As you all probably know I just came back from a six month vacation. To be honest with you, this vacation wasn’t the best at all. I had to ride in a cheap airline, and had bad customer service the whole way through. The only reason took it was to explore, learn, and research for the university I work for.
Now that I look back at it, the vacation wasn’t all that bad actually, I got to see many types of species, beautiful sceneries, ancient artifacts, an undiscovered city, and not to forget a action-packed adventure. I am here today to talk about it.
First my boss put me on a direct flight from Boston to Tel Aviv, Israel. I didn’t even know there was such thing as a direct flight to their. I had three hours to pack and leave. The flight took eleven hours, and of course my cheap boss put me in the lowest class to save money. Can you imagine we were only allowed to one meal and two drinks the whole flight? When in the air, I was squished between two very annoying people who were screaming and yelling across the room the whole time. The first thing I did when I landed was renting a room in a hotel and sleeping. Enough about that, let’s hear about my adventure now.
I got immediately woken up by a wakeup call my boss set. He left a message saying that I was to be ready by nine o’clock and that a taxi will drop me off to a very famous mountain. There I was supposed to meet a mountain climber. When I arrived we started to climb. We climbed and climbed for hours not finding a thing, until finally we reached the top. I was so exhausted I sat down on the nearest rock. The climber suddenly pointed out old Aramaic writing on it. I immediately rose up, not knowing I was unlocking a trap. The ground started shaking, and then broke. I looked up above finding the climber holding on to the surface, leaving me to fall. Below me were the rushing waters of a humongous river. I made impact with the water, and was immediately thrown through the river. Ahead of me was a waterfall. I tried to stop myself by holding on to a rock, but it was no use, I had to go through it. When the waterfall passed I realize that it wasn’t has big has I fought, but I was thinking too quickly. Ahead of me was another waterfall, but this bigger and more dangerous. I once again was falling in mid air and landed at the bottom of the fall. I was really lucky; I made it through with no bruises. I could finally swim to the shore. I looked at my broken watch; I had no idea what date or what time it was. All I knew was that I was lost, and hungry, very hungry. I looked around hoping to find an escape. After several minutes of observing this landscape, I finally found an exit. It was a tunnel with light coming at the end of it. That was a really good sign. I went into the tunnel walking closer to the light every step. Until I was finally out of the mountain! There in front of me was a huge village, but more important in front of me was food. Lots of food, different types of food, all kinds of food, even water and different juices. I ran towards the food, picking up speed every second. Just before I was about to reach it I tripped on this little rock. I felt millions of nerves sending gushes of pain signal to my brain, pain I had never felt before. The pain was so great I fainted, lying on the ground, next to that stupid rock.
I woke up a little bit later in an exotic comfortable bed, with a bunch of strangers around me. They were speaking in an unknown language I couldn’t understand. I tried getting up but the pain was too much, and the people around me were holding me down. I was so tired and hungry I decided to sleep for a little while.
When I woke up a very nice looking lady gave me some food and something to drink. I ate it really fast and asked where I was. She answered me in a terrible accent that I was in an ancient Aramaic city that they try to keep away from modern civilization so they can keep their tradition and cultures. She assured me I could stay a couple weeks until I was feeling better, and warned me that when I leave I cannot tell about this city to anyone, or there will be serious consequences.
Every day I learned new things about how those people live their life. For example, even though what they’re doing right know was what they were doing thousands of years ago, they have a fully developed government and economic trading system. When they gave me the key to my new house, they also gave money to start with. I got few bills, which were made out of a type of leaf glued naturally together. I also had coins made out of mud and rock, with the value engraved in it. As I lived here, I was even more fascinated day by day. They have some inventions we have but made naturally. For example for the government to communicate, they use two different charged rocks, and when they make the connection, it sends a signal threw the hair, and another device picks it. They connect those rocks in an arithmetic Morse code. For lighting they use gas lamps using natural gas found on the soil that is extremely flammable. In the rich quarter they have telephone device transmitting voice using thin bamboo pipes, and they have running purified water from the lake. In the lower quarter they have coin activated water fountain and telephones. Their cars and buses use a gas engine. The bus uses a mixture of that flammable gas, carbon dioxide, oxygen and water. The engine can go at seventy five kilometers per hour for four to five hours and can carry up to twenty people. This civilization has most modern devices we have but using raw natural materials, and with zero pollution. The kids of the city also go to a school where they learn communication skills, math skills, science skills, a nature surviving class, a history class, and a fun class of their choice.
One Friday early in the morning I received an invitation from the postage service. At my amazement it was written all in English. I was invited to the ceremony of the Local Aramaic Government Convention, and was asked to make a speech there. I knew exactly what I was going to say, I was going to compare the modern world, and their ancient city. I accepted the invitation and immediately prepared for the event. In my closet was authentic Aramaic closing. It looked like a bathrobe, but was less thick, and was made out of another material. The time came and a government taxi picked me up. We drove for about an hour, until we finally reached our destination. It was a courtyard in city hall. They started this ceremony by lighting up the sacred light. The light was really just a hundred meter tall gas torch. They lighted the torch by connecting the gas line and throwing a flame at the top. Once lit, they recited the Ancestor’s Pledge, and then sang the national anthem. After they were done they explain few basic rules to me. You could only talk when you had the spirit stick, and you couldn’t hold the stick unless you were standing on the holy platform. One by one each member spoke, until it was finally my turn. I got up there and was really nervous. As soon as the words were flowing out of my mouth and I grabbed people’s attention I began losing my fear. When I was finished everybody applause and congratulated me. It was the next member’s turn so I threw the spirit stick to him. That’s when I made the biggest mistake. Being the athlete I am, I did not have the best aim. The spirit stick landed on the ancient artifact shelf, and broke it, then all the artifact fell and exploded on the bare ground, the stick bounced back up and landed in the mayor’s head sending him in a coma. Everyone looked at me shocked. The silence was terrifying. I was speechless. Suddenly out of the crowd the security officer yelled, “Get him!” I ran for my life, faster than I had ever ran before, my objective was to get out alive, my obstacle were the people around me. I ran past the city hall, past the school, past the apartments, past the market dodging people on my way, I knew exactly where I was heading, towards the river past the city gates, When I got there I grabbed a random log dropped it in the river and jumped on it. Behind me I could see the officers trying to catch up. I started paddling and swimming until the water took over my job. The river was rushing towards the biggest waterfall so far on my journey. I was possibly ten seconds from death. I fell towards the bottom grabbing tightly to the log. I was still falling, it felt like hours but it was really just a few seconds. Then I finally reached the bottom, the waterfall propelled me deep into the water, while the chunk of wood left was resisting. I fainted of fear.
A little while later I woke up on the shore of the lake. Around me was a big forest. I was looking for a while until I found a hiking trail sign. It wrote:
Mount Sinai Trail
4½ km
Experienced Hiker:
2 to 3 hours

When I finished the journey and arrived back to where I started I rented a hotel room for a couple nights until I got my health back. Everything was going fine, but it was all interrupted when a member of the ancient city knocked on my door and broke in. I was hiding in the closet, and while they were checking the bathroom I sneaked out. I arrived back home a couple days ago and I am now here to tell you about it. As soon as I finished the speech out of the crowd a person shout out, “There he is, you are in big trouble, you broke our thousand year old artifact, sent the mayor into coma, and told our secret, but now the gossip is over!” He pulled out a gun and that was the end of me.