Escape to the North

Spent the day in Haifa today: Bahai Gardens and a view of the sea. Really cleared my head.

The Apartment Pariah

I consider myself to be of the moderate-Left in Israeli politics.

To my consternation, my roommates asked me before hanging up an Israeli flag in the living room if it was all right. The Palestinian flag graces my desktop partly because it just looks so cool.

And I never understood how people could get so worked up over politics.

So much has happened today. This morning Israel attacked Gaza with air strikes killing more than 200 people and counting. As I read the paper, some part of my brain wondered what kind of retaliation this first attack would bring.

This afternoon, as I set out on my post-Shabbat dinner mandatory jog, I noticed plumes of black smoke near the Hebrew U campus. As it is on my usual route anyway, I figured I would run into the source sooner or later. I didn't think it was anything serious as cars zoomed past in their normal fashion and the usual few people strolled along the streets.

I didn't end up running into the source as it was further away than I had expected, but instead along the course of my jog, I kept hearing mini-explosion sounds coming from the east. Then I noticed through my headphones several sirens as police cars and ambulances rushed toward the Arab villages in East Jerusalem. I thought I was crazy as I looked around to gauge other people's reactions, but no one else seemed to be phased by it. Israelis. Then I saw another great plume of smoke coming from the Shuafat RC area as helicopters droned overhead. Something was definitely wrong.

My roommates and I frantically tried to get any news on what was going on as we realized this was Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem rioting in response to what had occurred in Gaza this morning. Unfortunately we don't have a t.v., and for some reason, there was and as I write this post, continues to be no news on what happened earlier tonight in Jerusalem.

As we all congregated in one of my roommate's rooms with our laptops propped open furiously checking all the news websites, I wondered aloud if most of the people killed in the Israeli attack were civilians or security personnel. One of my roommates matter-of-factly said "They were all security personnel." To which, I retorted, "That is most definitely not true. Civilians are dead."

-"Well, they [Palestinians] put their weapons in libraries, hospitals, schools, etc."

-"And Israel still struck them."

My other roommates looked a little shocked by my response as one explained that the majority of the dead were Hamas security while there were also civilian deaths. Then one by one, everyone filed out of the room, and soon I was left in an awkward silence with only the room's inhabitant. I got up and left too. As soon as I left, they all went back in and closed the door behind them.

Perhaps I was a little too abrupt-too aggressive. Maybe I could have been more diplomatic and tried to be funny about it. No, I couldn't have. People are dead-and these people include innocent men, women, and children. There's no use in playing the blame game I realize, and I'm not sure what exactly makes me so upset.

But this is not the point of the post.

My roommate and I don't even live here; we don't suffer the way Israelis and Palestinians suffer here on a daily basis from the occupation and from terrorism. Yet, we get so impassioned by the politics that embroil this city, this country, this region. I couldn't understand how Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem could live side-by-side everyday without really talking to each other. And now, I understand, sometimes it's just easier to walk away and ignore the other side than get into the politics.

-The Morning of Shabbat-

I wake up to muffled shuffling outside my door.
My roommates are awake; the aroma of coffee drifts under the cracks of the door.
Sabbath morning tranquility abounds.
I grab a mug and start editing my paper.
After two hours, my brain already feels fried, and I need a break.
I decide to check out the newspaper.
And I realize this has already happened in the morning.
While I'm lolling around in my pajamas, only 48 miles away, 160+ are already dead.

Christmas Eve in the House of Lamb/ Bread

Merry Christmas!

This will be a Christmas eve I'll never forget; I spent last night roaming around the windy streets of Bethlehem.

Traffic getting into Bethlehem was pretty bad but expected-lots of tour buses of course. Driving into Bethlehem was interesting: a few weeks back, I went on a tour with Ir Amim and stopped by the wall on the Israeli side, and here I was on Christmas eve driving along the wall on the Palestinian side.

There were more phrases similar to the famous "If you destroy our houses you will not destroy our souls" but more like "those who built this wall shall fall with it", and there were also these great murals of Ghandi and other famous figures. I wish I'd stopped to take a few pictures, but you get the idea.

Also, driving in, I was almost disappointed with the kitschy, artificial bright Christmas lights that beckoned the pilgrims toward the site of Jesus' birth-it was all too touristy-a little too commercialized for comfort-almost sacriligeous. Anyway, this is when Bethlehem receives a huge chunk (if not most) of its tourism revenue, so I guess a little capitalization is expected.

On the other hand, I felt little pangs of nostalgia gazing around at the glaring, blinking Christmas lights everywhere and the Arabic version of Jingle Bells blaring away on the taxi cab radio. Even the usually sinister blow up Santas waving in store fronts seemed kind of friendly.

Additionally, something very interesting: the streets were full of P.A. police and army personnel. Abu Mazzen (President Abbas) was in town. Those poor men standing out in the brutal winds all night-that's quite the merry Christmas.

I went with two friends from Rothberg and we met with an old friend/Palestinian tour guide and went around Bethlehem together with a few other internationals (mostly American).














First we went to a Christmas pageant of sorts. My friend dubbed it "the Love Actually Christmas pageant-Arab style". It wasn't bad. But it wasn't good either. Mostly, it was just nice for me to be in the family-festive environment for the holidays. Also, it was more of a community-style event with few foreigners; and honestly, I felt almost like I was intruding.

When we awkwardly tried to blend in as we walked through the tightly squeezed rows of Palestinian families and finally found seats in the back corner, there was a huge group of little girls just staring-they really couldn't get enough. So I just smiled and slowly they inched their way closer to my chair. After a children's Christmas play in Arabic (from which I gleaned a few Arabic vocabulary I thought had been lost forever in the recesses of this language-barraged brain), and two hours, the girls finally got the courage after nudging each other and whispering to ask me what my name was. Unfortunately, we left soon afterwards, but I did get a chance to snap a photo with a few of these girls.













Then we took a freezing stroll to the Church of the Nativity that was brimming with Christians, pilgrims, tourists, everyone! You could hear Arabic, Japanese, Spanish, English, Swedish, German, Russian, Italian, no Hebrew.

We ate at a small restaurant and then made our way through the crowds to the Manger Square where I was greeted with a carnival-like atmosphere of food carts, neon lights, someone crooning a love-song in Spanish in the background, crowds of people, and just what a festive feeling.

















(In the restaurant-interesting political commentary, don't you think?)

We couldn't get into the Church of the Nativity because a) we didn't have tickets; b) Abu Mazzen was in there; c) no one was really interested in going in except for me.













There was tight security getting into the Church of the Nativity because of Abu Mazzen's posse.

Anyway, we topped off the night at a local Palestinian restaurant/nightclub. We joined in with the locals to dance to techno and Arabic music and donned Santa hats while waving our arms in that beautiful Arab style. What an unforgettable way to bring in Christmas.














A photo op with the P.A. policemen.

Happy (C)hannukah! On a lighter note...

-Professor: "Has anyone been keeping up with what's going on with Gaza these days?"
-general nods all around and a few feeble "yah"s
-Professor: "Well, there's going to be a war; you might as well know why and what's going on."

This is how this evening's From Che Guevara to Osama bin Laden: The International Maze of Terrorism and Guerilla Warfare (got all that?) seminar started off tonight.

Coincidentally, my friend e-mailed me this article this morning about Mubarak's lack of action against the Israeli siege on Gaza.

My professor explained that Hamas has been shooting rockets from Gaza into neighboring Israeli neighborhoods like Sderot even during the so-called truce. He said that everyone was just waiting for that "strategic missile" that will end up killing 10 or more Israelis (he's quite blunt-he said "we're just waiting for one to hit a nursery school.") Then, the process of gradual escalation will have begun, and soon, there will be a full-scale attack by the IDF into Gaza. According to him, this will (finally) be the elimination of Hamas leadership in Gaza.

Maybe you can eliminate the leaders, but the ideas will remain. If not Hamas, won't it be someone else?

He told us that 45 rockets had been launched into southern Israel in the last 48 hours.

"We are living in an insane reality. Enough is enough."

He angrily asked us, "What other country would tolerate missiles aimed at its cities?". He likened the scenario to Mexico shooting rockets to American border cities. He asked, "What would America do if this happened to you?" The answer is obvious.

He lamented that the Israeli government had let Hamas get as powerful as it is in Gaza right now, and compared the situation in Gaza to the one in Afghanistan.

However, he said he would never support an attack on Gaza without a solid and clear exit policy. No more Iraqs or Vietnams. He proposed that the Saudis invest in Gaza or that there be an international economic aid plan, though this will be difficult especially with the world economy slowly crumbling right now.

While he was saying all this, I was furiously writing away in my planner with little quotes of his with plans to write about it later, and he told me that he felt like he was being watched by Human Rights Watch-I wondered how he knew what my politics were anyway? I guess he realized this because he tempered this later by calling me the C.I.A.

His spiel reminded me of something else that is quite interesting: my Palestinian history professor has been telling us for quite some time that this coming January elections for the Palestinian Authority are going to be an extremely tense and volatile period; Mahmoud Abbas (current President of the PA) was/will be re-elected by Fatah, but Hamas in Gaza does not recognize his re-election. Hamas is threatening to elect separate leadership for Gaza thereby splitting the Palestinian people both physically and ideologically.

This professor has also been telling us all along that the time is ripe for a third Intifada-if not a civil war, and , and these January elections will act as the catalyst. This Intifada won't be against Israelis in actuality, but against them in practicality just to unite the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank together against a common cause.

But now, in the light of recent events, I wonder how this will affect the January elections?

Son of a gun...er, shoe.

I talked to a few people about the toy gun incident, and I've found out that during holidays (last week was Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice), Palestinian children are given money and they go out and buy these toy guns and play a game similar to "cops and robbers", only it's really "Palestinians and Israelis".


After I got home from that walk, I asked a friend with some military experience, and he told me that it was probably a toy gun-what did he call it? An airsoft gun, and he'd seen a lot of Palestinian kids running around with them lately. He explained to me that they usually have this little plastic orange stopper that indicates that it's not real, but in the moment, who's looking for that orange piece? I probably didn't even notice it.

Then I asked one of my Palestinian friends about it, and he said that it was almost like a tradition as kids to play this game during holidays. Both of them insisted to my skepticism that it was fun. Sure, I guess. Is there that much of a difference between playing with toy guns and playing violent video games? I see a socio-economic difference, but maybe there's a different sense of reality too?

Again, it's such an odd dichotomy because guns are just a part of life in Israel. Here I was shopping at the shouk (like a crazy farmers market) the afternoon before Shabbat, listening to a street-side performance when lo and behold right in front of me: Strange that I can stand so close yet feel so unthreatened.

Also, a lot has happened lately in the Middle East what with President Bush getting shoes thrown at him in Iraq.
I find Minister Maliki's resigned expression when watching the first shoe getting thrown kind of comical.

It's really interesting to get professors' reactions on the shoe-hurling incident, and two of my professors in particular had very different yet both very valid things to say.

The professor of my class for the Modern History of the Palestinians and the professor of my Israeli Foreign Policy class are both extremely respectable and humble individuals with doctorates under their belts and more personal relationships with big names than I can even imagine. Both have also taught many figures of the generation now in power in Middle Eastern politics and will often recall more for their sake than ours how these leaders were as their own students once upon a time.

It's so wonderful to get their often times completely opposite perspectives on the same events or political decisions, and the texts I read for each class offer so many opposing arguments whether they be inflammatory or sometimes they are simply misleading and almost deceitful with the purposeful lack of important details. Ultimately however, neither professor is completely this or that. Neither try to impose his views on us, the students. And both offer criticisms and praise for all parties involved.

My professor for the Palestinian class has close ties with many leaders of the Arab world as well as friendships with Israeli leaders. And my professor of Israeli Foreign Policy tells us personal anecdotes of famous Israeli leaders and once, so unassumingly, mentioned casually how he had gone to give blood with Winston Churchill (the grandson of the more prominent Churchill) while he was visiting Israel as a famous journalist to cover the Six-Day War of 1967.

In my Palestinian history class today, we discussed the first Intifada in '87 and the consequentially changed educational system of Palestinian youth. Up until the first Intifada, the Palestinian people did not have control over their own education-they could not contribute to the content, the curricula, or the agenda being imposed on their children. With the Israeli shutting down of schools during the Intifada, "popular teaching" arose with the Palestinization of education.

This education was informal, and because of the lack of textbooks, Palestinian youth were taught with the media available at that time. The media was dominated by political material that focused on resistance and encouraged mobilization and often radicalization. Thus, you have the politicization of youth.

(interesting video on current methods of introducing politics in youth culture and Farfour)

My professor brought up the infamous flying shoes, and told us how his Palestinian students at Al-Quds University had been so excited by this story and revered the shoe-thrower, Mr. Zaidi as a hero of the people. Instead of praising this act, my professor lamented the lack of education people were showing by deeming Zaidi's action as heroic. This lack of education he believed stemmed from this twisted form of education that began from the first Intifada.

He told us that he asked his Palestinian students what Zaidi had accomplished by throwing his shoes at the President when he missed both times, and ultimately, the meeting continued as usual. They answered that even though Zaidi missed, the shoe had hit the flag behind the President when Bush ducked. This was insult to America enough. Honestly, I didn't even notice. My professor angrily said that if he were the reporter, he would ask the question, "Aren't you ashamed to be in Iraq, Mr. President?" He believed that would have been more effective.

And again, playing "cops and robbers" with "Palestinians and Israelis"-another example of the politicization of youth.

In contrast, when my Israeli Foreign Policy professor brought it up in class today and a few chuckles erupted from the lecture hall, he angrily told us that it was not a funny matter. He said that as an Israeli, he was so insulted by such an uncivilized act towards the President of the United States. He reminded us that whether we liked him or not, Bush is still the President of the most powerful country in the world, and you are not. That should mean something to everyone.

Anyway, when I first read about this, I was impressed with President Bush, as I usually find myself with the charmingly self-mocking yet gracious way he is able to get himself out of uncomfortable/embarrassing situations.

Dangerous Tomfoolery

I have a problem.
I need to stop being so foolhardy.



On Wednesdays, I end class by noon.

Instead of mulling about in my room wasting time by taking extended naps and reading random blogs or laying outside on the grass to watch the clouds roll by, today, I decided to be a little less sedated than usual and be a little more adventurous.

I found this wonderful site: www.jerusalemp3.com where you can download mp3 files for self-guided walking tours throughout Jerusalem. I downloaded the Mount of Olives tour because it begins right by the university campus, and it includes many Christian pilgrimage sites that I've wanted to visit but never got around to doing.

After a quick glance at the map, I decided the route was straightforward enough, and if it wasn't I could probably find my way with signs. I took my routine nap and set out at around 3 PM with my mp3 blaring away in my ears and a taser my brother got for me from his travels in Cambodia tucked safely in my pocket.

-----
Since I've been in Jerusalem, I've heard from several Israelis as well as other Rothberg students who've been heckled around here that walking around East Jerusalem is not safe.

But whenever I hear someone say that he/she would never walk even to the Arab quarter of the Old City or around East Jerusalem because he/she is Israeli or a Jew, I always scoff a little at their exaggerated fear.

To be quite honest, a lot of the time, this fear seems completely unjustified and exacerbated by group-think bordering on collective hysteria.

For instance, my friend's Israeli roommate unabashedly stated that she was afraid to study at the Mount Scopus campus of Hebrew U because there are so many Arab students. She must not know that almost all of them are Arab-Israelis, and I can safely say that none of them are terrorists.

Or my Israeli friend who was appalled that I would consider going to Ramallah to watch a once-in-a-lifetime hip hop concert because it's so dangerous (should I have put that in quotes?)- and I didn't even end up going because the person I was supposed to go with was too nervous.

Every time I hear someone say something like this, I think, what a terrific job the media has done to portray Arabs and Palestinians as villains.

Even so, I too have had a bad experience around East Jerusalem on a nightly run when I was chased by two men screaming at me in Arabic. So just as a precaution, I tested my taser before embarking on my tour and felt more confident every time I felt it bump against my hand. Of course, I have never used it and hope I will never have to.
-----

I took the route that I used to run to get to the starting point of the tour, and it was the first time I'd been back since the incident I just described. I got to the second site no problem, but then I somehow ended up somewhere I didn't feel completely comfortable in. I was in a part of East Jerusalem I'd never ventured before, but I knew I couldn't have taken a wrong turn-there was nowhere to turn towards!

I fingered my taser as I walked through a dillapidated Arab village and scolded myself for feeling nervous. On my right was a muddy plot with two horses that I decided must be a soccer field because I noticed two rusting metal contraptions that served as goals, and there were kids and teenagers hanging around in groups waiting for their turn to ride two horses milling about the field.

The streets and stores were relatively empty for the afternoon (though now I'm realizing that it's a Muslim holiday week), but there were a few kids running around and some grandfathers walking with their grandchildren.

Of course I stuck out in this scanty crowd, but I would not allow myself to turn around. I would not be a coward and reconfirm their incredulity and admit that I did not belong. I held my head high and kept walking down the street ignoring the men calling out of their speeding cars asking if I was lost or needed help.

Even if I was lost, I would not satisfy anyone's claims that I was turning around because I was afraid to be walking in an Arab neighborhood that was certainly no Ben-Yehuda promenade. I would debunk the "all Arabs are terrorists" myth and prove to myself and anyone else that East Jerusalem is perfectly safe.

Then I stopped dead in my tracks and whirled around gasping an "ohmygod" under my breath.

About 30 feet in front of me, a group of teenage boys shoved another boy against a gate as another boy (who I had passed by earlier) put a gun to his head.

Mid-turn I saw him pull the trigger and heard a faint pop that definitely could not have belonged to a real gun. Regardless, I wondered frantically to myself if that were a real gun, was I really trying to walk away nonchalantly? If he wanted to shoot me, I wouldn't have been able to dodge the bullet.

They must have noticed my abrupt movement and started calling out to me. My hotheaded pride kept me from running, but it also kept me from responding to them.

As I speed-walked back the way I came, I noticed that there were still young children running around and parents with their kids. Even reassessing the situation and realizing that what I had just witnessed was probably a game or prank at best and a sick example of bullying at its worst, I was shaken. Then I was disappointed with myself that I did not even consider helping the victim.

On the walk home my frustration was heightened by an unwanted suitor. I was upset that I had turned around without even reattempting to find the third site of the tour. I was angry that I had validated the fear of East Jerusalem and reconfirmed that as a woman, I should not walk around by myself. And most of all, I was disenchanted with the violence that has pervaded and become the norm in Palestinian youth culture.

No wonder then, that the hip hop artists I've met through my internship are so earnest in their claim that the mic is their weapon of choice.


A picture I took of toy guns for street-side sale in Turkey against the backdrop of a mosque.

Relevant note: gun-toting soldiers and security guards (sometimes in civilian clothes) are the norm in Israel. I think the only reason why gun-toting teens and young boys disturb me so much is because a gun is not and should never be mistaken as a child's toy.

Maybe someday...

My faith in humanity has been restored.

visit:
www.wherethehellismatt.com

And this is pretty funny too.

More Hip Hop in Israel

Last night I went to a concert in Ramle to celebrate Human Rights week held by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.



















The artists were both Palestinian and Israeli, and it was so amazing that regardless of nationality, everyone spoke and performed in Arabic and Hebrew and sometimes even English.

I finally got to meet Saz!
He's as wonderful in person as I imagined.









DAM also performed as well in addition to Israeli rappers like Sagol 59.













After the concert, we went out with a few of the performers including Saz and talked about the hip hop scene in Jerusalem. Mostly I talked with an Israeli rapper, and it was interesting because he mentioned that almost all the inter-cultural musical events were set up by Israelis, but he had never been invited to perform at a Palestinian concert though he's performed several times with Arab and Palestinian rappers, and he's a good friend of Saz.

It almost made up for the fact that I missed the European-Palestinian Hip Hop tour in Ramallah and Bethlehem.























Also, check out Shadia Mansour!

I must say, this internship is not so shabby.

Culture Shock

": (n.) a sense of confusion and uncertainty sometimes with feelings of anxiety that may affect people exposed to an alien culture or environment without adequate preparation."
For those of you abroad right now, going abroad next semester, or ever find yourself in any new destination in life.



It's been a little over four months since I've been abroad. I'm in the midst of classes, and it's my last month to explore Israel since I spent most of the breaks exploring the rest of the Middle East.

I just got back from a weekend down in Eilat, and you might remember my time in Eilat from my crossing the borders into Egypt and then into Jordan. Though this time, it was more of this:

























and less of that:.














I had planned to readjust my sleeping patterns one of these weekends, but after this past weekend, my internal clock is now set on east coast time. Waking up for my 8:30 AMs this week will be a little less than enjoyable.



Before I left for Eilat, I had a very odd revelation that was so obvious, yet took me so long to realize.

In my internship class, we were lectured on the job environment in Israel, and the subject of culture shock was brought up.

The teacher had a long list of the signs of culture shock, and four of them stuck out to me as being especially pertinent to my experience in Israel (although I recognized almost all the signs):

1) unwarranted criticism of the culture, behaviors, and people
2) heightened irritability with the way things are done














3) an extreme desire to speak with someone who "makes sense"
4) a refusal or unwillingness to learn the language

The others included things like: feeling shy or insecure, questioning your desire to move to this place, anti-social behavior, and fear of meeting locals.

Anyway, the revelation I had was that what I was feeling the very first month in Israel was culture shock. (!)

Okay, yes, you're probably shaking your head and thinking "duh?", but to me, this was huge.


I really didn't expect to get culture shock in Israel. First of all, on the surface, Israel seems very much westernized and has the most western of sensibilities of all the Middle Eastern countries because of its close ties to the US. I guess I almost expected it to be very American just everyone spoke Hebrew in addition to English. Secondly, since I have traveled around out of the country several times before with home-stays and shorter study abroads, I didn't think I would be unable to easily embrace a new culture and society anyway.

Looking back at my earliest (angry) posts and remembering how much I used to grumble about going to summer Ulpan and how often I would lament having Hebrew replace my Arabic in comparison to now, how Hebrew class is often my favorite class of the day, I realize that all that I was feeling then: dissapointment, irritation, frustration, anger, disillusionment, homesickness, all of that was a part of culture shock.

When I reread that one post that caused such a hubbub among my family and friends, I can laugh about it because it represents the apogee of my culture shock. I finally can understand where the hell that extreme misery came from. From that point on, I was able to move on to stage four: the autonomy stage.

Now, I can't imagine having studied abroad anywhere else. Israel was never on my list of places to go, and it definitely never crossed my mind as a destination to study abroad in, but I'm so glad that because of a random suggestion in passing, I'm now here in Jerusalem.

There are still times when I'll smile to myself because some Hebrew words sound like English said with an Italian accent (e.g. spetsifi = specific, deit = date). And often things don't make too much sense (like when my Hebrew teacher was describing a new vocabulary word and explained, "It's a square so basically it's a circle." Didn't you know?
Or the confusion on my friend's cousin's face who came from the States to visit this weekend at the novelty that sometimes she couldn't order what was on the menu because the restaurant simply didn't have it. Why would the restaurant have what was on the menu?).

But now, instead of getting upset, I've come to enjoy and appreciate these quirky aspects of Israel. It's almost charming. Ha kol biseder. (= It's all good.) And I know that when I go home, and reverse culture shock sets in, I know I'll miss hearing Hebrew, and things will be weird because you know, they'll just make too much sense.

I'm grateful that although the lecture on culture shock came after four months of my being here after I had already gone through all the stages of assimilation, it's better late than never. After all, it would have been too logical to lecture us on culture shock soon after arrival. It's funny to me that I write this post so late into my being here, but I guess now I can better understand my initial experience in retrospect.

"Studying" Abroad

How much studying actually goes on when one is studying abroad?

It's 11:45 pm on a Friday night here in Jerusalem (the equivalent of a Saturday night in the States), and I decided to stay in tonight because a) I'm running low on cash b) it's really cold outside, and the rain might pick up again, and c) I thought I could start on my 30-page paper due in a month.

Needless to say, it's Friday, and I'm in no mood to sit here hunched over my desk researching about Israel's role in the Iran Contra Affair. I spent most of the evening at my friend's apartment for our ritual Shabbat dinner and then commiserated over the amount of work piling up on our desks and how little motivation there is to do any of it.

Now, I'm sitting at my desk with five books on Reagan sprawled open to unseeing eyes, a few tattered pages with scrawled notes, and a pen behind my ear while I opt to update my blog instead.

Studying abroad is generally understood by most college students as "break time", and the classes a joke, if you will.

Back home, I will hardly ever show up to class without reading the assignment, and God forbid I skip class. Here, I'm more lax about the readings; here, the weekends are not stressful extensions of the week; and here, I'll skip class every so often without feeling guilty if something else comes up. Of course this is all to a certain extent since I'm still paying to attend the university.

Studying abroad is so unique because as much as one's home university would hope, the focus is not on what is being learned in the classroom or from the books. It is time for the student to explore a different culture, society, lifestyle that she may not be familiar with or agree with. It's time for the student to have as many encounters with as many new people as possible. It's time for him to share as many experiences and stories while listening to others' perspectives and opinions on shared and personal experiences. It's time for her to travel and discover new likes and dislikes in music, food, etc. and challenge herself in unfamiliar situations. It's time for him to observe and to reflect.

Initially, it's difficult to be so far from home, family and friends. It's frustrating to not be able to communicate with people because you might not know the language. It's hard to integrate yourself into the society and to adopt new cultural norms. And it's unnerving to have your perspective challenged by new experiences and other points of view. (Just look at my earlier posts for goodness sake.)

But ultimately, study abroad is so gratifying because the place you stay becomes home. After just even a month, you can start to read signs as if they were in your native tongue and understand conversations on the bus. You embrace foreign customs like Shabbat dinner and incorporate them into your own traditions. And it's still difficult, but you learn the most when you can explain your point of view while understanding someone else's to deconstruct and then reconstruct a stronger argument.

It's for moments when I find myself sitting around arguing with Israeli and non-Israeli friends about subjects ranging from relationships to the situation in Gaza that I wanted to study abroad. It's the times I wander around the old city of Jerusalem and perch on a bench to people-watch downtown that I'm the happiest and learn the most.

So even though I'm not always cracking open the books like I would at Wellesley, I'm learning priceless knowledge that may be completely worthless or completely invaluable. It is "break time" in that there is less stress and urgency in the academic sense. Yes, some classes are a joke, but this is really dependent upon your professor. Irregardless, during the past few months, I've learned more about Israel, about Palestine, about myself, about people than I ever expected, and this experience studying abroad will have a lasting legacy in my life.

I'm sorry if this post sounds trite-the end of the semester is nearing, and nostalgia for my life in Jerusalem is already beginning. (I can already anticipate having to tell myself to read this post next semester when I'm again in a new location to remind myself that in the end, I won't want to leave.)

It's now 1:18 am. I should probably start that paper.

Photos from this morning's field trip to the Christian sites along the Via Dolorosa in the Old City:
The sheep pools where supposedly Jesus healed people.


















A very well preserved church from the age of the Crusaders.
Old city views and the narrow streets along the Via Dolorosa in the Muslim quarter.

Thanksgiving in Jerusalem

Although it's hard to be away from home as the holiday season kicks off with my favorite holiday of the year, I'm thankful for everything right now, just the way it is.

A few of my friends including myself were starting to feel homesick as our friends back in the states head home, so we decided that despite the inconveniences of not having a large oven or all those appliances and random spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, etc.) that accumulate over time in our cabinets at home, and that we take for granted, we would have a home-cooked meal for Thanksgiving with no essential dish spared.

We had stuffing, a roasted chicken, garlic & dill potatoes, roasted onions, jelly cranberry sauce retaining its canned figure, pan-seared tuna, strawberry & mango salad, creamed corn, sweet potatoes, and even a pumpkin pie to grace our table.






















I was not looking forward to making the pumpkin pie, but Thanksgiving is just really not Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie. So I bought some butternut squash (I couldn't find pumpkins in the shouk!) and spent two days wondering how I would steam them and then puree them without a steamer or a blender.

Thankfully, Jerusalem supermarkets are more accommodating to the Americans living in Jerusalem than I had anticipated (since the costume turn-out on Halloween was pretty disappointing). I spied the last two cans of canned pumpkin hidden on the top-shelf and triumphantly returned home to the large squashes awaiting their fate on the dining room table. They would have to wait another day.












Despite having to substitute a pie crust with filo dough and evaporated milk with extra condensed milk, the pie turned out pretty well.
















All in all, Thanksgiving tonight was really wonderful, and I feel genuinely lucky that I got to spend it in Israel.

I hope everyone both abroad and at home had a great Thanksgiving!

Update for Mom

It's been a while since I've last posted, and for that, I apologize.

Since I last wrote, a lot and not much has really happened-

Classes are getting more demanding as this weekend beckons midterm exam week; paper topics are being discussed before my typical procrastination scramble begins; the countdown to going home has begun (just 7 weeks!), and I'm realizing I have yet to do so much here; the weekends are flying by in a surreal haze; and already I'm starting to miss Jerusalem.

During the past few weeks:

I visited Yad Vashem-the Israeli Holocaust Museum one cold, rainy afternoon and left with a heavy heart and a strange sense of shock at the speed of the human heart's desensitization

I was supposed to go to the DAM concert in Ramallah and the Saz concert in Bethlehem, but both trips were unsuccessful

I went to a lecture held by Rashid Khalidi about "The Nakba and the Palestinian Identity" during which he spoke about the second Nakba that Palestinians are currently mired in. He sharply criticized the ineffectivity of the Palestinian Authority, which he lambasted as worse than ineffective because it is in fact harming the Palestinian cause and community.

(Rashid Khalidi on the right answering a question. edit: Khalidi is actually on the left.)

Khalidi explained that the Palestinians have suffered and continue to suffer a series of traumas, yet they are unable to be the masters of their own narrative. He lamented the failure of the true Palestinian narrative to be accepted in the U.S., while someone in the crowd asked how it would be possible to change this when the U.S. was the reason for all of Palestine's troubles (I don't agree). Most interestingly, Khalidi advocated the route of non-violence because in these specific circumstances, violence is counter-productive because it reinforces the Jewish narrative/history of anti-semitism and ideology upheld in both Israel and the U.S.

I celebrated my birthday with wonderful friends and five nights of three hours of sleep each.

My friends treated me out to dinner at a really wonderful Moroccan restaurant. Brought back nice memories.


































This afternoon, I went on a tour of East Jerusalem with Ir Amim-where we visited Palestinian villages marred by the lack of government funds (due to the fact that many are not represented in the local government because they choose not to vote because voting is an acknowledgement of Israeli jurisdiction) and by the "separation wall", "security fence", "envelope", call it what you will.


Our tour guide was such an honorable man-a proud Israeli and veteran who acknowledged the problems of the Israeli government's treatment of the Palestinians within Jerusalem. He described it best by telling us that Sharon once said that "Palestinians never lose the opportunity to lose an opportunity", yet "Israelis make the mistake of making mistakes". (edit: and "a mistake that succeeds is still a mistake" - Asher Ginzberg)


Just a few words about the wall: I'm not going to answer whether or not I am for it or against it.

The fact is that it is doing its job. Since it was erected, the number of suicide bombings and other attacks have decreased dramatically. Since it was erected, Israel has been under even greater global scrutiny for human rights offenses. Standing next to it and touching it is chilling and humbling. Looking up at its pockmarked facade, I am able to sympathize with the Palestinians, yet my heart ached when I heard our tour guide's voice shake as he confessed he did not have the heart to read what was written upon the wall.

































Tonight, I went to an orthodox Jewish Shabbat dinner and had an interesting discussion about why it is that Israel's birth caused such a global stir. Our host argued that it was because the world anticipated Israel's future role as a beacon of morality for the world. He also claimed that unfortunately, society has forgotten this ideal-perhaps this is the reason for the lack of peace? I had never heard this perspective before-I always believed Israel's birth made world headline news because of the issue with Palestinian refugees and the wars that followed.

And still, our weekly tradition of Shabbat dinner together continues-

Shabbat dinner with friends. Don't worry, mom. I promise I'm not starving.

As inconvenient as everything shutting down (including public transportation) on Shabbat has been, I think I will miss this the most.













Here are two views of the dome of the rock from West and East Jerusalem. The one where the Dome is closer is from the Mount of Olives-note all the graves.