Yesterday was a completely lazy day. Made pancakes for breakfast with my new Aunt Jemima mix, but my batch turned out completely odd. They were like, wayyyy too bubbly and the bubbles started to burst the second it touched the pan, yet they took a while to cook, and came out kind of rubbery. I have no idea what i did wrong, I just made them like we normally do at home. hrm. may experiment again tomorrow. Mommy says maybe the pan was too hot. We'll see.
Anyways, after breakfast we pretty much just hung out in our PJs all day, watching Queer as Folk and Boy Meets World...then, at night, Adrienne came!! We hung out til 12:30, talking about the randomest stuff in the world, cuz that's Adrienne, listening to Sarah's songs, and generally having fun. Eventually we needed to go to bed though! Adrienne slept on the floor, which couldn't have been comfortable but she said it was the same as a bed in a hostel, so oh well.
Got up at 7:30 this morning, got all ready for the day, and headed out around 8:15. we didn't have much time, so we caught a cab to the Central Bus Station, where we met up with our friend Adam, who goes to UMass with me and is at TAU with Adrienne this semester. We grabbed breakfast at the Holy Bagel there, which turned out bad for me cuz the knife he used to cut my plain bagel with butter must have been used on an onion bagel, and it was ICKY. I ate it anyways though, since I didn't have much of a choice, as the bus was coming very soon. We got on the bus to Hebron with no problems, had some very fun conversations on the way, and eventually found ourselves in Hebron. Hebron is a city in the West Bank, which has a long, contentious, and bloody history. I don't know all the details, nor do i want to type them all up, really, so you can go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebron and read all about it. Today, it's kind of a run-down place, bullet holes and bombed out homes all over the place, children running wild, soldiers at every corner and sometimes even in-between corners. I did not realize until I got there that it was in the West Bank, nor did I realize what a hotbed of conflict it is--I probably would not have gone if I had known, but I am glad I did. It was quite an experience, and I took many gorgeous pictures. I didn't like the feeling of unease I had the entire time, though, knowing that just past that barbed wire were people who hate me and my people, that one step into the wrong part of town could get me stoned, that a bomb could come in at any moment...But I got to see the tombs of my ancestors, which was pretty surreal, and it was also just a gorgeous day. My favorite part by far though, came at the end. We went to one of the small Arab-run touristy shops near where the bus stop was, and the wonderful man who owned it, Abed, and his teenaged son Mohammed made us Bedouin tea and sat and chatted with us for a good 25+ minutes. They were so nice! Their English wasn't so good, but their Hebrew was wonderful, and I could understand most of the conversation, although Adrienne did most of the talking since she's in a higher level than me or Adam. And oh, that tea...I remember getting it in the Bedouin tents on Birthright, but that was only a small glass...this was a big, full cup, and it was just HEAVENLY. I don't even know what was in it, just that I want more :-)
We had a little issue getting home, since the first bus did not stop for us (which was really, really annoying since we were standing at the right place and waving our arms wildly--the driver MUST have seen us) but while we were waiting for the next one (luckily only 20 minutes later) we met a guy who had been there for shabbos, an American from Pittsburg named Brett who goes by Mordechai here. He goes to Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and was a pretty nice guy. The next bus stopped, luckily, and we hopped on and snoozed our way back to Jerusalem. Back at the bus station, we ran to the bathrooms, then walked around the mall a little bit so Adrienne could buy magazines and ice cream, then they caught a bus back to TA and I indulged in some McD's fries while I waited for my own bus back here to school. After talking to Kimo and Gabs for a bit, I just crashed in my bed with my book, and now I'm just fooling around on the internet, biding my time until bedtime.
Quite an eventful day, a good start to my break I think! The next two days I think will be pretty tame; I'm going to attempt to clean our fridge a little bit, get rid of as much chametz (leavened bread products) as I can, although without a broom it's pretty much impossible to get rid of it all. We'll see. Other than that, I will probably read a lot more...Tomorrow I get to sign up for classes...I have emails to write and applications and assessments to fill out...yeah. break. :-)
Even though it was a scary place, sometimes its best not to ask and just do. You experience some truly tremendous things that way.
ReplyDeleteoh and sleeping on the floor isnt THAT bad. i sleep on the floor every day!