Friday 7/20

David and I got up early. We had a tight schedule so that we could go on a tiyul (hike) and still make it back in time to get ready for Shabbat without having to rush. David picked a route in an area we'd been to before that was relatively easy. Due to the heat he knew that it would feel exerting enough that I wouldn't feel like we wasted the day just walking. At first we started in the wrong place. David wasn't paying as close attention to the map as he should have been (I hope he's reading this hehehe) and we ended up in the place we'd been to a few years ago. Eventually we found the right spot and started walking. Most of the trail was on a rudimentary road which at first annoyed me but once I started getting hot I was fine with it! The trail was 8 kilometers and was supposed to take us in a circle around a mountain called Har Eitan. Along the way we were going to take a detour to a well in the side of the mountain to have a picnic lunch. David has a really cool book (along with almost every other true Israeli) that details where all of the water sources (wells, springs, etc) are and how to get there. Unfortunately the book's instructions were a little off and we ended up going off the trail into the forest. After climbing around for 20 minutes with no sign of the trail we REALLY wanted we decided to break for lunch. After lunch we climbed back up to the trail and found what we were looking for just 5 minutes up the road. I was really pissed needless to say. I was even angrier when we went down to the well to find that there was no place to sit as if in a cave (which the book made it seem like there was). So we just left and continued on the hike. Toward the end it was just really really hot and David had to keep rooting me on to keep me from trying to hitch a ride with all of the picnickers we had started to see who had driven into the national park. It was also really nice to get to go hiking with him. It gives us a chance to do stuff on our own and be in foreign situations to see how we will react to them and to each other. He also looked really cute :). At the end we treated ourselves to much deserved ice creams to cool us down before heading back home.
David and I decided to open our own taxi service! My friend Craig and his cousins Ana were both coming to stay for Shabbat so we set up a rendezvous point and waited to give them a lift to Efrat from Jerusalem. David had another friend who was also staying in Efrat for Shabbat so we drove him too. It was a very quintessential Israel experience to be hanging out giving everyone rides. We all hung out at David’s and got ready for Shabbat. Shul and dinner were uneventful. It was really nice to have Craig and Ana over though. Afterward our friend Shevy came over as well as the other friend we had given a ride to and the guy he was staying with. We all sat around schmoozing until everyone, especially David, started falling asleep midsentence and then we decided it was time for bed.