Adventures in You-Know-Where

Disclaimer: posts from now on will NOT be in chronological order, unless it just happens to work out that way. sorry.


You-Know-Where. The-Land-That-Must-Not-Be-Named. Israel.
I went there because I figured I should visit the motherland while I was so close - Cairo. Also I have cousins there I'd never met. They turned out to be fantastic! It was kind of a whirlwind 2-day visit, so I really only got to see old city Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, but my cousin is a trained tour guide so I definitely got a good deal.

I did, however, get detained at the border because of a certain stamp in my passport from a certain country (syria) that the Israelis were not thrilled about. I was pretty annoyed, because I thought I would have a straight ticket in being that I was there to visit family and all. The fact that the border guards looked like a bunch of giggling 18-year-old girls didn't help ease my frustration.

But after they made me wait an hour and a half (comparatively short, i realize), i got through, then on to a great weekend with Azoffs! they even have the same last name! I definitely have to go back and spend more time in this beautiful and fascinating country.

I was pleasantly surprised in Jerusalem to find the Arabs and Israelis living in such close proximity and friendship. On saturday morning, my cousin, Maya, took me to a nearby Arab village to buy fresh bread, and traded news of the family, etc with the shop owner who she's known since childhood. It was very nice to see, and I got in a few words of Arabic which made me feel better about not knowing any Hebrew.

more soon!

O Beautiful, for Spacious Skies

Yes, I have returned to America. it's true what they say, reverse culture shock is worse than forward culture shock. mann, who knew America was so strange?

I have obviously been extremely delinquent in my blogging the second half of my semester. so, now that i am in the US with nothing better to do than lots of packing and unpacking, I will - inshahallah - be updating like crazy over the next few weeks with fun stuff from April and May.

so stay tuned! and check out the photobucket or facebook for lots of pictures!