My first week of school
Officially it is my third day of school and forth one actually on campus. But the first day was Saturday, (weekends are Friday and Saturday) and we didn’t have class but I came in for a yearbook meeting.. My high school past has caught up with me. Then Sunday and Monday the school spent preparing for their big talent show in honor of Mother’s Day which was Sunday here. I spent part of each of those days hanging out with all the students in the auditorium having not a clue what was going on but trying use the time to get to know the kids. They kept asking me which class and grade I was going to teach but I had no idea.
There were a few points where the Palestinian teachers were moving kids from one place to another and I would come across hallways full of kids bored out of their minds.. So I had fun running around from group to group playing games like red light/ green light and other silly little games like that. When I wasn’t playing I entertained the kids by letting them borrow my camera and take pictures of each other. I got some pretty crazy photos all in the name of yearbook…
Over all, for those two days I was bored out of my mind, but I was also thankful that the classes had been cancelled because mentally I just wasn’t there. Since finding out about my friend Dan’s death, I have lost all ability to focus, remember anything, or think on my own, not to mention or irritable I have become.
I guess overall it means that as bad as it is right now, life in Palestine can only get better
My third day but first day of classes went really well, I guess I am teaching a class of 3 rd and fourth grade students for the first two hours every morning and then I have the second graders that I am team teaching with an arab American teachers for a couple of hours and then depending on the day, I may go back to the 3rd and 4th graders…
I know there are tons of tensions and drama at the school amongst the staff. As it is in any country it is hard to come to a new school in the middle of the year replacing a teacher that left and trying to figure it all out.
And unfortunately this school has had so many foreign teachers come and go over the past two years that the arab staff doesn’t seem interested in the new international teacher or they are waiting to see how long I last. It doesn’t help that the past few days I have been on the verge of tears all the time which probably is read as being more stand offish than I really am feeling. Hopefully in time it will get better.
The kids are great.. I am overall very impressed with their English ability. It is always weird getting used to a new school and a new way of doing things. I don’t understand why they are doing what they are doing or what is being asked of me. When I finish writing this hopefully I will get a chance to sit down and find out what I am suppose to do next and all of that.
Today, Friday was the first morning that I finally woke up not feeling depressed. I finally feel like maybe I will make it, that this wasn’t the biggest mistake.
I need to send people individual emails, but I can’t thank my on line family and friends enough for all their love, prayer and support this week.
This was the week I learned about despair. I just talked to my mom and we are going to both read the book of Job this week!!
Not only did Dan die, but also so did my mom’s dog Roxy on Monday night of a cancer on her heart. I also found out this week that an old friend from my college days, Aeryn died.
I am done with death… It has been a hard week and I don’t like dealing with all of this.
I don’t know how to deal with death. I have had people die that I was close to before, but I got to say good-bye. I had been so lucky in the past to be able to go home at times like this before.
Or at least have been in a place long enough to have had friends. People here don’t know me and don’t know how to deal with my trauma this week. Which I completely understand. I don’t know how to deal with it myself.
At some point it has got to get easier. When I was talking to my sister, Genevieve, this week, I asked her why in the world have I had all of these struggles? Not just now but why have I always had catastrophe in my life. People have always told me that God had a plan for me and this was the preparation for the plan… And I believed it. So when I was asking Genevieve, what in the world was God preparing me for now with all of this, she in her usual brilliance told me that all the other stuff was making strong enough to get through this. Had I not struggled and survived so much in the past, I wouldn’t be able to get through this… and if I really needed it, it would be okay for me to pack my bags and go home and curl up on a ball for a long time…
I don’t know why but it felt so comforting to know that I had permission to do that. Or that it wouldn’t be completely inappropriate to need to do that.
Knowing that makes it some how easier not to need to do that. This week I haven’t really experienced life here in the west bank more than absolutely necessary. I have been going to work and then coming straight home to be on line and talk to friends. Most days I have been okay through out the school day having usually only one hour so that I didn’t know how I was going to get through that hour. Then I come home and collapse. It is hard work and emotionally draining being strong all day.
I really can’t thank people enough for all the love and prayers. And for people being in constant communication with me for the week.
I really do know from experience the first week is the hardest under the best of situations. Those things will get better here.
When I came for the day and a half three weeks ago I really did love it here and I am holding on to that.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Nablus, home?
I know my schedule the last few weeks has been really confusing to everyone, myself included.
I left North Carolina on March 4th and flew to Israel. I was supposed to arrive in Tel Aviv and then catch a taxi to Palestine. But because of flight delays and my luggage was lost, I stayed in Tel Aviv for a couple of days with a friend and then when I realized it was going to be several more days before the bags actually came, I got a ride to my new town and stayed here for about a day and a half before heading south to Jerusalem to meet my family. We were on a tour/ pilgrimage with the archdioceses of Los Angeles for 10 days.
My mom had gone on this tour three years ago and was so moved by it that she signed my sisters and I up to go on the trip and started saving her pennies right then and there to send us. In the end Anne and Andrew didn't end up coming, and Genevieve and Bryan did. A few months ago I found out that my mom's parents and my aunt Kris and Uncle David were also going on the trip.
The whole experience was amazing! Eiod, our guide, is an Arab Christian who lives in Jerusalem. He spent so much time really explaining the struggle of the Arab Christians in addition to walking us through thousands of years of church history. He really did show us the places Jesus lived and walked in addition to taking us on a spiritual journey.
For me, it was a bit different than for the others because I know I will get to go and see these places again and again on the weekends. For the others on the trip this was a once in a lifetime experience.
My struggle on the trip was to stay focused on what we were seeing. My mind had so much going through it. The past month had been so chaotic with selling everything, packing stuff to send home, finding a job and moving to a complete and total new place. I just struggled to focus and emotionally be where I should have been. My Aunt Kris kept commenting that I must not be a very emotional person, that when she went to these places she cried and cried... I couldn't for the life of me shed a tear. But I was okay with that.
Jerusalem is an amazing city. Everything one would ever imagine, the old world bazaars, the ancient historical places, your imagination just runs wild.
I tried every chance I had to run down to the holy sepulcher, this is the church has three very holy places: Golgotha (the rock that Jesus was crucified on), the stone where he was laid to be anointed and where the pieta would have take place, and the tomb where he was laid to rest and rose from the dead. It is the oddest church ever, I loved it for all its disorganization, but I know it drives people crazy. All the different Christian churches in the world fight over it and no one can agree on what should go where or who is in charge of what. so it has become this crazy crazy design of a place with pilgrims from all over the world wondering around in emotional dazes of such a holy place.
For me the two most powerful places were at the site of Caiaphas' Palace where Jesus was kept in a dungeon over night after being arrested. It is a deep dark pit. The same exact deep dark pit where he was tortured and left to contemplated his future. You can't help but feel the loneliness, isolation and pain he must have felt. In the court yard outside is where Peter denied Jesus the three times...
The other place that boggled my mind was the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went after the Last Supper to pray. At night it is closed to the public and our small group was allowed to go into the garden and contemplate amongst the same trees Jesus prayed under. Only now they are two thousand year old trees and beyond spooky. We then went into the church over the rock that he prayed on for a beautiful holy hour. In our pilgrimage group was Bishop Joe and four sisters. It was such a life affirming holy hour, unlike any I had been too. I was deeply moved.
Two days later everyone left and I took a taxi back to my town..
I had taken a series of busses to get to Jerusalem and usually would just repeat the trip but with all of my bags it was going to be impossible.
Between Nablus and Jerusalem are two pretty tough checkpoints.. (an entirely different posting unto itself)
The taxi driver was an Arab Israeli (the classifications… omg…. Another posting too… so complicate) spent the entire drive back freaking out on my behalf about my move to Nablus. He feared deeply for my safety. It has been so strange, everyone has a strong opinion on my safety here.. and it ranges from : I couldn’t be in a safer place to I am going to die, die, die…
When I returned back to Nablus I got to my apartment and checked in quickly with my housemates and coworkers before turning on my computer and checking email..
Only to find that my dear friend, Dan, whom I had been deeply involved with almost two years ago, died a week before of a heart attack in New York at the age of 34.
I thought I had understood Jesus’ struggle in the dungeon under Caiaphas Palace but I think I now have a fraction of the glimpse of the darkness and solitude of such isolation.
This is not the way I wanted to start my new experience in Palestine. I had been hoping for a nice long honeymoon period here before the realization of the remoteness of this rocky caught up with me..
I left North Carolina on March 4th and flew to Israel. I was supposed to arrive in Tel Aviv and then catch a taxi to Palestine. But because of flight delays and my luggage was lost, I stayed in Tel Aviv for a couple of days with a friend and then when I realized it was going to be several more days before the bags actually came, I got a ride to my new town and stayed here for about a day and a half before heading south to Jerusalem to meet my family. We were on a tour/ pilgrimage with the archdioceses of Los Angeles for 10 days.
My mom had gone on this tour three years ago and was so moved by it that she signed my sisters and I up to go on the trip and started saving her pennies right then and there to send us. In the end Anne and Andrew didn't end up coming, and Genevieve and Bryan did. A few months ago I found out that my mom's parents and my aunt Kris and Uncle David were also going on the trip.
The whole experience was amazing! Eiod, our guide, is an Arab Christian who lives in Jerusalem. He spent so much time really explaining the struggle of the Arab Christians in addition to walking us through thousands of years of church history. He really did show us the places Jesus lived and walked in addition to taking us on a spiritual journey.
For me, it was a bit different than for the others because I know I will get to go and see these places again and again on the weekends. For the others on the trip this was a once in a lifetime experience.
My struggle on the trip was to stay focused on what we were seeing. My mind had so much going through it. The past month had been so chaotic with selling everything, packing stuff to send home, finding a job and moving to a complete and total new place. I just struggled to focus and emotionally be where I should have been. My Aunt Kris kept commenting that I must not be a very emotional person, that when she went to these places she cried and cried... I couldn't for the life of me shed a tear. But I was okay with that.
Jerusalem is an amazing city. Everything one would ever imagine, the old world bazaars, the ancient historical places, your imagination just runs wild.
I tried every chance I had to run down to the holy sepulcher, this is the church has three very holy places: Golgotha (the rock that Jesus was crucified on), the stone where he was laid to be anointed and where the pieta would have take place, and the tomb where he was laid to rest and rose from the dead. It is the oddest church ever, I loved it for all its disorganization, but I know it drives people crazy. All the different Christian churches in the world fight over it and no one can agree on what should go where or who is in charge of what. so it has become this crazy crazy design of a place with pilgrims from all over the world wondering around in emotional dazes of such a holy place.
For me the two most powerful places were at the site of Caiaphas' Palace where Jesus was kept in a dungeon over night after being arrested. It is a deep dark pit. The same exact deep dark pit where he was tortured and left to contemplated his future. You can't help but feel the loneliness, isolation and pain he must have felt. In the court yard outside is where Peter denied Jesus the three times...
The other place that boggled my mind was the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went after the Last Supper to pray. At night it is closed to the public and our small group was allowed to go into the garden and contemplate amongst the same trees Jesus prayed under. Only now they are two thousand year old trees and beyond spooky. We then went into the church over the rock that he prayed on for a beautiful holy hour. In our pilgrimage group was Bishop Joe and four sisters. It was such a life affirming holy hour, unlike any I had been too. I was deeply moved.
Two days later everyone left and I took a taxi back to my town..
I had taken a series of busses to get to Jerusalem and usually would just repeat the trip but with all of my bags it was going to be impossible.
Between Nablus and Jerusalem are two pretty tough checkpoints.. (an entirely different posting unto itself)
The taxi driver was an Arab Israeli (the classifications… omg…. Another posting too… so complicate) spent the entire drive back freaking out on my behalf about my move to Nablus. He feared deeply for my safety. It has been so strange, everyone has a strong opinion on my safety here.. and it ranges from : I couldn’t be in a safer place to I am going to die, die, die…
When I returned back to Nablus I got to my apartment and checked in quickly with my housemates and coworkers before turning on my computer and checking email..
Only to find that my dear friend, Dan, whom I had been deeply involved with almost two years ago, died a week before of a heart attack in New York at the age of 34.
I thought I had understood Jesus’ struggle in the dungeon under Caiaphas Palace but I think I now have a fraction of the glimpse of the darkness and solitude of such isolation.
This is not the way I wanted to start my new experience in Palestine. I had been hoping for a nice long honeymoon period here before the realization of the remoteness of this rocky caught up with me..
For those of you who do not facebook,
the first several days of my pilgrimage around the holy land, i was leaving was leaving daily updates on facebook about what i was seeing and doing..
I thought i would post them here for the world, outside of my facebook family to see...
March 11 at 7:10am:
March 11 at 5:44pm
March 13 at 4:20pm
the first several days of my pilgrimage around the holy land, i was leaving was leaving daily updates on facebook about what i was seeing and doing..
I thought i would post them here for the world, outside of my facebook family to see...
March 11 at 7:10am:
Maggie Dobbins Luggage arrived!!!! safe with family in Jerusalem..
March 11 at 5:44pm
Maggie Dobbins is off to Bethlehem more... CHECKPOINTS!!!!
March 12 at 6:38amMaggie Dobbins touched the ground where Jesus was born, died, and rose from the dead today.. this really is Jesusland
March 12 at 4:52pmMaggie Dobbins is off to the wailing wall.....
March 13 at 3:04amMaggie Dobbins is getting dressed up for a formal dinner
March 13 at 6:54amMaggie Dobbins had a very productive talk with my grandfather on the local situation tonight..
March 13 at 4:20pm
Maggie Dobbins is off to meet the latin patrioch.. the most important man in the middle east
March 13 at 11:42pmMaggie Dobbins is repacking her stuff... why do i have so much stuff
March 14 at 6:25amMaggie Dobbins I just found out that there is an american catholic priest in my town... i am thinking mass in English is in my near future....
March 15 at 2:12amMaggie Dobbins Went to Jerricho, Nazareth, and Cana today.. am now hanging out on the banks the Sea of Galilee
March 16 at 1:07amMaggie Dobbins today was spent on the mount of the beatitudes, in Capernum at Peter's house, and on a boat on the sea of Galilee.... I love Tiberius!!!! I never want to leave.
March 18 at 5:53pmMaggie Dobbins finally has internet connection again... Tiberius was beautiful but Jerusalem has internet... hmmmmm off to the mount of olives
Thu 1:18amMaggie Dobbins off to the jewish quarter
Thu 6:12amMaggie Dobbins just came home from holy hour at the garden of Gethsemane... and has to be up in 7 hours for stations of the cross and mass at the rock of Calvary at uggg 4am..
Yesterday at 2:53amMaggie Dobbins I will miss you Dan, I can't believe you died..
Yesterday at 7:19amMaggie Dobbins in mourning..
12:10pmMaggie Dobbins is still in shock from Dan's death but amused by the irony that breakfast was pickeled and shredded turnips in a pita
12:56amMaggie Dobbins Palestine a strange place to be...
Thursday, March 12, 2009
pilgrimage
I really haven't been on an organized tour as an adult overseas before... and it is a struggle for me. i really want to sit and contemplate the places but with a group you spend that time instead waiting round outside each place waiting for the group to find it's people. I am sure i will get used to it and lucky for me i am not going to be that far away from jerusalem, it will be a great weekend trip. but what it means is that i don't have time to put my thoughts together and blog properly..
today we went to the Wailing Wall, The temple on the Mount, St. Anne's church, St. Stephen's Gate, back to Bethlehem to a shepards field, to the upper room where the last super took place which is also the David's seat, the holy seplacher, and out to dinner... i don't even know what tomorrow will bring..
i am overwhelmed and awwhed by it all and I LOVE it here... it is so interesting..
today we went to the Wailing Wall, The temple on the Mount, St. Anne's church, St. Stephen's Gate, back to Bethlehem to a shepards field, to the upper room where the last super took place which is also the David's seat, the holy seplacher, and out to dinner... i don't even know what tomorrow will bring..
i am overwhelmed and awwhed by it all and I LOVE it here... it is so interesting..
Monday, March 9, 2009
nablus day 1...
My first two days in Israel I couldn't get enough sleep.... I think I got 11 hours each night. Sunday morning I woke up at noon. Aarona had left for work at 7 that morning and had invited me to come along. I was feeling so dirty and exhausted that I knew it wouldn't be a good idea to hang out at her school all day. Another time...
My first duty was to try and find a phone to call the airport to figure out the status of my bags. Aarona had just moved into her place so she hadn't installed a landline yet. No one seems to have landlines in Tel Aviv and there don't seem to be any pay phones. I eventually found some payphones but you needed a card to use these. I stopped in several little shops to ask if they knew where I could either use a phone or where to buy one of these cards. No one seemed to know. Eventually I found an Internet cafe that had a phone I could use.
When I got hold of the lost baggage department, they said that my bags had arrived to Israel but that they were held up in security and it might be a few more days. I gave them the info of the hotel in Jerusalem that I will be going to on Tuesday and then called the hotel to let them know what was going on. I then called Lana, my contact person at the school and updated her on my status. She said to come to the school when the pilgrimage ended but I really wanted to go before hand, if even for a few days so that I could check out the place and mentally get round what I was doing. I hadn't told any of the Israeli people what I was doing. I told everyone that I met that I had no idea what I was up to and that I was planning to work with the Sudanese refugees in Jerusalem... or somewhere outside of Jerusalem. In my jet lag daze I was starting to believe it too. And I felt that I needed to get to Nablus to make sure I wasn't as crazy as I feared I might be.
Lana said that she was going to come with her husband to Tel Aviv for the evening and maybe I could go home with them... but to call back in an hour or so to figure out the details. I had tried to call Lana several times but her number is a Palestinian number and none of the Israelis that I met believed that it was a real number. They were completely shocked when it actually worked.
My next task was to buy some clothes... Under normal circumstance this is a nightmare. Not only am I bigger than the average American but also I have hips that go on forever... so finding clothes is usually a bad experience. I had questioned all my friends several times asking them if they really thought I could find clothes my size. They looked at me funny and said of course. And I didn't believe them. The whole walk to the clothing market I was having a serious panic attack not to mention the blister on my heel was bleeding everywhere and I couldn't seem to find a place to buy band-aids in sight. A short walk later I got to the market and walked around for maybe 30 seconds when I spotted a stand that looked like it might have fat people clothes. I asked the girl in English if she had clothes my size and she assured me she did. And I started trying things on and miracles of miracles, they fit!!!! I have NEVER had such luck!!!! And they were CHEAP.... I love the Middle East. The girl was really nice and brought me many things to try on. And even let me use her phone to call Lana again to try and coordinate the plan. She also gave me great directions about where to walk to for underwear and socks. I spent the next several hours walking around and exploring. I made it down to the beach and I even got LOST...
There is nothing I like more than getting lost and trying to find my way home. It helped that I had paid attention the day before to landmarks and direction so I was lost for too long. :(
I got back about the same time as Aarona and told her I was going to meet my new co-workers, they were at a shopping mall across town waiting for me, which happened to be the same mall that she needed to go to with the Home store...
Aarona is an amazing friend and was so protective about handing me over to Lana and my coworker Isabelle from Scotland. Lana is Moslem and it freaked Aarona out... but I insisted that I was fine... I told her over and over again that I new someone who had worked with them before and that person had assured me that everything was on the up and up...
She finally agreed to leave me with promises that I would let her know that I was okay... She is really an amazing person with a huge heart. Who else would leave a family dinner on a Friday night when a friend you haven't seen in five year whom you met from traveling in Burma called. And not only pick me up from the airport but also completely take care of me.
For all the times I have asked my family to do the same for my friends and students, they should know that people do it for me all the time. And of course I would do it for any one given the chance.
We all got in Lana's car and headed for Palestine.
They had me sit in the front seat because I looked the most American.
As we pulled up to the first check point Lana started having a panic attack that we were going to get pulled over and arrested. Wow what a way to start my Palestinian experience. Turns out her husband didn't have a permit to be in Tel Aviv and we could have all gotten in trouble had he been caught in the car returning. The guards didn't even look up at us at all...
We drove another 25 or so minutes to the next check point and as we were pulling it up to it the barriers made it look completely closed. Again Lana had another freak out but the barriers were just very close together and we just had to squeeze between them. There weren't even guards there to check us. I have to admit the whole thing was surreal and it was a true reality check that I moved to an occupied land. Getting into Nablus last nigh wasn't too hard. But it is the getting out that is going to be a nightmare tomorrow to go to Jerusalem.
We drove to the apartment, which was on the other side of Nablus. I don't have a sense of what the town is like or anything other than it is in a valley and there are lots of tall white buildings everywhere.
I live in an apartment with my three coworkers... My bedroom is the dining room, and there is a blanket that covers the door way, kind of... I put pictures of it all up on face book.
It is good.
Simple but comfortable...
I need to buy some sheets... for last night and tonight I used my Burberry scarf wrapped around the pillow as a pillowcase... which amuses me for some reason. We have wireless Internet that seems to work pretty well.
I spent the morning washing my clothes in a machine that you have to add water to, then turn on, then after 15 minutes drain it and add more water. After doing this process a few times you then have to ring out the clothes and hang them to dry on one of the balconies.
I also went to a little shop and bought some eggs and pasta for dinner. Today is the birthday of the prophet Muhammad, so everything is closed.
Tomorrow I am going to go to school with everyone and then when it is over, I will catch a shared taxi to Jerusalem....
My first duty was to try and find a phone to call the airport to figure out the status of my bags. Aarona had just moved into her place so she hadn't installed a landline yet. No one seems to have landlines in Tel Aviv and there don't seem to be any pay phones. I eventually found some payphones but you needed a card to use these. I stopped in several little shops to ask if they knew where I could either use a phone or where to buy one of these cards. No one seemed to know. Eventually I found an Internet cafe that had a phone I could use.
When I got hold of the lost baggage department, they said that my bags had arrived to Israel but that they were held up in security and it might be a few more days. I gave them the info of the hotel in Jerusalem that I will be going to on Tuesday and then called the hotel to let them know what was going on. I then called Lana, my contact person at the school and updated her on my status. She said to come to the school when the pilgrimage ended but I really wanted to go before hand, if even for a few days so that I could check out the place and mentally get round what I was doing. I hadn't told any of the Israeli people what I was doing. I told everyone that I met that I had no idea what I was up to and that I was planning to work with the Sudanese refugees in Jerusalem... or somewhere outside of Jerusalem. In my jet lag daze I was starting to believe it too. And I felt that I needed to get to Nablus to make sure I wasn't as crazy as I feared I might be.
Lana said that she was going to come with her husband to Tel Aviv for the evening and maybe I could go home with them... but to call back in an hour or so to figure out the details. I had tried to call Lana several times but her number is a Palestinian number and none of the Israelis that I met believed that it was a real number. They were completely shocked when it actually worked.
My next task was to buy some clothes... Under normal circumstance this is a nightmare. Not only am I bigger than the average American but also I have hips that go on forever... so finding clothes is usually a bad experience. I had questioned all my friends several times asking them if they really thought I could find clothes my size. They looked at me funny and said of course. And I didn't believe them. The whole walk to the clothing market I was having a serious panic attack not to mention the blister on my heel was bleeding everywhere and I couldn't seem to find a place to buy band-aids in sight. A short walk later I got to the market and walked around for maybe 30 seconds when I spotted a stand that looked like it might have fat people clothes. I asked the girl in English if she had clothes my size and she assured me she did. And I started trying things on and miracles of miracles, they fit!!!! I have NEVER had such luck!!!! And they were CHEAP.... I love the Middle East. The girl was really nice and brought me many things to try on. And even let me use her phone to call Lana again to try and coordinate the plan. She also gave me great directions about where to walk to for underwear and socks. I spent the next several hours walking around and exploring. I made it down to the beach and I even got LOST...
There is nothing I like more than getting lost and trying to find my way home. It helped that I had paid attention the day before to landmarks and direction so I was lost for too long. :(
I got back about the same time as Aarona and told her I was going to meet my new co-workers, they were at a shopping mall across town waiting for me, which happened to be the same mall that she needed to go to with the Home store...
Aarona is an amazing friend and was so protective about handing me over to Lana and my coworker Isabelle from Scotland. Lana is Moslem and it freaked Aarona out... but I insisted that I was fine... I told her over and over again that I new someone who had worked with them before and that person had assured me that everything was on the up and up...
She finally agreed to leave me with promises that I would let her know that I was okay... She is really an amazing person with a huge heart. Who else would leave a family dinner on a Friday night when a friend you haven't seen in five year whom you met from traveling in Burma called. And not only pick me up from the airport but also completely take care of me.
For all the times I have asked my family to do the same for my friends and students, they should know that people do it for me all the time. And of course I would do it for any one given the chance.
We all got in Lana's car and headed for Palestine.
They had me sit in the front seat because I looked the most American.
As we pulled up to the first check point Lana started having a panic attack that we were going to get pulled over and arrested. Wow what a way to start my Palestinian experience. Turns out her husband didn't have a permit to be in Tel Aviv and we could have all gotten in trouble had he been caught in the car returning. The guards didn't even look up at us at all...
We drove another 25 or so minutes to the next check point and as we were pulling it up to it the barriers made it look completely closed. Again Lana had another freak out but the barriers were just very close together and we just had to squeeze between them. There weren't even guards there to check us. I have to admit the whole thing was surreal and it was a true reality check that I moved to an occupied land. Getting into Nablus last nigh wasn't too hard. But it is the getting out that is going to be a nightmare tomorrow to go to Jerusalem.
We drove to the apartment, which was on the other side of Nablus. I don't have a sense of what the town is like or anything other than it is in a valley and there are lots of tall white buildings everywhere.
I live in an apartment with my three coworkers... My bedroom is the dining room, and there is a blanket that covers the door way, kind of... I put pictures of it all up on face book.
It is good.
Simple but comfortable...
I need to buy some sheets... for last night and tonight I used my Burberry scarf wrapped around the pillow as a pillowcase... which amuses me for some reason. We have wireless Internet that seems to work pretty well.
I spent the morning washing my clothes in a machine that you have to add water to, then turn on, then after 15 minutes drain it and add more water. After doing this process a few times you then have to ring out the clothes and hang them to dry on one of the balconies.
I also went to a little shop and bought some eggs and pasta for dinner. Today is the birthday of the prophet Muhammad, so everything is closed.
Tomorrow I am going to go to school with everyone and then when it is over, I will catch a shared taxi to Jerusalem....
random thoughts from random airports
warning... i haven't had a chance to edit this.. I will do so tomorrow...
happy reading.
update.. i am safe and sound in nablus minus luggage.
Four years ago I flew home…
Now I leave a much older person…
The struggles I have been through since coming home are so horrible I can’t even blog about them.. but I survived… and now I am done…
But darn it America isn’t done with me.. I can’t get out…
My flight has been delayed and then I was rerouted…. And here I sit wondering… four hours after I was suppose to be up in the air.
I am so glad I was that annoying customer who marched up to the podium and asked about my connections in Rome.. they said that if I hadn’t I would have gotten to Rome and be turned around sent back to America. Which makes no sense..
I want to call my people in Israel and tell them my flight is going to be late and now instead of flying through Rome I will be flying through london..
Does two hours in the Heathrow airport count as having been to London??
If you have to change your money and use it in a country does it count???
Can I add England as my 41st country that I have been too? I won’t be able to charge my computer when I land because my converters are in my suitcase.. does it count if you are unconvinced by electricity voltage of a country???
Did any one know that they Philadelphia airport is huge? And that my carry on bags are heavy and I have now been directed to walk from one end of it to another and back and then forth again…
No wonder my shoulders hurt.. no wonder I had nerve damage in my shoulders when I returned to America.. LUGGAGE is heavy.. it took four years to recover from my last venture.. Am I really going to injure myself again?
Also…… darn it Irony
The middle east is technically part of Asia… I am moving back to Asia
Wow did I miss this fine detail in my search for a new job and a new continent.. not that I didn’t love my Asian experience but I was trying to move on, not backwards
Random british thoughts…
Several years ago now when my dear friend Andi moved to England, she commented several times how randomly and unexpectedly different England is. .. I touched down an hour ago and I completely understand her comments now…
Heathrow is a TRIP… As I got off the flight there was a lady who was with her 11 week old baby. She had been visiting her brother in Philly last Christmas when she started premature labor and had the baby in America. 12 weeks later she was finally coming home and she kept commenting me as we were getting off the flight and on to one of the MANY buses that it was good to be home.
The routing and rerouting in circles I have had to do for the past hour has confused me greatly.. I have been sent down many hallways that seem to lead to no where and still don’t know where to go for my flight… or if my luggage will make it.
When I went to get on my flight last night , The british airway lady was super clear that my luggage would not make it and they won’t take responsibility for it.. What was I to do…. I had been switched to this flight, and all the other flights had taken off and the other ones were full….
I guess start praying to St. Anthony for lost luggage now?
Arrival in tel Aviv …
When the plane touched down in Tele Viv, I started to have a panic… I had been told that Israeli customs were brutal by MANY different people… (I had been told the same thing for Pakistan)
It was the easiest costumes that I have ever been through. Much easier than even returning to America as an American. They asked me my purpose for coming to Israel, I said I was on a tour with the arch-diocese of Los Angeles and they told me to have fun.
That said, getting my luggage has been traumatic. No one ever told me not to arrive to Isreal on a Friday!! Because Shabbot has started even if my luggage arrives the offices won’t be open to retrieve it until Sunday morning.
Because I was planning to go to the west bank, and it can be very difficult to get in and out of the west bank it is best for me to stay in Tel Aviv until my bags arrive. And LUCKY for me, I have some friends here that I met five and a half years ago in Burma. Aarona and Tamir are brother and sister who traveled together to burma. My sister Genny and I met them on the plane there we were joined at the hip for several weeks. I can’t think of burma with out them.
This past month in bookclub we were reading a book about Burma and I spent the month thinking about the two of them.
So I called them from the airport late Friday night, and the angels that they are came and got me and brought me to Aarona’s flat that she had just moved into that day. So everything is in boxes and we first went to her parents house so I could have a shower and borrow some underclothes from her parents.
Then when we returned back to her flat I washed out what I had, hung it up to dry and SLEPT for 11 hours, completely crashed out. We barrowed a little foam fold up chair that extents to a bed from her parents who have it for the grandchildren.
Rona lives a few blocks from the beach in a very trendy part of Tel Aviv. It is a small flat by American standards but a huge one by Israeli standards. It is about the same size as the one I had in Japan. Really this is how the rest of the world lives, we Americans are just quite spoiled.. I guess it is going to be a strange culture shock going this way in to the world. I am interesting to see how culture shock will work for me now. I don’t think I will ever be able to it, but it is always interesting to see how one reacts to things.
We went to lunch at Rona’s best friends restaurant. I had to wrap my mind around that fact that I is HOT here. Before I left NC it was snowing and had been below freezing for a week. I don’t have a clue how hot it is here right now but it feels like it is in the high 80’s or low 90’s. I know the Israeli’s think this is crazy heat too and are sweating as much as I am . We ate at Orki’s outdoor café and it was AMAZING!!! It was a tomato and cucumber salad with parsley, a skillet of fried eggs with goat cheese with a tomato sauce and Eggplant . Then little dishes of tuna salad, egg salad, cabbage salad, eggplant salad. I really have come to the land of eggplant… Eggplant is my very favorite food, I can and have eaten it everyday for a year.. I could have it every day for the rest of my life and be HAPPY.. it was so good… We sat there and chatted with Orky and the staff who all spoke very good English for a few hours and then went for a walk on the beach.
Computer battery is dieing… more later
happy reading.
update.. i am safe and sound in nablus minus luggage.
Four years ago I flew home…
Now I leave a much older person…
The struggles I have been through since coming home are so horrible I can’t even blog about them.. but I survived… and now I am done…
But darn it America isn’t done with me.. I can’t get out…
My flight has been delayed and then I was rerouted…. And here I sit wondering… four hours after I was suppose to be up in the air.
I am so glad I was that annoying customer who marched up to the podium and asked about my connections in Rome.. they said that if I hadn’t I would have gotten to Rome and be turned around sent back to America. Which makes no sense..
I want to call my people in Israel and tell them my flight is going to be late and now instead of flying through Rome I will be flying through london..
Does two hours in the Heathrow airport count as having been to London??
If you have to change your money and use it in a country does it count???
Can I add England as my 41st country that I have been too? I won’t be able to charge my computer when I land because my converters are in my suitcase.. does it count if you are unconvinced by electricity voltage of a country???
Did any one know that they Philadelphia airport is huge? And that my carry on bags are heavy and I have now been directed to walk from one end of it to another and back and then forth again…
No wonder my shoulders hurt.. no wonder I had nerve damage in my shoulders when I returned to America.. LUGGAGE is heavy.. it took four years to recover from my last venture.. Am I really going to injure myself again?
Also…… darn it Irony
The middle east is technically part of Asia… I am moving back to Asia
Wow did I miss this fine detail in my search for a new job and a new continent.. not that I didn’t love my Asian experience but I was trying to move on, not backwards
Random british thoughts…
Several years ago now when my dear friend Andi moved to England, she commented several times how randomly and unexpectedly different England is. .. I touched down an hour ago and I completely understand her comments now…
Heathrow is a TRIP… As I got off the flight there was a lady who was with her 11 week old baby. She had been visiting her brother in Philly last Christmas when she started premature labor and had the baby in America. 12 weeks later she was finally coming home and she kept commenting me as we were getting off the flight and on to one of the MANY buses that it was good to be home.
The routing and rerouting in circles I have had to do for the past hour has confused me greatly.. I have been sent down many hallways that seem to lead to no where and still don’t know where to go for my flight… or if my luggage will make it.
When I went to get on my flight last night , The british airway lady was super clear that my luggage would not make it and they won’t take responsibility for it.. What was I to do…. I had been switched to this flight, and all the other flights had taken off and the other ones were full….
I guess start praying to St. Anthony for lost luggage now?
Arrival in tel Aviv …
When the plane touched down in Tele Viv, I started to have a panic… I had been told that Israeli customs were brutal by MANY different people… (I had been told the same thing for Pakistan)
It was the easiest costumes that I have ever been through. Much easier than even returning to America as an American. They asked me my purpose for coming to Israel, I said I was on a tour with the arch-diocese of Los Angeles and they told me to have fun.
That said, getting my luggage has been traumatic. No one ever told me not to arrive to Isreal on a Friday!! Because Shabbot has started even if my luggage arrives the offices won’t be open to retrieve it until Sunday morning.
Because I was planning to go to the west bank, and it can be very difficult to get in and out of the west bank it is best for me to stay in Tel Aviv until my bags arrive. And LUCKY for me, I have some friends here that I met five and a half years ago in Burma. Aarona and Tamir are brother and sister who traveled together to burma. My sister Genny and I met them on the plane there we were joined at the hip for several weeks. I can’t think of burma with out them.
This past month in bookclub we were reading a book about Burma and I spent the month thinking about the two of them.
So I called them from the airport late Friday night, and the angels that they are came and got me and brought me to Aarona’s flat that she had just moved into that day. So everything is in boxes and we first went to her parents house so I could have a shower and borrow some underclothes from her parents.
Then when we returned back to her flat I washed out what I had, hung it up to dry and SLEPT for 11 hours, completely crashed out. We barrowed a little foam fold up chair that extents to a bed from her parents who have it for the grandchildren.
Rona lives a few blocks from the beach in a very trendy part of Tel Aviv. It is a small flat by American standards but a huge one by Israeli standards. It is about the same size as the one I had in Japan. Really this is how the rest of the world lives, we Americans are just quite spoiled.. I guess it is going to be a strange culture shock going this way in to the world. I am interesting to see how culture shock will work for me now. I don’t think I will ever be able to it, but it is always interesting to see how one reacts to things.
We went to lunch at Rona’s best friends restaurant. I had to wrap my mind around that fact that I is HOT here. Before I left NC it was snowing and had been below freezing for a week. I don’t have a clue how hot it is here right now but it feels like it is in the high 80’s or low 90’s. I know the Israeli’s think this is crazy heat too and are sweating as much as I am . We ate at Orki’s outdoor café and it was AMAZING!!! It was a tomato and cucumber salad with parsley, a skillet of fried eggs with goat cheese with a tomato sauce and Eggplant . Then little dishes of tuna salad, egg salad, cabbage salad, eggplant salad. I really have come to the land of eggplant… Eggplant is my very favorite food, I can and have eaten it everyday for a year.. I could have it every day for the rest of my life and be HAPPY.. it was so good… We sat there and chatted with Orky and the staff who all spoke very good English for a few hours and then went for a walk on the beach.
Computer battery is dieing… more later
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