I arrived, exhausted and dazed, luggage lost, yet lightened and excited, in Istanbul. I came from Tel Aviv, where my childhood friend and I ended our ten day tour of Israel. While we were in Israel we visited the Negev, which is a mountainous desert of orange rock and sand. The mountains were carved from flash floods, which shaped the land because the dry rock and sparse shrubs cannot absorb the water. Our Birthright tour of Israel was a flash flood--powerful and rapid, but difficult to absorb. Despite this, we were shaped by the trip much like the flash floods of the Negev shaped the earth.
Above are two images from the Negev