Le Hiutième Jour, Mardi. (The eighth day, Tuesday 5/24)

Monday night I didn't sleep very well- I kept waking up thinking that I had overslept and that I missed the bus. The first time that happened it was only 1am. The second time it was still only 5am. I fell back asleep both times, but I was awake again before the wake up call came at 6. Ugh.

Our first stop was at a castle/fort used during the crusades. It had a moat, although it's unlikely that there was ever water in the moat because water is so scarce in these parts. It was more intact than the castle from the day before, and there were big rooms and chambers and everything. At one point, the guides took us into a place and told us it was the dining area, and one of the Israeli guides started playing the flute along with a recording of other instruments to a tune that apparently the knights would have played. It was sweet.

Me with some of my friends, Andrea and Taylor.

After the castle, we headed to a kibbutz. A kibbutz is a community founded on the principles of communism, where everyone does the most they can do and is entitled to everything that they require. Apparently they were reallly big here a while back, but lately they are falling away because everyone with a good work ethic and/or talent is leaving to make profit in the real world and the only people left to actually do stuff are the bums who don't or won't actually contribute. I mean, it's pretty much the story of everything that stems from communism, right? Why is the outcome surprising?

Anyways, we hiked up a trail that looked out over the kibbutz and all the area that we'd been in all day. On the hike back down we took a trail that brought us past a Japanese garden. I'm still not entirely sure why there was a Japanese garden there, although I know that some religious person went there and visited within the past few years. But it wasn't really clear why the garden ended up there...

Complete with a koi pond.

We then went to see a synagogue that has been excavated and found with a fully intact mosaic on the floor. They had a really well done (if a little corny) video showing how they may have decided what to put on it and highlighting all of the different parts of the composition.

We finished off our day visiting a bunch of Roman pools that were totally awesome! The water was sooooo nice and refreshing! They were all interconnected and there were different things going on in each like caves and waterfalls and stuff. It was totally the highlight of the day. And I was thinking about Zac the whole time I did knee rehab by swimming in the water. Zac I hope your recovery is still going well! I feel your pain, brother :/