After we had been sufficiently entranced by the Treasury (for the time being!), we couldn’t resist a short camel ride onwards. The Bedouins had a point — when else will you have the chance to ride through Petra on camelback? Although a little overpriced for the duration, the ride was still very enjoyable.

Plus, you don't need a driver's license for these things!

The next stop was the Monastery, a less ornate but even larger version of the Treasury that sits atop a steep 900 step ascent. We opted to take donkeys for this leg of the journey, which reportedly takes up to an hour when the afternoon sun is in full force.

Alongside one of our hardy guides.

This was a good choice because we got to speak with our Bedouin guides a little bit, both about the sites we were passing and just about life in Jordan. As one would expect, these guys are in incredible shape. They told us that when the tourist season is in full force, they will hustle their tourist-laden donkeys up the steps in just 15 minutes, and then run back in even less time to catch the next batch of waiting customers. Reportedly, they can walk farther in one day than their mules can!

Qasr al-Bint, the Daughter Palace

After the donkeys bore us to the top, we grabbed some tea with our guides and relaxed in the shade a bit, before checking out the Monastery site. There was almost not enough land from which to observe the site from afar! But “Impressive” does not do the Monastery justice at all.

After this point, we turned around and began the descent on foot, but this time we were free to stop at attractions on the way.

The Amphitheater.

A few hours and several liters of bottled water later, we had finally conquered Petra and checked out of the hostel. After a bit of haggling, we secured a taxi to our next stop: Amman (about 3 hours away).

It was refreshing to finally find an Arab city that was not a tourist trap, as you can move about freely without having to deflect invitations into people’s shops and whatnot. However, the other important consequence is that English is not nearly as common as we were used to! To make things even more interesting, seemingly nobody in Amman knew where the hostel we had reserved was located. This was the perfect chance for me to throw some Arabic phrases around, which definitely helped us communicate our situation and ultimately find the hostel, tucked away on some downtown side street.

View from our room's balcony.

We got dinner and walked around the city a bit. Amman does not offer a lot of night life, but we stumbled upon a DVD vendor that had lots of (probably illegal) new releases to choose from. The shopkeeper was delighted when I asked for movies in Arabic with English subtitles (to learn from), and gave me a “special discount” on films containing Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian dialects. These should be a helpful tool in learning the language.

The next day we rented a cab from the hostel to take us to a few neighboring sites, including a church in Madaba that hosts the world’s oldest map (shown below, in ceramic floor tiling).

Circa 6th century A.D.

The Sams at Mount Nebo, where the Promised Land is said to have been revealed to Moses.

The last main attraction we would visit in Jordan was Wadi Mujib, a freshwater canyon located very close to the Dead Sea.

Although we'd spent the entire weekend looking at rocks, it was still fascinating to observe the canyon's formations.

It was interesting that no helmets were required, because we had to ascend mini-waterfall junctions that were perilously slippery and offered only a rope to pull oneself up. In the States, there would surely have been a trained guide at every step of the way!

When we finally got to the head of the canyon, it was very refreshing to stand under the waterfall.

And this nearly marks the end of my adventures in Jordan. I say “nearly” because crossing back into Israel via the King Hussein crossing (near Jerusalem, but Israelis are not permitted to cross) turned out to be an odyssey itself. The level of security there put American airports to shame, but most of it appeared largely redundant. That is, we would wait in line for 15 minutes to present our passport, finally get waived onward (after questions like “What is your grandfather’s name?”) just to repeat the process at another checkpoint LESS THAN 10 FEET AWAY!

The boarding process for the bus that takes you across the bridge was also unsettling, because it required us to surrender our passports to the desk and then board the bus, and to just trust that it would be returned to us before pulling out! But the fun wasn’t over: we had just finished waiting in line and were about to cross the bridge when the bus suddenly turned around and took us back to the Jordanian checkpoint. Everyone was confused and already slightly irritated. It turned out that a woman sitting right behind me had been seen taking a cell phone picture of the crossing from her window! She was pulled off the bus and questioned for nearly 20 minutes before she was allowed to come back on and we could take off. The most ridiculous aspect of this whole event, she later told us, was that the Israeli security officers had been to proud to ask for her cell phone password to view the photo (even after she offered it to them!), effectively telling her “We’ve got this.” However, they returned five minutes later to grudgingly ask for it, apparently unable to crack into her phone with military technology!

And so we FINALLY made it back to Jerusalem, from where it was two more bus rides back to campus. You can easily spend several days in Petra alone, so I feel pretty good about the number of sites we managed to cram into just two nights in Jordan. I highly recommend the country to anyone interested!

This weekend was a whirlwind of alternately riding in cabs and hiking through ancient sites. When I was younger, I would watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and think that this scenery was just a set. Turns out it is known as the Treasury, one of the most famous sites in Petra I got to see.

We entered from the southernmost crossing, starting in the Israeli city of Eilat and arriving near Jordanian Aqaba. Eilat is right on the Red Sea, and its main attraction is definitely the beach. I traveled there last weekend with a friend, and we snorkeled in a beautiful coral reef where we even saw an octopus cruising around the ocean floor!

Sorry, the octopus wouldn't come up for the photo shoot.

But this time, we were only passing through Eilat. There was a surprising lack of security, and we were across the border in no time. I managed to get what I believe is a slightly discounted cab ride to Petra, simply by throwing out some Arabic greetings to the drivers (it also helped to know how to push their buttons a little by using an expression for “crazy expensive!”). Jordanian public transport simply does not compare to that of Israel, so we had no choice but to taxi it up.

It is 3 hours to Eilat and another 3 back up to Petra from where we started, so by the time we arrived at our hostel it was late afternoon. We were welcomed with tea and coffee by the hostel manager, and decided to visit “Little Petra” while there was still some daylight. This is a nearby park that actually offered free admission — a rarity in Jordan! It was a great place to whet our appetite for what was to come the next day.

The town of Petra was fairly limited, but still had some tasty places to eat cheaply.

In addition, we discovered a concert of traditional music that evening. It mostly consisted of singing and the guitar/sitar Arab hybrid that none of the locals were able to name for us in English.

Apparently bagpipes are more common in Jordan than we thought. The man in the posters is the King of Jordan, whose noticeably light appearance stems from having an English mother.

We found some local high schoolers to hang out with that evening, and in the process I broadened my colloquial Arabic base a bit. It was interested to watch their reactions as we described our experiences in Israel to them. These guys made no attempt to conceal a certain disdain for the Jews that would unfortunately be echoed throughout  our trip. This sentiment seemed to be directly mostly at Orthodox Jews, whom they claim would treat Arab shopkeepers and Bedouin guides poorly when they visited the country. Yet we enjoyed hanging out at the show with them, and even lent some cheering support as their rapper/beat-boxer friend took the stage (which was quite the departure from all the previous folk singing, and probably shocking for the older listeners!)

The next day, we got up early so as to get to the site before it got too hot. The entrance fee was a whopping 50 JD (dinar), or $70! Indeed, each subsequent fee on our trip would always make us wonder what Jordan would do without its burgeoning tourist industry!

This gift shop turned out to have nothing but a bullwhip. Sadly, I could not ride into the movie location with a fedora on.

It was nice and cool in As-Siq, the winding canyon leading to the Treasury.

Meh, I've seen bigger.

The suspense steadily built as we walked further into the canyon. On the way, there were some neat carvings and other historical asides. Most of the sites in Petra are over 2,000 years old, built by the ancient Nabeatan civilization. The Nabeatans were mainly traders that settled Petra as a strategic hub connecting European, African and Asian spice routes. However, their rule didn’t last very long, and they were eventually conquered by the Romans. The resulting Greco-Roman architectural themes in some of the sites are impossible to miss.

The second rock formation we've been told resembles an elephant (along with one on the way to Little Petra).

While we would spend the day trekking around several awesome sites, the first one was the one I was most anticipating: Al Khazneh, or the Treasury.

"Wait a sec, is that up ahead what I think it is...?!?!"

And when we finally got to it, the Treasury was even better than I had imagined it.

Supposedly, it is called the Treasury because the urn that sits at the top once held some kind of treasure that was looted some time ago. The spots on it are pock-marks from travelers shooting at it to try and recover some of the loot.

It’s hard to even know where to begin when describing a place like Jerusalem. I struck out for the Old City by myself after the White Night in Tel Aviv, and wasn’t too sure what I “needed” to see. I was dropped off a few blocks from the Jaffa Gate (one of many entrances to the city), and of course began snapping away en route.

Walking along Jaffa Road.

Even in Israel, there are some things that just follow you around!

Before I could even locate a hostel, I was swept up by the first of many Arab storekeepers I would meet. After a few trips around the block you began to get a feel for the algorithm they use to lure in tourists:

“Hello please, how are you? Where are you going?”

(Name off a place/point to a map)

“Ah yes, very good place. Down this way, I take you…”

(Move forward ten feet)

“But first, come see my shop! It’s very nice, please, this way…”

And just like that, you’re browsing silver plated tea cups, nagilas (hookahs) and wooden camels! I ended up picking up a nice bedspread/table cloth/rug/tapestry that was handmade up in the north for my parents — but not after a fair amount of bargaining! You really have to be on your guard, as the store owners can move pretty fast. One second you’re walking inside, the next they’re asking what kind of credit card you have! Even at the checkout, they attempted to add a “surcharge” to cover the cost of running the machine. This is not so unreasonable, until they start bartering with you over the exact amount and you realize they are just trying to skim a few extra bucks off you!

I checked into a nice hostel, and got a private room so that I could recover from a night of wandering on the beach in Tel Aviv and not sleeping. I then started to explore the city, which is divided up into the Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian Quarters.

Standing room only -- just don't slip on the really worn stone steps!

The deeper you go into this labyrinth, the cheaper (and possibly better) the food gets. Since I am now virtually addicted to falafel, I of course helped myself. I also went outside to walk around the “modern” city, and stumbled upon a block party of sorts, that apparently happens every Friday until Shabbat!

The common denominator of all of Israel: live music and overpriced beer!

But after the Shabbat began, the city went stone quiet. I wandered around some more, and enjoyed the unique and well-worn architecture that permeated even the newer parts of Jerusalem.

After calling it an early night and sleeping early (but not before the evening prayer reverberated throughout the city), I awoke the next day to make a friend at the hostel who became my travel buddy. At first we tagged along with a free tour, but we quickly became aware of how much of a nuisance the residents perceive groups of 40+ tourists crowding a tiny market avenue to be. We decided to avoid the feeling of being herded around like cattle, and opted to follow a guidebook and map and explore ourselves:

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

The purported site of the Crucifixion of Christ.

In particular, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was an amazing visit. Regardless of one’s religious views, it is nonetheless impressive to be in the presence of such a holy site. Indeed, it was incredible just to observe how moved some of the other visitors were to be there — some had no doubt been waiting their entire lives for this chance. And whether or not you believe in Christ, it is powerful to realize that you are standing at a site whose events would unforgettably shape modern history. Perhaps this makes the so-called “Jerusalem Syndrome,” where a visitor to the city returns to his home believing himself to be a prophet, slightly more believable!

Near the Wailing Wall, right before we were asked not to take photographs!

I won’t go into the details of the history of these sites (in other words, I don’t feel like plagiarizing Wikipedia), but needless to say these sites are at least as old as your grandfather. After I had walked enough miles to qualify for a half-marathon, I retreated to the city to kill some time (a.k.a several more hours) before the Shabbat ended and I could catch a bus back to the lovely Sede Boqer.

The closest one will ever get to being in the movie "I Am Legend"!

The one slightly disappointing aspect of the trip was the difficulty I experienced trying to get people to help me practice speaking Arabic. When I would say hi to an Arab storekeeper, I would normally not even be understood at first because they are expecting me to address them in Hebrew or English. They would become curious where I studied Arabic, but were surprisingly reluctant to teach me local words/phrases. Perhaps this hints at a suspicion that I was a government operative or something! However, my relatively poor speaking ability no doubt soon dispelled this notion from their minds. It is both to my credit and embarrassment that after 1.5 months of being here, I can already get around with Hebrew significantly better than I can with Arabic — which I studied intensively for two semesters! Ah well…

Now, back to work until the still-in-the-works trip to PETRA! Check back soon — and in the meantime look at this sweet picture of one of our collector dishes focusing the sun (for once! Usually they are doing maintenance on it):

Maybe this is how they did the special effects for the end scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

This post will cover two separate weekends spent on the beach in Tel Aviv. The first time in Tel Aviv, I went with some friends from Sde Boker and stayed two nights in a hostel located just one block from the beach. The great thing about a hostel is that you can always turn a group of total strangers into a group of friends, because most of its inhabitants are just passing through like you. I met visitors from Australia and New Zealand, Germany, and more. The hostel had a pretty cool rooftop view.

View from the hostel roof.

I got very familiar with this room, as the room we were assigned had no ceiling fan and for me it was simply impossible to sleep there. So, this became my bed (from 7am, when the roof was unlocked, until our 10 am checkout time!):

We managed to catch the last day of a two week food festival, which featured cuisine from nearly every region of the world, as well as live music, beer gardens, and other fun stuff.

I still have no clue what this radio gameshow was all about!

The main attraction of Tel Aviv is definitely the night scene – but be prepared for excruciatingly-high prices if you go to a trendy lounge! I also roamed around the market during the day and shopped for souvenirs, but as far as I can tell the city is not exactly brimming with cultural destinations (see: Jerusalem). The two things one goes to Tel Aviv for: relaxing on the beach by day and partying by night! Although be careful- even the beaches can be expensive. We stayed near one of the free ones, but unfortunately they still charge you for plastic chairs to sit on (burning to the touch on a sunny day) and charge you even more to sit under an umbrella. At first I thought the collectors were just scammers, but sure enough, everyone has to pay at least a little for some fun in the sun.

The second (and most recent visit), we stayed just for one night: the Layla Lavan (White Night). After the city was named the White City by UNESCO in 2003, Tel Aviv began putting on once-a-year parties that consume virtually every part of it. In fact, it was such a mob scene that I was not able to find a hostel, and instead stayed out on the beach until morning! There was a huge concert on the beach, as well as smaller events scattered all over.

Front row view in a crowd that stretched a few hundred feet back!

In summary, Tel Aviv is a great place to relax for a weekend, get a tan and enjoy a vibrant nightlife with whomever you are lucky enough to meet! We were lucky because the same “crew” of hostel inhabitants was still there the second time around, so it was good to be among friends old and new alike.

This weekend was literally a whirlwind of traveling and cultural immersion. Two graduate students at my campus are leaving Sede Boker for the hustle and bustle of North America (Toronto and Boston), and decided to invite me on their last trip to Haifa, where one of the students, Manar, has a home and extensive family all throughout the area.

First, let me say that the hospitality of this Palestinian-Israeli family was incredible (almost overwhelming!). We arrived around dinnertime, and I learned that Manar’s mother had spent five hours that morning preparing an elaborate meal for us guests! The food mostly consisted of beef, rice, chicken and tomato combinations, and was very delicious. It was also seemingly endless, and we were vigorously “encouraged” to eat so much that by the time it was over, I felt like I would be full for weeks.

View from the house's balcony of a street in Haifa.

The major surprise I received upon arrival was noticing how out of my depth I was when it came to speaking Arabic. Having taken a year of literature and having acquired a modest background in Modern Standard, I felt that I would be at least somewhat prepared to have dinner with an Arab family. Wrong. I was able to understand virtually nothing of the dinner table conversation (luckily Manar was happy to translate)! The main reason for this is explained by the order in which Arab students learn language in Israeli schools: spoken Arabic, Hebrew, written Arabic (Modern Standard) and finally English). So, it turned out the difficulty I had trying to churn out the correct MSA grammar was the same as what the family experienced trying to remember/translate what I was saying into the more normal syntax. My first impression of Levantine Arabic is that it is very informal, as they seem to do away with many of the annoying grammatical constructs of MSA. I picked up many words and phrases in just 24 hours, so if for no other reason, the trip was worth it just for improving my Arabic!

Manar gave us an extensive walking tour of her city (mostly at night, however). Haifa is right on the Mediterranean, so there is a modest amount of humidity. However, it is built around a small mountain, so as we weaved our way up it got noticeably cooler (and quieter)!

Haifa is a fascinating cultural melting pot, whose boundaries are surprisingly well-delineated. That is, the various ethnic towns are sharply defined by street boundaries and announced by abrupt changes in language as well. From Arabs to Russians to Pakistanis (throwing in some Urdu) to Indonesians, pretty much everyone is represented in the city. I was also intrigued to hear of a secret religious society called the Druze, where only members 40 years old or older are permitted to join and then promptly sworn to secrecy. Because of this, no one really knows who they are or what they stand for — only that they have a stake in Haifa too!

It was also nice to notice the how covered with solar panels the rooftops of Haifa are. This is because by Israeli law, every new building must have its water heated by a solar water heater!

As cool as the city was, we had to turn in somewhat early to get up for the bus the next day. Unfortunately, due to the heat and some pretty aggressive mosquitoes, I didn’t get a single second of shut-eye that night. However, I was still excited to head out for Nablus the next day, as it would be my first time in the West Bank.

The Palestinian territories are divided up into Areas A B and C, although the boundaries are ill-defined. Basically, the letters mean that if you have an Israeli passport, you are not allowed to visit anything under Area A. Of course, people have been known to sneak in, or just use their American/other passport if they have dual citizenship. Anyone can take the bus into the West Bank like we did, but if you get caught trying to exit the military checkpoint with an Israeli passport, it’s a good bet you’re going to jail (or at least not getting back across!).

Nablus is a fairly large city compared to the rest of the territories (for a map of the WB, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/israel_and_palestinians/key_maps/).

We spent much time wandering through the markets, which were crowded but full of enthusiastic vendors and a fascinating selection of exotic foods (for example, sweetened pumpkin!). While I was traveling with a large group including several Arabs, it still felt like a reasonably safe place to be.

My hostess Manar (right) and her mother.

We grabbed a lunch of falafel and hummus (what else?). I had to be careful to avoid using Hebrew for basic things, just to not offend any Arabs. The sense of Arab pride around the city was almost tangible. Even back in the Arab parts of Haifa, it was common to see graffiti that said things like “Every lemon tree is OUR lemon tree.” While there were no openly armed citizens in Nablus, it was sad to see the large number of “martyr” posters:

A typical assortment of posters. What's really sad is that some of the featured faces actually belonged to children.

As I learned more about the history of the territories and the people, the only thing that became clearer was how complex the current conflict truly is. The Arabs were oftentimes severely repressed after the creation of Israel in 1948. Even now, despite official IDF policy it is not uncommon to hear of military brutality. When the military consists largely of drafted 18-21 year olds getting excited in their first deployment, perhaps this is not so surprising. Of course, my visit is at a relatively stable time period, in contrast to just a few years ago when Israelis near the settlements lived in constant fear of suicide bombings. So clearly, both sides have a history of unjust treatment — but you have to talk to people from both backgrounds AND know at least a little history yourself to really understand this!

While the remnants of the second intifada in the 90s and the evident “martyr” culture were certainly still visible, the citizens of Nablus (Palestinian-Israeli, Ethiopian, etc.) were just going about their daily lives like anyone else. The graffiti and poetry scrawled on walls was not as inflammatory as one might have expected, although it is true  that urging Palestinians to “resist” can easily lead to outright violence.

Some argue that Israel’s bureaucratic system remains  stacked against Arabs, so that it can often take years just to get permission to build a house, for example. If so, this has likely contributed to the rise of the numerous Bedouin communities in the south that live without electricity and taxes — the same ones my bus back home to Sede Boker drives by! These settlements are themselves an issue unto themselves that some students on campus are studying — the role of women in these tribal cultures (numbering around 25 or so throughout the whole country) is especially important, given that the horrific and primitive practice of honor killing is still common (thanks in part to shari’a law).

In any case, it was a relief to see that visiting a political hotspot like the West Bank doesn’t mean dodging violent demonstrations or enduring rampant anti-Semitism. After bidding a fond goodbye to my new Arab family, we took a couple hours’ worth of buses to finally make it back to the Negev. It was a truly eye-opening and enriching experience, especially because of my “insider” connection. I look forward to my next adventure!

After a thoroughly relaxing weekend, I am back to work at the solar center. We recently had our big lab day, which involved taking voltage/current curves for three different panels with instruments that look like this:

An IV curve tracer, connected to a laptop and sample PV panel.

I am also nearing the end of my first coding assignment, which simulates theoretical annual AC power yield for a variety of sun collector configurations, based on measured hourly meteorological data. We will then use it to run more recent 2010 data, and try to improve it with empirical corrections.

Gadgets are fun!

Meanwhile, there were plenty of ibex to welcome me back!

We get the next two days of work off for the shavuot holiday (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavuot), so there is high potential for more traveling adventures. Stay tuned!

This weekend I finally got the chance to do some serious traveling. There is another summer intern in the solar energy center (conveniently, also named Sam!) who is visiting from MIT. It turns out there are actually dozens and dozens of MIT interns scattered across the country as part of a certain international program, so they are all networked together and organize trips time to time. I was invited to represent the South and tag along with the Boston crew to the Dead Sea, and it couldn’t have been a greater time.

View of the beach at Ein Gedi.

We managed to find the right bus from Beer Sheva to Ein Gedi — about 2 hours and $10. We settled on a youth hostel that was so affordable (especially with 9 people) and comfortable that it was impossible to refuse.

View from our balcony at the hostel.

After securing our reservation, we walked down to the Ein Gedi beach (less than ten minutes away!) and experienced the famous Dead Sea treatment — complete with a mud bath and all. The water was still and perfect temperature, and it really was impossible not to float!

Toasting with some fruit juice after a mud bath.

The mud is supposed to have some special therapeutic properties for one’s skin. I’m not sure about that, but it was still relaxing and fun smearing on! It is harvested from what looks like an oily sinkhole, and applied liberally in globs.

Because of the shabbat, there were no buses running until Saturday evening, so we had extra time to spend hiking in the Ein Gedi nature reserve. There are a series of waterfalls that one may swim in:

At the base of the head of the waterfalls.

The trails also wind around the rocky hills, some of them taking up to 4 hours to complete. While it was too hot by this time to attempt one of these, we pressed on a bit to get a breathtaking view of the Sea in its (almost) entirety.

View of the lowest place on Earth!

The hostel was generous and let us check out later that afternoon, so there was only a bit of time to kill at the beach before hailing a taxi van to take us back. This is considered a bit above hitch-hiking, although most of th vans are informally operated. We made it from our hostel to the hotel district (about 20  miles away), then did some hard bartering to find another van that would take us to Arad. This was accomplished by ultimately getting four drivers involved, and arguing with each other over who saw us “first.” In the end, we got a great rate to Arad, and then caught a bus back to Beer Sheva to recover our things left from our stay at BGU the night before. It was one last connection for the Sam’s, and after 49 hours of traveling, swimming and hiking we were finally home in Sede Boker.

But there was one more surprise waiting for me in my room: a desert spider so big it was nearly the size of my hand.

The picture to the left on the wall is maybe a foot tall.

We had to shoo him out of my room into the hallway, but were too tired and (honestly) afraid to go anywhere near this sucker. These spiders are non-poisonous, but they are known to bite and could probably withstand a smack with a frying pan.

After over 20 minutes of head-scratching/staring, we decided to just let him be in the hallway and finally go to bed. Apparently, the staff squished him the next morning!

EDIT: it was correctly pointed out that this thing actually has 10 legs, not the typical eight. A bit of research suggests it is still called a camel spider, and that the extra appendages are for eating/intimidation purposes.

Not exactly the ideal "welcome home" token.

So, that basically sums up an awesome weekend at the Dead Sea with a bunch of cool people from MIT! There are plans to take the upcoming shavuot holiday (four day weekend) and go to Petra (Jordan), although this will require substantially more planning than the “show up and hope there are cheap hostels/houses/tents for beach camping we can rent” approach that somehow panned out this time. Stay tuned!

It’s been a great first week, and I’ve finally gotten settled into things pretty nicely here. I went out to the grave site of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, because it was about time.

Graves of BG and wife.

David Ben Gurion's grave. How do I know which one it is? BECAUSE I NOW KNOW THE HEBREW ALPHABET!!

It turns out there is also a nice little park around the corner from this site:

Of course, there's definitely no massive drip irrigation to keep it this green... or anything silly like that.

Today I got to sit in on one of David’s graduate lectures on the basics of solar cell physics. This brought the total number of students attending to… three! It was interesting yet palpable, even though it assumes a working knowledge of quantum physics, chemistry and electrical engineering (!). I then proceeded to bask in that precious stage of coding known as “slam your head against your monitor until the stupid mistake you made becomes glaringly obvious,” but even this did not reveal my error. Hopefully, it will be taken care of tomorrow.

For the remainder of the day, I worked with online Hebrew flashcards that can be downloaded into an excellent free language learning software program called Byki (by Transparent Language). Now all I need are some people to practice with… hmmm!

"There must be at least one person who speaks this so-called 'Hebrew' out there..."

In other news, humus, falafel and pita bread are all tasty foods. That is all 🙂

Today I took my first trip into Be’er Sheva, the nearest city. I spent most of my time shopping around since the one mini mart we have on campus has some pretty inflated prices. However, it turns out even in the city things are just generally more expensive than in the US! For instance, I’m seriously kicking myself for not grabbing sunblock from Target for <$10 before coming here; instead I paid three times that in the supermarket today!

Busy intersection in the middle of the city.

The part of the city I was in felt pretty safe, especially because there were security guards and military officers with assault rifles walking around the bazaars or waiting for buses. I picked up a SIM card to use with my phone, then walked around for a bit.

I also found a large supermarket and picked up a few things, but ended spending about 40 minutes in line because the people in front of me decided to purchase a metric ton of food with a handful of problematic traveler’s checks.

The major thing I took away from my visit was that knowing Hebrew would be really really useful. I started learning the alphabet and basic words today (luckily there are similarities to Arabic), and will keep looking for a summer class.

When I got back to campus, I couldn’t resist strolling outside and taking a few pictures of the canyon basking in the sun. I also managed to catch a herd of Ibex (mountain goats)!

Ibex!

Can YOU find the Ibex(s)?

Just chillin on a very steep hill.

Om nom nom trash is so good!

Desert lizards are pretty cool too.

The canyon in all its glory!

View of my compound from afar.

After sleeping for about 13 hours, I have finally started getting settled into my new home in the middle of the Negev desert. The most impressive thing so far is the view that can be seen from my room, which is not far from the edge of this:

It is surprisingly cool here, as there is a nice breeze and (most importantly) NO HUMIDITY!

I was invited over to my sponsor’s (David Faiman) house soon after  my arrival yesterday. It was impressive because it is passively cooled — no AC! David is a brilliant and entertaining individual — he owns the only original copy of an 1826 opera, and has even produced a recording of the same composer’s work!

This morning I woke up early and took all of the pictures posted thus far (while it was still cool out). The Center for Desert Research is about ten minutes walking distance, so it’s good to get some brief exercise.

View of a reflector from outside the facility.

Today I was brought up to speed by David about the basics of solar photovoltaics, and it was a good thing I’d just finished a semester on E&M! Afterwards, I was introduced to most of the faculty (there are only 16 total) of the Desert Center, and attended a lecture about similar solar installations in Australia and the potential for Israeli-Australian collaboration.

The technical portion focused specifically on modeling dust accumulation on the reflector, and drag forces from wind that can sometimes lift up entire arrays! This is a scary thought, when you have large ones that weigh up to 20 tons.

I’ve been told my work will encompass both modeling and collecting measurements outside, so it should be a pretty exciting summer! My next project is to sniff out a summer Hebrew class on campus — it would make things a lot easier around here!