czy pani mowi po polsku? Um. I am *so glad* I did latin, just so I know what all those bloody noun cases are even *for*. Seriously. Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Ablative (Instrumental), Genitive, Vocative, Locative, and bloody hell, I'm so glad English people decided they couldn't be bothered with grammar and tossed it out of the nearest window.

Sleep is good. It has been eluding me lately, and sadly I don't have the excuse of having too much fun and too little time.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I speak no Polish, except for some food vocabulary, geography and random words I picked up while we were there, such as "toalety" for restroom.

Grammar is fun! Sort of. Anyway, it's been amusing sometimes to hear our Chilean/Israeli and Israeli guides and our soldiers inadvertently invent new English words as they talk to us, and reveal bits and pieces of Hebrew syntax as they translate to us to English.

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

♥ I'm glad you're having a good time!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I hope you're doing well yourself. (one day... one day i will be caught up...)

[nicocoer.livejournal.com]

Oooo!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

:)

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

That sounds fantastic! I'd love to see the photos...

[bironic.livejournal.com]

And so ye shall! Not all 600+ of them -- you'll be spared that much -- but the good ones will be posted. At some point.