Hi everyone!
I write to you from the Kibbutz where we are visiting for Pesach!
I don't have too much to report, but I thought I'd say hi and share a few stories while I have the time.
As I'm sure many of you know, there has been some balagan (this is Hebrew for a pretty big mess) in Jerusalem the last few weeks with Netanyahu announcing more Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the following protests. To be honest, I had to seek out the affects of this if I wanted to feel them, which often comes as a surprise to people who aren't here and expect everything to be craaaazy. It's not. The Old City was closed from the Arab quarter and there were many more soldiers at each gate, and occasionally my bus to school had to take a different route because of big protests in the larger Arab neighborhoods/villages of Jerusalem. There was a big protest at the entrance to Hebrew University, full of shouting and flag-waving, but when it was all screamed and done, the two opposing sides walked into school to learn together. The irony of this conflict is felt every day. I must admit that like may I am very frustrated with Netanyahu's announcement, as it so clearly does not send a message of readiness for compromise or concession.
I posted this story on my facebook, but I just think it's funny enough to share again:
The other day I was sitting on the bus when a relatively young religious woman got on with a stroller. She parked the stroller in the aisle of the bus, picked up the baby, and handed it to me. She went to pay the bus driver, came back, and retrieved her infant. To me the strangeness of this encounter is clear, but it is made even weirder to me by the fact that normally the religious women don't want people like me (read: tanktops and shorts) even looking at their babies, and don't even think about smiling. So the fact that this woman trusted me to hold her small child without as much as an explanation was pretty foreign. Also the fact that since sharing this story I have heard many accounts of similar experiences from friends. I think it also speaks miles about Israeli culture and Jerusalem in general - it's like one big neighborhood.
Another funny thing happened that same day: I was outside one of my classrooms in the international campus when a girl came up to me and asked (in Hebrew) if she could take a picture of me and ask a question for a project. I said sure, she snapped a photo, and said, "Okay, so the question is: Where would you rather live - Israel or America?" Seriously?! I looked at her and responded, "Do you have six hours? Because we can sit down an talk about this, but I just don't have a single sentence for you." She was pushy, as any good Israeli is, and eventually squeezed out of me some statement about how I love the culture in Israel but have a hard time living without the food, fashion, and family of America. I felt like she casually asked me one of the biggest questions she possibly could have conjured up. Funny.
So I think that's all I've got for now. I'm very much looking forward to Pesach on the kibbutz (imagine a 150 person seder!) and the pool opens in a few days! Next Thursday I'm going to Paris to visit three of my dear friends from high school who are studying abroad there, so look for a Parisian post in the near future!
Chag Sameach to you all, and many hugs and kisses!
xo
k
Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
A Triumphant Return!
Hellloooooo dear readers!
Wow, long time no blog. The good news is that I have a series of overwhelmingly legitimate excuses for my prolonged absence which I will now share with you in an effort to absolve myself of my immense guilt for this unprecedented hiatus. So this, my friends, is why you haven't heard from me in what feels like a decade:
First, my computer died. Splat. Crash. In the middle of finals week with most of my papers almost finished and conveniently not backed up anywhere else. This was really fun, as I'm sure you can imagine. Adding to the fun was the fact that there is one certified Mac dealer in the entire country, which is in Petah Tikva (read: hard to get to suburb of tel aviv). Matan kindly accompanied me on the day-long excursion which resulted in the removal of my hard drive (so I could access my papers!!) and the handing over of my laptop for what turned out to be more than a month.
Then, I went home to Oakland. Without my laptop. Home was fun (family, friends, snowboarding, burritos, thai, sushi) but didn't feel blog-worthy, especially under the title "This Year in Jerusalem".
After that I returned to Israel to find my computer happily restored (rejoice!) but my apartment mysteriously without internet. This mysterious internet loss lasted until two days ago. To call it a total internet loss would be a misrepresentation, because the truth is that we did have internet access. On the landing of the floor above us. Somehow I couldn't bring myself to sit on the cold marble stairs for long enough to compose a blog update. Forgive me.
This brings us to the end of the list of excuses. I hope you can understand my lengthy absence, and that you will believe me when I say that I will do my best to catch you up and return in a timely fashion now that the aforementioned calamities have been remedied.
Sooooooo, onto the question of the hour: What's New? How kind of you to ask.
When I got back from home I had grandiose plans of traveling around Israel and the West Bank with my dear friend Fran. Unfortunately, life got in the way and Fran was busy for the first half of what remained of winter break, and I was busy the second half, because (drum roll please) Matan underwent foot surgery! I will spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that for the last 3 weeks and for another 3 to come he finds himself in a cast to his knee and a lovely set of crutches. We spent most of the time following his surgery and before school started up again on the Kibbutz where we were kindly given a club cart (hand-operated golf cart) and had 3 meals a day in the dining room. Now that we're back in Jerusalem I am *privileged* with the role of caretaker. I'll just say that I think we will both be glad when this ordeal is over. But do not fret, Matan is basically fine. Bored and frustrated by his immobility, but fine. Some of you will also be happy to hear that this surgery has forced us to assume some different roles in our relationship, including a complete reversal of cooking duties. I now cook. Every day. Woo hoo for me.
I have also started my second semester! Here are my classes:
1. More Hebrew.
2. The Arab/Israeli Conflict: A Documentary History. This title is confusing. Are we studying the history of documentaries about the Arab/Israeli conflict? Are we trying to document its history? In fact, we are studying the history of the Arab/Israeli conflict by reading the political documents that have shaped and come out of it. It is awesome.
3. Archeology of Jerusalem. I am not an archeologist. However, the opportunity to go on field excursions every other week to the most important archeological sites of this ancient city and get credit for it was just too good to miss. Stay tuned for exciting accounts of said excursions in the future!
4. Peace-Building and Conflict Transformation. This course follows the class in Conflict Resolution that I took last semester with the same professor. This time we will focus more on models of conflict transformation and practical applications of theories. SO excited.
YAY FOR LEARNING
In other breaking news: Matan's nephew was born!! Yoav and Daniele, Matan's brother and sister-in-law, along with their daughter Yael, welcomed the new addition to their family almost 2 weeks ago. His name is Eitan and he is tiny and perfect.
I will leave you with a few photos. The first is of arguably the most crucial thing that has happened since you last heard from me: the return of cheese to our lives! As many of you know, Matan and I are both ferociously lactose intolerant. For whatever reason, we both accepted this diagnosis whole-heartedly and decided never to eat cheese ever again for the rest of eternity. When the dust settled (some ridiculous 2 years later) we remembered that goat cheese does not have lactose in it! This was a revelation. Since then we haven't gone overboard (cheese=expensive) but we did make mini pizzas that nearly brought us to tears:
The weather has been crazy here, with more rain than this country has seen in a long long time (last weekend on the Kibbutz I saw the craziest desert flash floods ever to exist on the planet, including hail and insane lightening that caused our hair to stand up as if we had rubbed balloons on our heads) but at some point last month there was a lovely warm weekend and we went to the beach. Here is proof:
Okay, now I'm tired. I hope that all is well with all of you, and look forward to hearing news from your various corners of the world whenever you feel like sharing it.
More love than the amount of wind that almost blew our clothes off our balcony last night,
Kate :)
Wow, long time no blog. The good news is that I have a series of overwhelmingly legitimate excuses for my prolonged absence which I will now share with you in an effort to absolve myself of my immense guilt for this unprecedented hiatus. So this, my friends, is why you haven't heard from me in what feels like a decade:
First, my computer died. Splat. Crash. In the middle of finals week with most of my papers almost finished and conveniently not backed up anywhere else. This was really fun, as I'm sure you can imagine. Adding to the fun was the fact that there is one certified Mac dealer in the entire country, which is in Petah Tikva (read: hard to get to suburb of tel aviv). Matan kindly accompanied me on the day-long excursion which resulted in the removal of my hard drive (so I could access my papers!!) and the handing over of my laptop for what turned out to be more than a month.
Then, I went home to Oakland. Without my laptop. Home was fun (family, friends, snowboarding, burritos, thai, sushi) but didn't feel blog-worthy, especially under the title "This Year in Jerusalem".
After that I returned to Israel to find my computer happily restored (rejoice!) but my apartment mysteriously without internet. This mysterious internet loss lasted until two days ago. To call it a total internet loss would be a misrepresentation, because the truth is that we did have internet access. On the landing of the floor above us. Somehow I couldn't bring myself to sit on the cold marble stairs for long enough to compose a blog update. Forgive me.
This brings us to the end of the list of excuses. I hope you can understand my lengthy absence, and that you will believe me when I say that I will do my best to catch you up and return in a timely fashion now that the aforementioned calamities have been remedied.
Sooooooo, onto the question of the hour: What's New? How kind of you to ask.
When I got back from home I had grandiose plans of traveling around Israel and the West Bank with my dear friend Fran. Unfortunately, life got in the way and Fran was busy for the first half of what remained of winter break, and I was busy the second half, because (drum roll please) Matan underwent foot surgery! I will spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that for the last 3 weeks and for another 3 to come he finds himself in a cast to his knee and a lovely set of crutches. We spent most of the time following his surgery and before school started up again on the Kibbutz where we were kindly given a club cart (hand-operated golf cart) and had 3 meals a day in the dining room. Now that we're back in Jerusalem I am *privileged* with the role of caretaker. I'll just say that I think we will both be glad when this ordeal is over. But do not fret, Matan is basically fine. Bored and frustrated by his immobility, but fine. Some of you will also be happy to hear that this surgery has forced us to assume some different roles in our relationship, including a complete reversal of cooking duties. I now cook. Every day. Woo hoo for me.
I have also started my second semester! Here are my classes:
1. More Hebrew.
2. The Arab/Israeli Conflict: A Documentary History. This title is confusing. Are we studying the history of documentaries about the Arab/Israeli conflict? Are we trying to document its history? In fact, we are studying the history of the Arab/Israeli conflict by reading the political documents that have shaped and come out of it. It is awesome.
3. Archeology of Jerusalem. I am not an archeologist. However, the opportunity to go on field excursions every other week to the most important archeological sites of this ancient city and get credit for it was just too good to miss. Stay tuned for exciting accounts of said excursions in the future!
4. Peace-Building and Conflict Transformation. This course follows the class in Conflict Resolution that I took last semester with the same professor. This time we will focus more on models of conflict transformation and practical applications of theories. SO excited.
YAY FOR LEARNING
In other breaking news: Matan's nephew was born!! Yoav and Daniele, Matan's brother and sister-in-law, along with their daughter Yael, welcomed the new addition to their family almost 2 weeks ago. His name is Eitan and he is tiny and perfect.
I will leave you with a few photos. The first is of arguably the most crucial thing that has happened since you last heard from me: the return of cheese to our lives! As many of you know, Matan and I are both ferociously lactose intolerant. For whatever reason, we both accepted this diagnosis whole-heartedly and decided never to eat cheese ever again for the rest of eternity. When the dust settled (some ridiculous 2 years later) we remembered that goat cheese does not have lactose in it! This was a revelation. Since then we haven't gone overboard (cheese=expensive) but we did make mini pizzas that nearly brought us to tears:
The weather has been crazy here, with more rain than this country has seen in a long long time (last weekend on the Kibbutz I saw the craziest desert flash floods ever to exist on the planet, including hail and insane lightening that caused our hair to stand up as if we had rubbed balloons on our heads) but at some point last month there was a lovely warm weekend and we went to the beach. Here is proof:
Okay, now I'm tired. I hope that all is well with all of you, and look forward to hearing news from your various corners of the world whenever you feel like sharing it.
More love than the amount of wind that almost blew our clothes off our balcony last night,
Kate :)
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