Eilat elle l'a

our weekend rendition of the song ella elle l'a that they play at everyy club here.

I went to Eilat, "The Miami of Israel," last weekend and it was great. It's the southern most Israeli city (in between Jordan and Egypt and on the Red Sea). The weather was much nicer than in Tel Aviv last weekend but it wasn't quite beach weather, although we did stubbornly try. Friday was the warmest, and luckily that was the day we had planned to go snorkeling. At first I had a hard time trusting myself but once I just relaxed I was in heaven floating with the fish and exploring the coral. I saw Dory and Nemo and my new favorite fish, the Parrot fish. Google it, they're gorgeous, I wish I could have taken underwater pictures. Tangent: I learned in my Israeli Environment class that the Red Sea is the most diverse ecosystem in the world. And also that in 25 million years it will be an ocean because of the way the plates are moving. Anyway, Eilat is pretty small, you can walk around the main part of the city very easily. It was nice to shop, party, and explore around a different city, though. I am planning to go back there after classes in June to do a 5 day SCUBA certification thing, yayy!
Speaking of classes, they started yesterday. So far I have had "The Struggle for Palestine: Roots of the Arab-Israeli Conflict" and "Israeli Environment." The former has a terribly dry teacher but I may stick it out as it seems as if the class will be taught from more of a pro-Arab than pro-Israeli point of view which I thoroughly enjoy as a much needed change. The latter is amazing, the teacher, Stuart, (he said it's an insult to call him doctor or professor unless he's really old. I'm not sure if that's for everyone here or just him) is hilarious and very entertaining. I'm really excited to learn a lot and go on fun trips in that class. More on other classes later possibly, but that stuff is boring anyway. This weekend I'm going to the Idan Raichel concert and Allie is actually speaking at the concert! She's speaking about a leadership program that she did two years ago that I (surprise surprise) am also doing this weekend and two other weekends. More on that laster as well. The organzation that runs the leadership program is setting up the concert so she has to speak in front of 2,500 people or something. crazy!
That's all for now, Passover break is in a month, I should figure out what I'm doing. Pictures to come soon!

as Darya would say: Shalom out!
Lauren