16/04/03

sunday morning i woke up around 05:45 to go to eilat on a planned trip with the international school. the weather forecast said good, so i packed very little (we were only going for one night).

eilat

1) bus ride
LONG, LOOOOONG bus ride. mostly tried to sleep, but that never really works properly. i remembered to take water, i learned a very hard lesson about dehydration last week, but i still got sunburned. stopped off in s'dei boker (emphasis on last syllable), meaning 'fields of the cowboys'. david ben gurion's buried there, so we visited his er, grave / tomb, thingymabob. beautiful view, i wouldn't mind my body resting there one day (preferably once i'm already dead).

2) skipped hike
we managed to vote 'no' to walking in the desert. everyone was keen to get to eilat.

3) wrong hotel
amazing. we ended up in completely the wrong place. eventually corrected, ended up in a place called 'paradise garden'. yeah, right. i didn't wait for check-in. i went with some friends who were already staying there to the beach, swam a bit, and then went to play basketball for 3 HOURS. i'll admit i enjoyed it thoroughly, but after a while my legs began to hurt, and after the game i could barely walk. dirty and smelly, went to the apartment they were staying in, showered, stretched, and went in search of supper. we left after 23:00, so only one place was open, but we ate like pigs for relatively cheap for eilat (tourist prices in israel are scary), and then went missioning. noplace interesting, so

4) finding my room
took a long walk back to the hotel, figured out the name that my roomies wrote me down as (i don't even remember it now, no relation whatsoever), and got the key. fortunately, they came back around the same time, so i didn't need to get up and open it for them. 'paradise garden'. soap, yes, but no toothpaste. DAMN. at least there was toilet paper. went to sleep around 04:00

5) waking up at 6:30 for breakfast

6) waking up at 8:30 for breakfast

7) breakfast
a typical israeli breakfast consists of some form of cereal (maybe), a cup of coffee, a slice of toast (maybe), and if you're REALLY pushing it you might get fruit of some form. oh, and milky (chocolate dessert type thing with cream). this breakfast contained all sorts of weird things, but none of the above. the coffee barely rated 'dirty water'.

8) checkout
did i check in? don't remember.

9) boat trip
well, the music started off chilled, very peaceful, but as soon as we got out of earshot of the docks they began with samba. i don't like samba. the tempo increased rapidly, and i was considering jumping, when we began to slow down. now i'm not saying i wasn't enjoying this. i love being on the water, and the view was breathtaking. staring at aquaba (however it's spelled). pretty. the water is completely clear. it's actually quite frightening, it's deep blue, but transparent.

9.5) diving
the captain (?!) mentioned something about diving. so i got on the rail and dived. WOW. warm water (everyone else was complaining about it being too cold, i still don't get it), but salty and i had a cut on my arm. mmmmm. then they released this swing-type thing. the first guy to go on it swung out, twisted his body so his arms were above his head from behind (don't know how to explain that), and then released into a somersault and decent dive. then the next guy went, did a major belly-flop. so we all stood in the line and took our turns. i managed to land face- first. surprise.
the first guy went again. he did the same twist, but for some reason didn't release. so he came swinging back face first towards the hull, with his arms stuck behind his back. with speed. fortunately some dude managed to stop him just before he headbutted the boat. we all released our breaths, as we'd been praying that this schmuck wouldn't be responsible for us going back to shore early.
"what could be easier than to pull?" - charles sheen, terminal velocity.

9.9) return to shore
they played decent, DECENT trance. for about 30 seconds. then it was back to chilled. rats.

10) aqua sport
this is the place were you go snorkeling (shnorkeling in hebrew), s.c.u.b.a. diving, etc. i sat under the big tent, smoked nargila (hookah) (ok, a couple of puffs, nothing serious), and slept. my friend's came for a brief visit, they left most disappointed. we sucked at volleyball for about 25 minutes, and then headed back to the bus.

11) snoopy come home?
nah. after an hour's kip, we were rudely awoken to a marvelous sight. sand. and rock. did i mention sand? oh, and dust. it was 'get your kit and go', so we went. walked up a mountain, listened to a really silly poem about echoes, and then discovered the only way to the rendezvous point was down the face. with no board. sandboarding is fun. running down the face of a dune isn't. not as such. and getting to the bottom with your shoes and socks FILLED with sand is frustrating.
getting back to the bus, we discovered that one of the guys had hitchhiked from the drop-off point to the rendezvous. brilliant. we all applauded him, and wished we'd thought of it. lucky, lucky bastard.

12) 7.5 hours later
7.5 hours. in a bus. with the airconditioning on and no jacket. brrr. one pit stop, and some dude who didn't understand that i was only joking about playing 'i spy with my little eye'. growl.

13) shower
sand. sand. sand. hell, i started my shower fully clothed, including my shoes, and they've STILL got sand in them. got to bed around 02:00.

*** tuesday ***

1) waking up
06:00

2) bus to taekwondo trainer
06:40

3) trainer's house
trainer not there. at the gym. proceed to walk halfway across ra'anana to the gym. my legs HURT. i'm TIRED. we walk to the bus stop (it's drizzling), which is only another 3 blocks uphill, and catch the bus to the venue

4) competition
it's a memorial competition, in honour of a soldier who died in (i think) 1995, in a bomb blast. i think he had something to do with tkd. dunno, couldn't understand a thing. i weighed in at 82/83kg (i think there's something wrong with their scale), was told i'd be fighting the same guy i fought last week. we were meant to fight around 14:00.

4.1) training
started training with the black belts, learned all sorts of interesting things and kind of got back into the whole fighting thing.

4.2) drinking
remembered my previous fight (i was completely dehydrated, it was a miracle i could stand let alone fight, and i won anyway), and drank plenty of water.
//this is just FULL of details, isn't it?
tried sleeping, managed about 5 minutes. little kids walking over your body don't cause sweet dreams.
lurked.

4.5) discovered that i was put into the 85+kg weight category. this means anyone greater than, which includes some 120kg 'big-boys'. from the national team.
uh huh. right.
so we argued and finally got me moved back to my category, only i was the only one in it. so one of the national team members with similar weight agreed to compete.

4.6) i'm scared. he's a big, dangerous person. with experience.

5) i'm too tired to continue like this

we started fighting around 20:00.
the first round was 3-1 to him, i kicked him out of the ring twice (you don't get points for that). the second was 3-3.
i feel GOOD about that. real good. i drew a round with one of the olympic team. oh yeah.
bussed home, took a way-too-quick shower, went to the bus station, and had just missed the bus to the last train to work. hitchhiked (sortof, kind of started talking to these guys on the side of the road) to the bus station and bussed to work.

my legs hurt, i've slept around 8.5 hours since sunday morning, and i'm going to be at work till around 05:00.

and i'm supposed to be concentrating