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The sun rising behind the mountains over the dead sea in the early morning when the world is still is one of those moments you don’t forget. We packed up our stuff and eating a breakfast of salad (in Israel, there is always a salad for breakfast) we stopped at the manufacturing plant Ahava to pick up some dead sea body lotion before going back to the dead sea for a mid morning swim.
After being in the sun a little too long, we jumped back in the car and continued through the Judean dessert stopping for pictures along the way. This area had a great nature reserve but to get to it we had to drive down a long rocky dirt road. When we got out to take pictures…all you could see was miles of desert. It was sweltering hot outside…if we didn’t know there was a major road a few miles away we would have thought we were stranded in the middle of no where.
As we continued on…Ayal told us about a huge manufacturing company that is literally destroying the dead sea. They are mining the minerals from this body of water and it is causing the sea to become depleted. You can see their massive plant on one end of the sea with all kinds of pipes and facilities scarring the view. How can a company take advantage of a natural wonder like this to the point of destroying it? It is not as if they are taking small amounts…you can actually see where the sea use to be and now where it is…I read that in 50 years if nothing is done to change the situation, it will disappear.
Next stop, through the rocky off roads was the small crater. This crater was not caused by a volcano but by the shifting of plates. We drove right up to the entrance and then got out and hiked up the mountain by foot. It was full of small rocks…not a smooth service. We climbed up pretty high and looked at it from a bird’s-eye view. The hot wind was blowing pretty hard but climbing slowly up was worth the effort.
It was starting to get a little later into the evening when we arrived at our bed and breakfast Zimmer. There were two small almost cabin-like but not made of wood individual houses sitting in the middle of the Negev Desert side by side. They were very cute and comfortable. The floor inside was made of all pebbles. There was a small mini kitchen and small living room downstairs and up the six steps and within view from the downstairs was the bed and shower and the toilet was a separate room. Ok, let’s talk about the toilet….it was a normal sized bathroom with a sink and a mirror but the toilet had no running water. So…when you sit on the toilet…you can see in the back is a plastic bag and in the front is what looks kind of like a strainer. When you pee, it goes through the strainer and when you poop it goes into the plastic bag. Ummm….not a fan. While we are on the subject…can we talk about the shower? We have found this type of shower all over Europe as well. There is a shower nozzle that you hold in your hand…but no where to hang it so that the water can shower you while you rinse off. So, you have to spray yourself down (and all the walls around you) then soap up while you shiver and then rinse off. There is no 20 minute hot shower to enjoy. Why?
It was dinner time and luckily we had fresh pasta makings and our chef Giff. He whipped up two different pastas in the tiny kitchen, one in a cream sauce and one in a red sauce as well as bruschetta to start. We also made a salad and did all of this with the items left from our Jerusalem market purchases. Dinner was super good and we all sat outside on the porch to enjoy it. It was really interesting to look out and see all desert around our place. No streets or people in sight.
We climbed into bed and fell fast asleep after a busy day.
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Published by Brandey Kabat
What I like: Dark chocolate, yoga, fresh squeezed juice, laughing, hiking, wine, travel, food, lush products, being warm, having long hair, the ritual of drinking something hot first thing in the morning…
What I don’t like: When people smell their fingers, pushing elevator buttons, confrontational situations, not being able to fall asleep quickly at bedtime…
Most random job ever: Plastic surgery consultant
As for my love life: I met my husband mid way through my junior year in college, as soon as I laid my eyes on him I was attracted to him. In fact, I made the first move which was a bit out of character but there was something about him…probably the fact that he was smokin’ hot!!
Where from and where to: I grew up in NY, went to college at The Ohio State University and then headed to CA after graduation. My boyfriend (Giff) and I had a map, a borrowed van and used stuff from his mom’s basement aka a vacuum, silverware, old Christmas ornaments etc., and about $1000 each. We thought it would be a good idea to head straight to CA since neither of us had been. Being we didn’t know anyone there nor did we have a job or job interviews set up or a place to live…I would say we did it the hard way! However with a bit of help from Giff’s mom who flew out to put us up in a hotel, bought me a suit for interviewing and co-signed a lease to get us a place to live we eventually found jobs and an apartment and have been in CA for 10 years.
Our story: After moving out to CA and living together for about 3 years we got engaged. He popped the question while down on one knee on the beach at sunset after we finished our picnic he had packed of bread, cheese, shrimp cocktail and wine. He even had the ring in a box that had a light shining down on it when opened so as it was getting dark, this amazing man was asking me to be his wife as he handed me a huge rock…Yes! Yes! Yes!
In 2005 we were married (I am biased but our wedding was absolutely amazing). By the end of 2005 we were new home owners. 2006-2009- we were both happily married, attached to our 3 cats and were focused on building our careers.
Giff and I got pregnant mid year 2009 with our first baby but what should have been one of the highlights of our life was soon distracted by the news I received at the doctor’s office.
The lump in my breast that had been dismissed the year before as nothing was now being diagnosed by a different doctor as breast cancer. Thankfully Giff is a persistent person and when we went in for our ultrasound (to hear our baby’s heartbeat) he brought up the request for testing to be done on the lump rather than dismissing it based on feeling it.
The going gets rough: Things began to move so quickly at that point, it was hard to breathe. I was 30, pregnant with my first child and going into surgery to remove breast cancer. I was about to go through what would be the worst year of my life. The plan had been discussed, we were going with the most aggressive regimen possible- double mastectomy, port surgically placed in my chest, chemotherapy, drug therapy and radiation. We also had to terminate the pregnancy. This cancer was estrogen positive and the hormones were actually feeding the cancer. That little angel whom was the cause of our going into the doctor saved my life.
Giff was my rock through every step…interviewing a team of the best doctors, memorizing which medicines I needed to take and when, driving me to chemotherapy and sitting next to me while I was so scared, telling me I was beautiful when I was bald, and so many other things…words cannot express. When you say your vows, in sickness and in health…you would never guess sickness of this magnitude at this age would be in the near future. In addition to this hardship, Giff’s dad died of a complicated prostate cancer the day we came home from my surgery. I could not hold my husband as he mourned for his dad because of the pain I was in from the mastectomy. How did Giff handle all of this pain at one time? How was he so strong for me? He is amazing. Giff’s dad was one of those people whom you naturally wanted to be around…his smile was contagious, his love for life was invigorating and he listened so intently when you talked in a conversation with him. He made you feel special. We think about him often and will miss him so much.
My family and friends were also by my side…my mom flying out from NY several times to help us with cooking and cleaning and holding my hand. It must be one of the most awful things in the world to watch your baby girl be diagnosed with breast cancer. My girlfriends also flew out to take care of me and help with anything they could. Other friends living closer would come by just to sit and talk or watch movies. There were so many cards, letters, flowers, cookies, and other gifts that came from all over the country. It’s amazing to have such great people in my life. In addition to my amazing circle of friends and family, there were the strangers with whom crossed our path. Whether it was a letter in the mail from a breast cancer survivor, the anesthesiologist who called Giff during my surgery crying happy tears that the cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes, or our fertility doctor who promised to watch over our frozen embryos as if they were her own. There were so many small gestures that made such a big impact on our lives.
Looking at the bright side: Thankfully this was caught in stage 1, had it been caught a year prior by the first doctor I had gone into about the lump, it may have been caught at stage 0. Please learn from my lesson…insist the lump be tested – a lump cannot be diagnosed by touch. They were able to cut all the cancer out and after I finish the entire regimen including a pill I take over the next 5 years, they said there is a 95% chance the cancer will never come back.
Our exciting future: We’ve decided to re-prioritize, we are taking 400 days starting February 7th of 2011 to travel the world! We will travel to new places, eat new foods, taste new wines and meet new people. We will focus on healing ourselves both physically and mentally. This will be one of the best years of our lives.
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