Damn you Internet

3/31/08

16 days and counting until my birthday! My mom used to have a rule for me when I was little that I wasn’t allowed to talk about my birthday until 6 weeks before, other wise I would start planning my parties 6 months in advance ad drive everyone crazy. I would like to think that I am not mature enough to not need such a rule but I still get excited about my birthday, even if Im not happy about continuing to get older after 21. okay on to more exciting things.

Friday I got up very early and went to Jerusalem for my meeting with Jeff Halper of ICAHD. It was great. It turns out I was late, because I forgot to set my watch back for daylight savings time, but he was very understanding and we still had our meeting. We talked about my past work in various Jewish communities and which communities I might be able to bring ICAHD to in Israel, and also what ICAHD can do for me as far as training, and money. They can’t pay me obviously, but they can pay for certain expenses and they will train me to lead tours and give presentations. Its all very exciting for me. I am going back on Wednesday after class to begin training and then on Friday Im going on a tour with them. Right after I met with Jeff I went to meet up with Jomi who was with her boyfriend, mother and sister. It was a bit strange for me to be with them. Jomi moved to Israel a year and a half ago and joined the Israel army. Her boyfriend is in the same position as Jomi, but while Jomi is a weapons instructor and never sees combat herself, when I asked her boyfriend what he did in the army he told me he arrested terrorists. This was very hard to hear considering that just the day before Omar and Wissam were arrested by the IDF at 3 in the morning. Omar and Wissam are both politically active, but they are not terrorists. I knew that this is that way it was but to actually hear a soldier tell me that he really believes that everyone he arrests is a terrorist was shocking and amazing to me. I didn’t even know what to say, and out of respect to Jomi I didn’t really say anything, and he had to leave pretty soon after that anyways so it wasn’t so bad. A little later I went with Jomi, her mom and her sister to Tzuba to visit former campers that were on EIE. This was also very strange for me. I remember when I finished EIE I wanted to join the Israeli army. Uri was a great teacher, but he lied to me, well maybe not lied, but he certainly omitted certain details of Israel’s history, to make me think that Israel was perfect and faultless. I worry that these campers are getting the same brain washing, and there is little I can do to stop it. I have toyed with the idea of asking Amy or Gadi or even Baruch if I can do a ICAHD presentation once I am trained to do so, but I have a feeling it wont be allowed, but who knows. NFTY is supposed to be a liberal and progressive organization. They should allow other points of view in their classrooms. We left Tzuba a little before Shabbat and I just had them drop me off near the city center and I walked from there to the bus station near Damascus gate to go back to Birzeit. Yvette texted me to see if I wanted to stay in Jerusalem and go out later, but I was exhausted, and I needed to study for an exam on Saturday. I went home studied for a while and then to bed.

Saturday I woke up with the worst headache, so I went back to sleep for a few hours and then came to class very late. So I had to take the exam after class it wasn’t too bad. After the exam I went home and did some reading on my balcony until Marco called me to say I could come do laundry. Then I went to Marco and Wilco’s to do laundry, and also ended up helping Wilco Grocery shop and ate dinner with them. Then Wilco Started to watch football (soccer) matches in German. It was entertaining for about 10 mins and then I did the dishes as my payment for dinner and using their washer machine, and then I went to Aliya’s where there was a going away party fr Jeff and Michelle, who had been PAS students the semester before and stayed around until now. At Aliya’s I met Thomas a German guy who has been in PAS the last 2 semesters, and is now working on some project with a German NGO in Ramallah. He seemed pretty cool, its always exciting to meet new people here considering the program is pretty small, new faces are good. We ended the evening at Santi and Nicks apt and eventually went home at around 3ish.

Sunday I went on a Wall photography excursion with Kyle, Ryan, Josh and Tasha. We took a shuttle to Amar a city near the Kalandia check point. We got out by the wall, and then walked for a few hours just along the wall and taking pictures. We met some interesting characters along the way, but nothing too exciting. When we got back to Birzeit we decided to get a movie to watch. Tasha told me they had Jumper , which is a movie I have wanted to see since I saw a preview for it like 4 months ago. Unfortunately it is a terrible movie. Jamie Bell’s character was probably the only redeeming factor and even that wasn’t amazing, so that was sad. We watched the movie at Kyle’s and miraculously just as we were about to leave William showed up to tell us that he was going to Tel aviv for a few days etc… and he had his car with him, so he drove us all home (yeah!)

Today, was just normal class, and I finally got my extra mattresses back from Anna, so I was finally able to really unpack. I don’t have a dresser or even shelves, but at least I don’t have to put my clothes on the floor. I was also inspired to decorate, so now my room is beautiful, and It no longer looks like a clothes bomb went off in it. After beautifying my room I went to the girls house, and they made me dinner on the way Tamir drove by me and gave me a ride to their house after making a stop to get Kanaffi (mmmm soo good) and now I am at Santi and Nick’s place fighting with their internet to let me post this since its been 2 weeks now.