King of Spices

Graveyard of Olive Trees

Tuesday I went to the university with Robert, Michelle and Dan. The ride to Abu Dis is around 40minutes, there is graveyard after graveyard of olive tree stumps and we pass right by the wall. There is a lot of graffiti, I want to take a picture of the pictures and writing on the wall. I sat in on Dan's tutorial but because of exams there were only a few students present. They discussed their personal essays and I got to sit and help one of them figure out what edits he needed to make before turning it in. Later after going across the street to get Falafel we drove to Jerusalem where a conference on space and occupation was beginning. Michelle and I ended up going home on the bus instead of staying. I know I would have fallen asleep. Wednesday we spent the whole day at the conference which continued from Jerusalem at Al Quds. There were some very interesting speakers but I started to nod off in the evening. The idea of space being power and planning leading to ownership of space was very fascinating. Thursday was spent grocery shopping and cooking for Thanksgiving dinner. I peeled potatoes, cut spinach and broke up bread for stuffing. About 15 people showed up for dinner, it was fun, we sat and talked and ate. I met the writer of Once Upon a Country, not the person the book is about but the guy who did the actual writing of it. He's one of the teachers for the program. Today is the day to rest and clean and catch up on work. I'm hoping I can go see the apartment I may be moving into this evening. We'll see.

I've Arrived

I've got jet lag and it's 5am so I might as well write an update! I arrived yesterday evening and was picked up by a taxi at the airport. We drove an hour to Ramallah and then met Robert and his housemates. I'm going to stay at his apartment temporarily until we figure out a more permanent living situation. Tomorrow I get to go to the University and then there's a conference on Wednesday and Thursday. I will start tutoring next week. I'm pretty nervous, I hope I don't suck but it's exciting too. Ramallah is a nice city from what I've seen so far, It reminds me a little of India, there's lots of arabic graffiti on some of the buildings, I can't wait to start taking pictures. Well I'll let you know how everything goes.

Hired

Sorry it's been so long, there hasn't been much going on until recently. I FINALLY got a JOB! My advisor from college emailed me a couple of weeks ago asking if I would be interested in applying to be an English Tutor in Palestine so of course I jumped on the opportunity and sent in my resume asap. Two days later I was hired!!! And now I leave in two weeks to be there through next June! It's crazy how fast things can turn around. The hardest thing is going to be deciding what books to take...I was told books are expensive and kind of rare there which totally sucks. I was hoping to buy tons of Palestinian literature, etc. But I guess I'll just have to see what's available. Anyway, hope all is well in the blogsphere, I'm sure you'll be hearing from me more regularly from now on.