Showing posts with label synchronized swimming. Show all posts

Date Night Dinners - Nachos Madness

March Madness is back for another year of crowd favorites, upsets, and emotional roller coasters over bracket choices and outcomes. Brenden loves March Madness, and four years ago, after only a few weeks of dating, he got me hooked. He showed me how to fill out my own bracket, and being the dedicated sports fan I am, I proceeded to strategically pick out my winners based on which school had the coolest name, which state I liked the best, which school I had friends at, and so on. I was sure I could go far with my bracket - just kidding. Even though I had no chance of winning or coming close, and I probably stayed in the bottom twenty-fifth percentile the entire time, I had a blast.
chicken college basketball Date Night Dinner
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The Pursuit Of Happiness - Entry #245

Had a great day filled with friends. I started by visiting my old synchro team and watching their show. They are really shaping up. Then I met with friends for lunch and got to see one of my baffles visiting from Ohio :). And, later I went out to dinner with another friend I haven't seen for a while. It was good day with good eats and lots of catching up!

Potomac Valley Pearls Synchro, woo!
blogging collection experience
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World Barcelona World Aquatic Championships 2013

Did anyone happen to catch the 2013 Barcelona World Aquatic Championships? Well they are still going on. Of course, the best sport, synchronized swimming, has concluded, but if you missed the show you can still check out the results. And don't worry, there are still plenty of amazing athletes left to compete. The Championships last until August 4. And if you can't tune into all of the televised action you can here updates through the live blog.

Here is a short commercial to get you pumped about what's to come for the rest of the competition. I think it is great both artistically and motivationally.
advertisements Aquatic Championships commercial
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Synchronized Coca-Cola

I saw this image and of course I had to post about it. I don't drink soda, but it is synchronized swimming, on an Coke can. Exciting since synchro is a pretty under publicized sport in general. It turns out Coke was advertising the 2013 Universiade by printing different sport images as well as the event name, location, and date on their cans. 

For those of you who don't know (I definitely did not have a clue), the Universiade is an international sporting event organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation.  There is a summer and a winter Universiade. Each occurs every two years in a different city and is described as a multi-sport event. It seems to me the Univesiade is an Olympic type event (it is second to the Olympic Games), strictly for student athletes. This makes sense since the name of the event is a combination of university and olympiad.

This event is the 27th Summer Universiade, held in Kazan, Russia from July 6 - July 17. It appears that synchronized swimming finals are scheduled for July 8 and 9. If you are interested, here are all the details and about this Universiade.

And, if anyone sees a synchronized swimming Coke can in real life, feel free to send it my way :).
advertisements branding Coca-cola
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Day 10 - Shalom Israel

It has been a long trip, but I cannot believe we are already on our last day! It is insane how great the trip has been, and we still have a full day ahead per usual. I woke up for my last Israeli breakfast. I had eggs and french toast...pretty much like an American. I then waited for the bus and enjoyed the scenery of the Golan Heights from our hotel. It was interesting because the hotel was located around a mountain, so when we entered we were on the first floor, but the floors went down instead of up. Our room was on floor 3, but in the elevator it was -3 because we were three floors down from the lobby instead of up like a typical hotel. And, even though we went down, we still had windows and could see outside because we weren't underground, simply lower on the mountain.


I then got on the bus. Our wonderful transportation for the trip; the infamous bus. Don't we all look so happy?


I was finally able to fall asleep on the bus. Everyone slept on our bus trips but I never could. I think the lack of sleep finally caught up with me.


We finished our bus ride and hiked the Golan Heights. It was beautiful and filled with waterfalls and rapids.


We reached the big waterfall and took a few pictures. I got one with my awesome roomies, Ali and Alyssa, for the majority of the trip.


Did you know almonds grow on trees? Well they do, and I have a photo of the sign and tree to prove it. 


After the Golan Heights, we continued to the Jordan River. Today was a very water filled day if you couldn't tell.


We had the opportunity to go rafting on the river. Very fun. Jess and I wanted to kayak but they did not offer that to our group. So, we had a lovely rafting group of five: Me, Jess, Jordana, Leo, and Nick.


Here we are rafting along. You can see I am working so hard...maybe not having the option to kayak worked in my favor. We were only given two paddles for some reason and because Nick and Leo had also wanted to kayak, Jess and I graciously gave them the paddling opportunity.


I did get sacrificed in the end though, and thrown overboard by Nick. All of the rafting teams were fighting for each others oars and taking prisoners. You can see me pulling our boat to shore. Something touched my legs though so I am pulling with just an arm and trying to get the rest of my body back on the boat. As much as I love to swim, open waters sort of freak me out because of the living creatures.


After having time to change and lounge around the river, we made our way to one last dinner at a hotel. I filled up on my last plate of schnitzel, brisket, hummus, and all types of veggies. We had a closing group activity where we each shared our favorite experience on the trip. And, we posed for one last group shot with another beautiful landscape.


Our last sunset could not have been more perfect as we took our final bus ride to the airport.


After gathering our stuff and saying a very rushed goodbye, we headed into the airport where we waited on line...for a very long time. Our bags had to get scanned, and let me just say the scanning machine was ridiculous. They must really not want people to bring home souvenirs because as the bags come out of the machine it basically gets catapulted out and thuds onto a downward moving ramp for us to collect (or piece back together) at the end.

I found that Israel's Ben Gurion airport was just as exciting as the other landmarks we explored, when I passed a synchronized swimming poster. Woot!


Nick and I spent our free time in the airport exploring the duty free store with free drink samples. I also bought a little souvenir camel, and Nick bought a neck pillow for the ride. He was very excited, and all ready for 12 hours in the air. Can't you tell?


After landing we went through customs and I finally got my passport stamp, although not in my passport because some countries won't let you enter if they see you have been to Israel. Crazy, I did not know that. I then said a few more quick goodbyes, and met my cousin at the airport. I stayed at her house (where I slept ALOT) until the next day when I drove home.

My trip was definitely one of a lifetime. It was better then I ever could have anticipated, and although I have tried, words cannot express how amazing it was. I hope you have enjoyed reading about my journey. My posts about Israel are complete, but feel free to ask me anything you want about my trip. There are so many experiences I could expand on, and I would love to relive the trip some more.
Birthright blogging bus
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Day 6 - Mountains and Arts and Seas, Oh My!

I warn you now and apologize (sort of) that this is an extremely long post. But, BE ADVISED: it is well worth the read. It was one of the best days in terms of what we did and experienced.

Today's alarm was especially loud and came exceptionally quick...maybe that's because it rang at 3:30am! And no, it was not a mistake. We woke up early to take a bus to the bottom of Masada, and hike the mountain in time to watch the sunrise. Luckily, I bought a few overpriced, $4 dollar, KIND bars in the airport, and ate one on the bus ride to Masada because waking up and leaving so early did not allow time for us to eat breakfast until getting back from the hike (around 8-9am). We got to the bottom of Masada by bus around 4:20am, giving us about an hour to hike before sunrise. Unfortunately, we started out going the wrong way...3 times. Oy vey! When we finally got back on track we had less time and everyone was in rush to get to the top. And for good reason, who wants to wake up that early for nothing. So we began our trek and spread out.

Although there was a set path, stairs, and a few railings, the hike was much tougher then I had expected. I mean, I thought I was in pretty good shape, but this climb put me to shame. And, to my disappointment I had to stop a few time to catch my breath; I think I started out to fast in fear of missing sunrise. I did feel a little better when even the people who got to the top first said it was tough. On the way down I tried counting the amount of stairs but lost track after 400 (about 2/3 of the way down maybe, and that doesn't include the straight inclined parts of the hike) which made me feel better about myself too.


I made it up in plenty of time for sunrise, maybe 20 minutes, where I sat, relaxed, and took in the view with my friends from the group. Another unfortunate event that day - it was super sandy and dusty in  the air. This caused the sunrise to be a bit anticlimactic since it was covered and toned down. While it was still a totally cool experience and completely amazing view, I was picturing beautiful colors rising above the Dead Sea surrounded by dessert. Instead it was plain white, and perfectly circular which in its own way was very beautiful and interesting. I watched the mountain brighten up for the day and also looked at the cable car platform in envy. Don't get my wrong, I am thrilled we were able to have the experience of actually hiking Masada, but I wish it had been opened to ride down in. It opens later in the day because it gets so hot. By 9ish it starts to become dangerous in the heat of the summer desert of Israel.



On top of Masada is the ruins of an ancient Kingdom.


We toured the area and heard the stories of the kingdom and its falling. Below, on the left is the sauna, heated by fire. On the right is a wall form the kingdom. The black line separates original construction from reconstruction. Anything above the black line has been rebuilt to better show what the kingdom looked like.
 

After about an hour or so tour of the top of Masada, we began our journey down. And while it was a much faster trip, it was still a long one. On the right is the full view of Masada. We hiked all of that, to the very top! You can see the cable car platform in the top right of the picture and we hiked higher then that. In the left image, you can see the long windy path we took. Remember, over 400 stairs.

 

After busing back to our kibbutz from Masada we were able to get breakfast (yum, so hungry!) and relax for an hour or two. During this time I wondered around the kibbutz and explored the scenery. I found that there are many stray cats in Israel, kind of like the squirrels here, except people actually feed them and treat them nicely, just not as pets. There were also goats roaming around this kibbutz. Just wondering the same sidewalk as us, like dogs that don't want to be petted.



I also began to learn how to play my new favorite card game (thanks to Nick). It is called Big 2 or Chinese poker. I have taught my boyfriend how to play since returning, but want to have the opportunity to play with more people and more often, so hopefully I will be able to teach more people or find some who knows how to play...before I forget how to play ;).

When we went on our second outing for the day we first went to Dead Sea Works. This is one of the largest and most productive factories in Israel. The factory takes minerals from the Dead Sea to make potash, a fertilizer, and exports it. We watched what was a basically a recruitment video and then had a bus tour of the factory. The highlight was driving down a strip of road with the Dead Sea on either side of us (almost to Jordan who Israel is supposedly friendly with because of sharing the Dead Sea), and seeing the incredibly long (unfortunately I cannot remember how long) conveyor belt that transports the potash throughout the factory. While the factory and what it does was mildly interesting, I was more focused on the art and sculptures throughout the factory grounds. I can say it was definitely the most colorful and decorative factory I have ever seen. Below are just a few of the art pieces I saw: A big menorah, A NASA rocket, and a man in a tractor.


The long awaited Dead Sea Swim/Float was next! This was one of the moments I was most looking forward to and it definitely lived up to my expectations. The beach was nice, but our area was actually way dirtier then I expected, especially after being at the beach in Tel Aviv which was beautiful (this must have been a touristy area).


We bought mud and slathered it all over our bodies before getting in, as you are supposed to.


And then I was floated away. Amazing. There is no way to describe it with justice. You seriously just float. You get lifted up and float. It is hard to stay upright unless you are perfectly straight. And, you must be very careful of what you are doing because you do not want to accidentally splash yourself or others or be splashed because IT BURNS. Everywhere! Places you would never think would burn. Before going in we were given warnings:

  1. Do not fart or pee in the water. 
  2. Do not go in with open wounds
  3. Do not go in if it is that special time of month
  4. Do not wear female products for that special time of month
  5. Do not splash
  6. Do not put your head under the water

Definitely glad we were warned. And the water tastes disgusting so do not lick your lips. Mistake number one. I accidentally got water in my eye too. O MY, OUCH! The water felt great, but it was a bit strange. The large amount of salt made the water feel almost like oil and my hands felt like they had oil all over them when I lifted them out. The water temperature was nice and warm but not too hot, like a bath. You could just lay there forever and chat and relax.

NOTE: I know mentioned the burning a lot, but it was totally worth it. And I would definitely recommend going in the Dead Sea if you get the chance.


We are not standing in on the bottom floor. Nope. We are floating straight up. And my camera is not water proof (although I wouldn't actually suggest bringing in your camera, I am just confident in my swimming abilities after years of eggbeater during synchro practice).


And trying out some of my synchro moves. That was the highest ballet leg I ever did (unfortunately the picture doesn't capture my complete ballet leg). 


I finally got out because I couldn't take the burning anymore, but it burned even worse once I was out. Luckily, they have fresh water showers right at the shore of the beach to rinse off. 

I got a salt covered rock (yes there is a little brownish rock under all of the salt) from the beach for a souvenir. They were everywhere, even bigger ones too. I brought mine back for my friend, Anna, as a joke because she adds salt to all of her food. Yum, now she has salt with minerals.


We then headed back to our kibbutz for the night where we ate dinner and had a few group sessions. What a fun day :)
art beach Birthright
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