Happy Ramblings

I haven’t written in awhile……but I suppose the reason is because this is what I’ve been doing with my life:

My lovely roommate took this picture......awesome.
Hooray for midterms!

Well, I don’t know if many people are up on current events but the Gaza flotilla incident has stirred riots and strikes from Arabs & Palestinians all through Jerusalem so we aren’t allowed out of the center for at least three days……we can go to West Jerusalem if we want (the jewish side)….but….it’s midterm time so it’s just as well. Yesterday there were people shooting fireworks at the police….(slightly ineffective)….it was crazy loud, and just a couple streets from where I live.

Israel has had a blockade of Gaza for awhile, they won’t let in any building supplies (concrete, rebar, etc) for fear of them making weapons and they let in about a quarter of the food needed for the Palestinian refugees to survive. Most of them are living in tents since they were driven out of their neighborhoods in Israel…and 80% of them rely on humanitarian aid…….Israel on the other hand has a responsibility to keep its borders safe ……and the flotilla was definitely going into this to have a conflict….draw a little attention……
As a coincidence we had a Palestinian Activist come to speak to us tonight. He was scheduled months ago, but with all these current events…..it was very interesting He said that 1. It was going absolutely nowhere, and if Israel makes an enemy of the Turks it’s going to be a problem. And 2. The US needs to take more of a responsibility of where all their money is going. 3. The number one thing that needs to happen is to remove the feelings of victimization. None of those things are easy things to do….so…..we’re all still stuck.
Things get pretty crazy here in a hurry…I hope it settles down soon....



In other news I’ve recovered from Egypt…almost 100%. When we all got back we had a big reminder that we aren’t just on vacation because we had a big paper for Islam and the Palestinian Narrative class. I stayed in mostly this week, catching up on homework and what not. I managed to make it out a couple times…..and I TRIED to replace things I lost in Egypt but….alas….there are no porcelain-ivory no. 1’s walking around here so make-up is VERY expensive…I’m talking about 30 dollars for foundation. So……I guess I’ll be roughin’ it until August. Oh well…it’s not that bad right?

I kept it to sites around the city, so I went to Gethsemane and the Garden tomb. When I walked to Gethsemane I was with 2 guys and had no problem. However we passed a group with 4 girls and 1 guy and they were mugged, literally ten minutes after we had passed them! Scary! That could have been me….luckily though, nothing of value was stolen. And now it’s off limits because of crime….awesome. oh well, at least I saw it before it closed. And even still, we can see it if we take a security guard with us.


(Gethsemane)


(Garden Tomb)

I made it to Dormition Abbey, a church commemorating Mary. It was awesome…….really really beautiful,…..but sort of creepy because there was this crypt underneath it.



I went to the Jewish third temple museum which was very interesting. They are a group of Jews who are expediting the building of the third temple by making sure everything else is ready. They built all the necessary things for it so they have a 6-foot tall gold menorah, a table of shewbread, altar of incense….really…..everything except the Ark of the Covenant….because nobody knows where that is…I’ve heard some pretty interesting theories, and no, it’s not in a warehouse in Germany.

Same day I saw King David’s tomb, the room of the Last Supper, and Oskar Schindler’s grave stone (as in Schindler’s list). There were hundreds of graves in this cemetery but you could tell which one was his, obviously…because of all the rocks. Every time someone visits they put a rock and a note on the grave…and then periodically they come through and take them off and people start over.



On a fieldtrip on Monday they took us out to Azeka and Lachish and we saw some tels, ancient cities all that good stuff. The site of the famous David and Goliath. We were given slings and we practiced throwing rocks….it was pretty cool. We even saw this underground room that looks like the a very ancient version of the Department of Mysteries in Harry Potter….AWESOME.



Then we went CAVING. Yup. More caves. They’re all carved out of lime and really smooth. Some were huge…these were actually the caves that Sylvester Stallone as Rambo repels down…I’ve never seen the movie but the cave was cool.


dramatic lighting in caves? i think....yes.



However some were small. REALLY SMALL. I’m talking about on-your-stomach-army-crawl small. Like in legend of Zelda when you make Link crawl under stuff (nerd alert….)…..holes that small! By the time I went in and discovered that I would be claustrophobic and would MAYBE not fit through…it was too late and I couldn’t turn back…literally. COULDN’T. couldn’t extend my arms, it was pitch black….i had a flashlight but had to try and squeeze through this tunnel with my arms….oh my …..it was the pyramid panic attack times 100. I made it. It was totally fine…but I decided that that would be the worse way for me to die. That’s all.
We all came out completely dusty and gross but it was really cool and I’m glad I did it. Don’t think I would do it again though…..I have bruises all over my knees from crawling around caves. Outta control!


(just a picture to show how small the tunnel was in relation to a person. and yes, i mean a TUNNEL...not just a hole. It was at least 15 feet long.)


(blurry, but SO happy to get out of those caves)

I felt exceedingly homesick this week….for the States…..and for a place where I don’t live with 80+ people. At school, I at least could just go….go somewhere. Here, you really don’t have a place where you can just be by yourself and think…except for the shower. I mean we have a gazillion terraced balconies with beautiful views to look over the city but anyone can join if they feel like it….and I miss being able to just go. Especially since we’re on lock down, I can’t even leave the center! Ah! Loving it as always, but sometimes you just want to take a walk by yourself in Jerusalem.