Here goes everything :(

UPDATE:  Shortly after booking my tour, I received an e-mail from the tour company saying that the tour for this weekend was cancelled due to lack of participants.  Since then it's been a roller coaster as I tried to find alternative tours, considered getting down there myself, and tried to recruit more people to come.  As I tossed and turned trying to fall asleep, I finally decided:  if I didn't hear from the company before leaving for my internship this morning, I was going to call it off.  I didn't want to spend what are normally the least stressful hours of my week trying to frantically square away the last-minute details of checking my e-mail (via Charlotte), texting Sandy (my friend who decided to join me), calling and cancelling my bus ticket if the trip was off...sigh.  So now, just before I leave for my internship, I've received no word so I'm staying in town this weekend.  So, I'm calling it:  time of trip death, 8:00AM.  I'm very disappointed, but I'm going to try and make things work for next weekend when Charlotte's planning on going.

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Hello, dear readers!   I hope you're all enjoying fabulous days right now :) Big exciting news is coming your way, get ready!  In a chat with my dear friend Rachel a few weeks ago, she shared this gem:  "I think one of the major parts of growing up while you're abroad though is embracing your own independence by not being afraid to do things by yourself."  She's right, I think.  So here goes:  this weekend I will brave a trip to a foreign country on a different continent by myself!  That's right, folks, my trip to Cairo is on.  As I mentioned in a recent post, violence and rioting and Tahrir Square had put my trip with my friend Charlotte in jeopardy.  I've been keeping a very close eye on the news, and today, after gaining the go-ahead from my father, his former student and current State Department employee, Amira, and her friend Erin who is currently in Cairo, I have booked bus tickets to and from Eilat and a one-day tour to Cairo!

Sadly, it's looking like Charlotte isn't going to make it...because our plans were in flux for so long she had to move some things around.  But as I was talking to Dad yesterday evening and waiting for a response from Amira, he asked, "If Charlotte isn't going, would you go anyway?"  I thought about it and decided, YES.  This is the last weekend that I can conceivably make it happen, and I've wanted to do this for so long.  I've been hoping to do Egypt since I decided to study abroad in the Middle East, and I've been wanting to go to Africa forever!  I've opted for a jam-packed one-day tour instead of the two-day tour -- the single day is the cheaper option (especially since as a single traveler I'd have to pay $40 more for accommodations!) that still allows me to hang out with kids at my internship on Friday morning.  It does feel a little crazy to spend more time on buses getting to Cairo than I will actually spend IN Cairo, but hey...I'm making it happen :)

So here's the plan for my insanely busy weekend!  Today I did laundry, packed (one backpack and one purse, check it out!), and I'm trying to get as much homework out of the way as I can.  After my internship tomorrow morning I'll head straight from the school to the bus station and catch the last bus to Eilat before Shabbat.  With a few hours to entertain myself in Eilat, I'm planning on bringing Lord of the Rings and my Holocaust reader, which I can read while relaxing on the shores of the Red Sea.  After grabbing dinner, I'll be picked up from the bus station by the tour company at 11PM and we'll spend the night driving through the desert to Cairo, where we'll arrive at 7AM.  The day will be spent sight-seeing -- the pyramids, the sphinx, the Egyptian museum, and the Khan El Khalili Bazaar.  5PM will conclude my time in Cairo, and I'll be dropped back in Eilat at 11PM.  At that point I'll catch an overnight bus to Tel Aviv and an early morning bus from there to Jerusalem.  Upon my return, I will probably crash for a few hours before getting right back up again for class!

It's going to be exhausting.  It's going to be amazing.  It's going to be insane.  It's going to be incredible.  And I can't wait :D Wish me luck, dear readers, and I promise plenty of pictures and hopefully good stories when I return!

Happy Thanksgiving

I must say, this week as all of my friends in the States posted their excitement about a break from classes and spending some quality time with loved ones, I felt a pang of envy.  This is the first Thanksgiving I will spend anywhere other than my Nana's farm in Vermont or, a couple times, my family's home in California.  It is also my first Thanksgiving without either my parents or my sister; when Kat was abroad, it was just Mom, Dad, and myself, and last year my sister and I traveled together to the farm while our parents celebrated in California.  This year, we are scattered:  Mom and Dad are being joined by a few friends in California, Kat is at the farm with the Hudkins clan, and I'm overseas.

I remember while we were visiting Kat in Ecuador over Christmas, she regaled us of tales of struggling to find ingredients and making odd substitutes in order to create a pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner at her host family's home.  Sadly, my teeny apartment lacks an oven, so I can't make all my beloved side dishes -- for me it's not about the turkey, it's about the scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, spinach artichoke bake, and good wine!  I'm contemplating trying to find a microwave recipe for scalloped potatoes, but given the fact that they take 1.5 hours to bake in the oven, I'm not holding my breath!

In spite of the fact that this will probably be the strangest Thanksgiving I celebrate in my life, I am trying to hold on to the spirit of the holiday and remembering to be grateful for all that I have.  I truly have so much to be thankful for:  supportive parents, a wonderful sister, a boyfriend who loves me, and incredible friends; the unique opportunity to study abroad and the ability to have a top-notch college education in the US; a roof over my head, plenty of food to eat, clean water to drink, and warm clothing; enough money to buy all that I need and plenty that I want; I could go on and on.  Plus I am thankful for you, readers, for your support, for your advice, and for your cheering comments.

So today, dear readers, I may have a dinner of brown rice, chili, and Diet Coke over readings about the Holocaust instead of turkey, mashed potatoes, and wine with my beloved family, but that doesn't change the fact that I am utterly grateful for the many blessings of this life.  Sure, sometimes bad days come, and sometimes I'm lonely or angry or sad.  But when I have a bad day, I can always count on the fact that I can make tomorrow better.  When I'm lonely or angry or sad, I know that I have people who will help to pick me up, listen to me, dry my tears, and hug me for 36 hours (Steph!) or until I feel okay.  So here's to remembering the many gifts we are all blessed with, and here's to cherishing those blessings every day.  I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving.

Cairo, Midterms, Turkey Day, and more...

Hello, dear readers!  Not too much to report, but I thought I'd share a quick post with some recent news and discoveries.

First, some potentially very bad news:  as you may have heard in the news over the last couple of days, violence and rioting have broken out in Cairo, which puts Charlotte's and my trip in jeopardy.  We're keeping an eye on the news, but we'll have to make a decision pretty soon one way or the other.  Keep your fingers crossed that the situation calms down soon!

Anyone who's friends with me on Facebook has seen that it is MIDTERMS WEEK here at the Rothberg International School!  Woo.  I turned in my first midterm essay a week ago, had my Islam midterm yesterday (man, he asked the most RANDOM questions), and took my Hebrew midterm this morning.  My Holocaust midterm essays are due this afternoon and are pretty much done -- I'm planning on looking over them once more before handing them in.  After that, I have an oral exam in Hebrew on Thursday and my last essays (for my Judaism class) are due next Wednesday, so I've got a little time to work on those.  Four down, two to go!

After it seemed that I had finally recovered from the cold I got in September right around Rosh HaShana, last night I noticed that my throat was sore.  I chugged a liter of water and went to bed early in hopes that sleep would be the cure, but alas, it hadn't disappeared this morning!  Various friends have already prescribed orange juice, zinc supplements, and keeping my core warm.  I am also self-prescribing sleep (I hope), plenty of fluids, and chicken soup!  Plus I'm making chili today or tomorrow...maybe the spiciness will clear this thing out of my system!

One of my favourite holidays is this week:  Thanksgiving.  I realized I've only ever spent Thanksgiving at my Nana's house in Vermont or at my parents' house.  I have never had a Thanksgiving without either my sister or my parents.  I'm still trying to decide how to celebrate; the international school is having a black-tie dinner followed by a concert and dance party, which doesn't really scream "Thanksgiving" to me, but I don't have an oven to make my own Thanksgiving-y foods.  The other thing I'm sad to be far away for is my four-year anniversary, which falls the day after Thanksgiving this year.  I hope that despite my sadness at being far from home that I will be able to remember to be thankful for my wonderful and loving family and for four wonderful years with Ian.

I'd also like to share a quote from one of my Holocaust readings which is discussing the Jewish question in Britain.  It comes from the Balfour Declaration, which facilitated the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine:  "[N]othing shall be done which may prejudice the civil or religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."  Boy, that one went REAL well, didn't it.  You know, I was talking to my friend Arielle about this yesterday...for about the first two months here, we simply enjoyed being in this country because everything was novel and new.  Now that we have learned more, EVERYTHING we see is loaded with politics.  It's inescapable.  I am still (mostly) enjoying my time here, but sometimes I just want to get away from the politics.

While parts of me feel ready to be done with my time here, recently another part of me has begun to realize that going back to Mount Holyoke won't be as easy as I want it to be.  What I want -- what we all want when we try to "go back home again" -- is to just slip right back in, to pick up where I left off.  But that's simply impossible; I've changed so much, and life at Mount Holyoke has moved on without me.  I feel like I won't really notice just how much I've changed until I'm trying to fit back into my old life.  But, as my sister and mother pointed out, it's good to be realizing this now rather than be utterly shocked by it when I'm back at MHC.  And as my dear friend Rachel reminded me, even though things will be different, I will still have homes with those I love:  with my stage crew family, with the Project: Theatre board, with my favourite professors, with the incredible women of Chorale.  No, it won't be exactly the same, but I can and will be a part of those things again.

Now, with 6.5 hours remaining before my last class, I am going to resume reading and listening to the Indigo Girls (and my inner debate about whether I should stay on campus or go back to my apartment!).  Yom tov, kulam!  Good day, everyone!

Kat's Visit: Part Four

My dear readers, in the immortal words of Motormouth Maybelle, it's time to wrap this mother up!  I'm hoping to finish out Kat's visit and my post on my trip to Hebron before departing on yet another adventure this weekend.

Bright and early on Wednesday morning, Kat and I awoke in the hostel, repacked our backpacks, and headed out to the curb to wait for our pickup from DesertEco Tours.  Shortly after our scheduled time, an open Jeep pulled up and we climbed in, introducing ourselves to Vanessa and Joe, who would be our companions for the next two days.

We drove to the Arava border crossing a few minutes away, then went through passport control into no-man's land before crossing into Jordan!

After crossing the border, we had a two-hour drive to Petra, during which we both snoozed.  We made a stop on the way in to see the Tomb of Aaron on a far-off mountain.

Finally we arrived in Petra and began our walk through the siq.  There were beautiful natural rock formations created by wind and rain erosion, and absolutely gorgeous colours.

We also saw some smaller carvings and several tombs along the way.

For a long time, Bedouins had lived in the tombs, but when scholars discovered the archaeological importance of the site, they were moved into government subsidized housing.  Eventually we arrived at the Treasury, the most famous site of the Rose Red City.

It was so magnificent and spectacular!

We continued walking along the street of facades until we encountered the Theatre -- a spectacular, 30,000 seat theatre carved entirely from one piece of stone!

We stopped and had lunched, and along the way we saw Camel Rock, a natural rock formation that looks like a camel!

 Then we decided to make the hike up to the Monastery -- 888 steps up, but absolutely worth it for the spectacular view!  I think it would be a beautiful place to watch the sun rise.

After that we walked all the way back down the stairs, along the street of facades, past the Treasury, through the siq, and up to the travel agent's office.  Here came trouble:  we had heard in the morning that DesertEco Tours had messed up our booking and booked us to spend the night in a hotel instead of the Bedouin camp as we requested.  We pointed this out to our driver, and he said to speak to the travel agents when we arrived.  When we first got into Petra we stopped there to drop off our luggage, and they told us they couldn't do anything.  When we returned, I pulled out my pushy inner Israeli and explained that we knew it wasn't their fault (they just make the bookings based on info from the tour company), but it certainly wasn't our fault, and we shouldn't have to pay for the tour company's mistake, so they'd better call them.  They did, and they explained that since it was the last day of Sukkot, they couldn't access the records to check until Friday.  I persisted.  They relented.  We won :)

So we took a taxi to Ammarin Bedouin Camp where we were greeted by Muhammad and Muhammad -- a common Arabic name, you see ;) They showed us to our tent and the showers, so we each quickly rinsed off the desert sand before changing into warm clothes -- always surprising to me, the desert gets freezing at night!  I'm getting used to it since I live in the desert now.

After that we headed into the common tent and joined Joe and Vanessa and met two couples from the UK -- and one from Foster City!  We drank delicious sweet mint tea, visited their small museum, and had an incredible dinner.

Man, sitting next to her made me look tan!  Coming to Israel with my California summer tan and then being out in the sun all the time kept me rather brown :) Afterward Kat and I stayed to talk to the Muhammads for a while and got some basic Arabic lessons.  After they powered down the generator for the night, Kat and I went out and looked at the stars -- there was no light pollution for miles around, so we could see SO MANY.  It was absolutely gorgeous.

The next day we rose bright and early, dressed, and had breakfast with our fellow campers, and were picked up by yet another Muhammad.

He was to be our driver and guide for our tour of the Wadi Rum desert.

This was one of Kat's favourite parts of the trip, because it involved lots of climbing up onto tall things, which she adores!

I, on the other hand, prefer to keep my feet firmly planted on the...sand.

But I did enjoy being her designated photographer...

...running down sand dunes...

...and RIDING A CAMEL.

Highlight of the trip for me.  We also had a delicious lunch of chicken, salad, and pitas.  Finally they drove us back to the Arava border (I napped again) and we crossed back into Israel.  On the way, Joe decided to make no man's land into a country called Joetopia.  We spent the Jeep ride back to the airport planning out our lovely country.  We said goodbye to them at the airport, then went back to the hostel so I could pick up the bikini I'd left out to dry.  We swung by the bus station to grab tickets on the last bus of the night to Jerusalem, then decided to go stick our feet in the Red Sea!

Two Israeli seas down, two to go :) We grabbed a shwarma for dinner, then headed back to the bus station, where we ran into my friend Charlotte, who was trying desperately to talk her way onto the fully booked bus.  And she succeeded!  So on the way back I snoozed, listened to music, and read Lord of the Rings.  Kat and I shared a taxi back to the Kfar with Charlotte, then took showers and fell straight into bed.

For Kat's last day, we decided to try and go back and hit something we'd failed to do earlier:  the Mount of Olives.  On the way, we stopped by the amazing falafel shop and got Kat one last amazing falafel.

Sadly, since it was a Friday, a lot of the spots we wanted to hit on the Mount of Olives were closed, but we hit a few spots, including Dominus Flevit, where Jesus cried for the sins of the world...

...the garden of Gethsemane...

...the Jewish cemetery, the most expensive cemetery in the world because many believe that this will be where the Messiah comes...

...a holy rooster?...

...and we also found an incredible view of the Old City.

Kat was feeling a little unwell at that point, so we headed home, lazed around for a while, watched TV while Kat packed, and then had pasta for dinner while watching The King's Speech.  She had never seen it, so I knew we had to watch it!  Then she went to sleep early in order to be vaguely conscious for her 3AM sherut, whereas I stayed up until 1AM, napped for a couple hours, walked her out, said goodbye, and went back to sleep.  It was so sad to wake up without her there, and even sadder to be facing a big pile of homework!

The big news of this post:  I am officially planning a trip to Egypt!  I am so excited that I will a) be checking Africa off my continents list (5 down!), and b) traveling into every country that borders Israel that one can legally enter with an Israeli stamp and visa in one's passport.  One of my current life goals is to fill up my current passport before it expires in 2018, and I'm looking forward to getting four more stamps =) My dear friend Charlotte found a reasonably-priced two day tour to Cairo departing from Eilat and invited me to join her.  It will be a jam-packed and exhausting weekend (leaving Jerusalem at 5PM Thursday, returning in the wee hours of Sunday morning), but we've agreed that the physical and fiscal costs are worth it:  this is a unique opportunity that we won't have two months from now when we return to the US!

Hebron: Enlightening, Inspiring, Amazing

Hello, dear readers!  Time to finally post about my incredible trip to Hebron in the West Bank last weekend.  Let me preface this by reminding you:  I consider myself relatively uneducated on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  I have been doing my best to listen and try to understand and form my own opinion.  But to be honest, these nine hours in Hebron were the single most eye-opening experience I've had.

In the morning, I met three sleepy friends at the student village (Steph, Arielle, and Charlotte) and we hailed a cab to the Notre Dame hotel, where we were to meet our ride to the West Bank.  We hopped in a van and drove into Bethlehem, where we would meet our tour guide and the rest of our party.  Despite being tired, the ride in was fascinating; our tour guide explained to us the three areas of Palestine (area A, under total Palestinian control, mostly major cities; area B, under Palestinian civilian control and under Israeli military control, the surrounding areas; and area C, under total Israeli control).  He also began introducing us to the idea of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.  These are settlements of Israeli citizens that are considered illegal by the Israeli government, but are still protected by the Israeli Defense Forces and often disrupt Palestinians' way of life.

Our first stop was the Abraham mosque, the location of the tombs of the patriarchs.  We saw Sarah...

 ...Rebecca...

 ...Isaac...

 ...and Abraham.

In 1994, a shooter entered the mosque during Ramadan and killed 29 people and injured 125.  Since then, the holy site has been divided into two sections, one for Muslims, and one for Jews.  Our tour guide informed us that whether or not we're actually Christian, for the purposes of visiting, we were Christian -- Muslims could not visit the Jewish side and vice versa.  The Muslim side had enormous security to get in; the Jewish side had none.  Sadly, because it was Shabbat, we could only enter the Muslim side; only Jews are allowed in the Jewish side on Shabbat and holidays.  Unfortunately, this also meant we missed seeing Jacob and Leah!  Oh well.

To get into the Muslim side, all the women were required to wear extremely fashionable hooded cloaks to cover themselves.  We decided we looked like hobbits.  Then we all claimed a hobbit!

From right to left, we are Merry (Steph), Sam (Arielle), Pippin (me), and Frodo (Charlotte).

After that, we sat and had coffee at one of the few shops that is still open.  Dozens of shops have been closed because Israeli settlers have moved to the area and need "safe passage" to the tombs of the patriarchs.  Our guide was not allowed to walk down the street with us because he is Palestinian.  One of the people in our group asked him, "Does it make you nervous, being here?"  "Yes," he replied, "I am always scared."  There is a red line in many parts of the city showing where Palestinians cannot cross.

So he sent us by ourselves to walk down the deserted street.  All the doors had been welded shut by the IDF, and several of the closed shop fronts had been defaced by settlers.

After that we walked into the Old City of Hebron.  There are a few settler families who live above the main street of the Old City, so they've installed a chain link fence over the top of the walkway so that the settlers can't assault the Palestinians.

While we were in the Old City, lots of children and young men followed us and tried to sell us things.  As hard as it was for all of us, especially when faced with such poverty, it was best not to engage with them.  We then went up to the roof of the Old City, and some of them followed us.  One of them tapped me, and gestured to a water tank next to us.

"This used to be my family's water," he told me.  "But the soldier ruined it.  It used to be enough water for 20 people."  Then he gestured out into the city. 

"Those water tanks are for the settlers.  There's more than enough for them, but not enough for us," he explained.  To be honest, speaking with that young man and hearing his personal story was probably one of the most powerful, touching experiences of the trip for me.  I gave him all the change I had, and he gave me a Palestine keychain.  (I'm hesitant to display it until I can have someone translate the Arabic for me!)

We headed over to where we would have lunch in the home of a Palestinian family, and on the way, our guide pointed out a school taken over by Israelis that was turned into a yeshiva.

Then we headed up to meet the family who was opening their home to us.  We came in the back door because, due to settlers, their front door has been welded shut.  Fortunately there were stairs up to a separate door at their home; in other places, people have had to affix ladders to back windows to get out of their houses.

The family we met had three ADORABLE children!  I only got a shot of the middle child because my camera started saying low battery and I wanted to preserve it...but he is SO adorable!  All of the children were just darling.

While we were there, we watched a video, which was basically documentary footage.  It showed the IDF coming in to the area we had just walked through, about ten months ago, and kicking out the shop owners and welding their doors shut.  The Palestinians were not allowed to retrieve their goods from the shops, and many of them were harassed by the soldiers.  The wife of the woman who made us lunch was one of the men affected.  The shop owners appealed to the Israeli high courts, and a month or two ago, the decision was reversed, and the shops were opened again.

We had a DELICIOUS lunch -- cooked rice, lentils, and onions with salat, Middle Eastern salad made of tomatoes and cucumbers.  Insanely delicious, especially on a chilly, grey, rainy day.  The weather did nothing to dampen our spirits though :)

Over lunch, we talked with our tour guide, and one of the things that came up was (naturally) the two-state solution.  To my mild surprise, he said he didn't support it -- his fear was that Israel and Palestine would both lean to the extreme and become purist states.  So, we inquired, what was the ideal solution for him?  He said he wants one state, but where it doesn't have to be a Jewish head of state of a Jewish majority in the Knesset.  Many Israelis would support a one-state solution, but would reject the idea of Muslim leadership.  And of course, if one state was created, the state would be majority Muslim.  It got me thinking...it's an impossible situation.  I still don't know what the "right" solution is; all I know is that the way it is now is NOT right.

After lunch, we continued walking.  We walked to the edge of the H2 area (under Israeli control, where Palestinians are subject to extreme restrictions) and looked into the H1 area (under full Palestinian control and bustling with activity).  The shift between the two was absolutely jarring.  After that, our guide showed us the route that had formerly been the route Palestinian children took to school, but was now blocked because of settlers.  Foreign parties contributed funds to create an alternate route, which we walked along.  On the way, we saw lots of urban art and defamatory graffiti.

There were symbols like these all over, layered with pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli sentiments:

Steph is considering getting this gorgeous design as a tattoo.  Above where it says "freedom" in English is the same in Arabic.

I was utterly shocked by this one, and disgusted that Jews would suggest using a torturous method of murder used against them by the Nazis against another group.  Especially with all I'm learning about the Holocaust this semester, it simply broke my heart.

After that, we headed to a textile factory that makes kaffiyeh, the head scarves Muslim women wear.  It was absolutely fascinating to watch them being made!

I walked away with two gorgeous kaffiyeh...one dark maroon, and one blue with a pattern that looks like tiny moustaches!

Finally we visited a glass blowing and ceramics workshop, which had unfortunately closed early due to the upcoming Muslim holiday.  Our guide showed us around and explained the process, and I bought a gorgeous mug and a little condiment bowl.  We drove back into Bethlehem, and our guide dropped us off at the bus stop to take the Arab 21 bus back to Jerusalem.  I sat and talked with Steph all the way back, and then we all split a cab back to the Kfar.  Before we all went our separate ways back to our rooms, Charlotte and I had to take one last picture.  Sisters in Vagina Monologues (she's acted in the show at American University for the last two years and is assistant directing this year, and I've directed at MHC for the last two years and am producing this year), we found amazing little purses that said "Women can do everything" on one side and "Palestine" on the other.  So we had to celebrate our fabulous purchases!  (My camera's rather old, so the quality's a bit wonky, but you get the gist!)

In sum:  I will DEFINITELY be going on more tours with Green Olives.  So far I already have relatively firm plans to visit Nablus, Sebastia, and Jenin with them next weekend, and Steph and I were discussing the tour of Bethlehem and Ramallah.  I'm hoping to send M&D on a tour of Bethlehem and Hebron with Green Olives during their visit as well!

Other recent news:  I woke up on Friday morning feeling terrible, so I wound up deciding to skip the Arad trip.  After a day in the Jordanian desert, I decided that I could live with myself if I missed a second desert trip!  (Plus I heard the hostel has a bad case of bed bugs, and that did NOT appeal to me...ick.)  Instead I've divided my weekend into two parts:  day one involved making soup (tons of chicken rice soup and corn chowder in the freezer now, yay for easy meals for Grace!) and being generally unproductive while catching up on TV; day two was devoted to doing schoolwork -- and once I finished reading for the week and my first midterm paper, more of the same :D My first midterm (now completed, woo!) is due Monday, and the last is due November 30th, so it's go time.  Fortunately, I was assigned relatively little reading this week, so I have more time to devote to Hebrew homework, take-home exams, and studying during the week.  Wish me luck as I slog through three take-home exams, two in-class exams, and one oral exam in the next 2.5 weeks!!!  I also have a field trip tomorrow to the Old City Southern Wall excavations and the Herodian villas.  Stay tuned for details soon...!