Happy Valentines Day... I had perhaps the best Valentines date ever, with my roommate Adria and our friend Jodi. We went to Tmol Shilshom (Mom and Dad, the place I couldn't find where the candle dripped on my head), which is one of my favorite cafes in Jerusalem. It was pretty fantastic. And now I have lots of reading to do before 2 day-long field studies in a row tomorrow and Saturday. Should be interesting!
I went on a great hike last weekend with a bunch of students from JUC--it was student activity day. Nothing much to tell, but it was a fun hike and beautiful weather--sunny and like 70 or something. We were in the Negev, which is kind of desert-y, so it was very dry and sandy and incredible. Now in Jerusalem it's rainy and 39 degrees... we might get snow again early next week so watch out for another snow day post! Here are some pictures from the hike:
We basically pulled the bus over on the side of the road and started hiking... fun times!
We were hiking through the Maktesh Qatan--the small Maktesh. It's this big crater... I have pictures from an earlier trip to the Maktesh Ramon. There are three makteshes--qatan (small), gadol (large), and ramon (mondo).
The sand was all these amazing colors--red, yellow, purple, black... I drove through the Maktesh Gadol with my parents when they were here, and we saw some sweet colors like that too.
So that's all I have to say about that. I wanted to just comment briefly on normalcy... maybe this is more introspective than my blogs usually are, I don't know. But I have been thinking about what is "normal" here, and I think it's kind of interesting. In the grand scheme of things, I haven't been here that long, and yet the way life is here, has become normal. That's most of what I have been thinking, that things become "normal" so quickly. I don't know if this is true for everyone, or if I'm just extremely adaptable or something like that. Anyway, here are some of the things that have become normal for me. Some of them are really inconsequential, but still I think it's interesting to ponder at least a little!
~Soldiers. They are everywhere. Also lots of big guns, often carried by people who are not in uniform.
~Rice, always. Also lots of other food that I used to not like at all, like cauliflower and chick peas, I now like.
~Non-skim milk--1% sometimes, often 3%.
~Signs are in 2 or 3 languages. If there's just one language, it's not English.
~Laundry takes an inordinately long amount of time. I did 2 loads of laundry today... and by today I really do mean that it took all day.
~JUC (my school) has stairs like Minneapolis has the Mississippi. Everywhere you go, there are stairs. I go down 2 levels of windy stairs to get to the bathroom (also crossing a small open-air courtyard), and if I'm taking a shower, I go up another flight and a half after going down. Class is 4 levels down and across the driveway. Food is at the same level as the bathroom. Laundry is past the food, down another 2 flights of stairs, and at the other end of campus. It's like constant Stairmaster.
~I have to be aware of what time it is if I want to shower. The water is only hot from 5-10 am and 5-10 pm, so if I sleep in late, I can't go for a run because I won't get a shower after it.
~There are also hills everywhere. I go for a run most mornings, and I both start and end on a hill.
~We walk everywhere. I have no concept of how far away places are, because we just walk until we get there; there's no other option. I think the restaurant we went to tonight is like a 20-minute walk away. I just started volunteering at a place that's a 40-minute walk away. No problem. (Although I won't do that one if it's snowing, I can tell you that!)
~The internet is pretty consistently not working. This is frustrating, but has also become normal.
~People honk all the time. No reason necessary, doesn't really mean someone has done something rude or stupid... you just honk when you feel like it.
~I have a lot of friends who are significantly older than I am. My roommate is almost 27. One of my very good friends is 36. Most of the people I hang out with the most are upper 20s, early 30s. Also several married couples are included in that group. It's fantastic, but I sometimes just feel really young and ridiculous.
~So much here is "almost." What that means is that it's "almost" like something from the US--food that's almost like something I'm used to, people that operate almost like Americans, but not really... This is a very Western country, for the Middle East, so it's almost like living in America, but at the same time, it's very much not.
...Those are a few of my thoughts on normalcy. It's just interesting to me, seeing how much this stuff really is how I live my life right now. That's it! Love to you all!
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