My New Home

Welcome to Nablus. First day here...most terrifying day of my life (no, not because there were terrorists running around with bombs). I had to meet dozens of people in the program and got assigned a teaching schedule to start two days from then and I was tired and hungry and didn't know where or how to get food and people kept talking to me. But now I've been here for a whole week and I know where to get the best falafel and I know (kind of) how to teach a class.

My second day here we biked to a nearby olive grove to help the farmers (or "peasants" as everyone here calls them) pick their olive trees. Note how hilly the pictures of Nablus are and you'll get an idea of how easy the bike ride was. I could barely push that bike up the hill.

Dirty, half-constructed building where we stopped to eat our hummus and bread breakfast.

Local and international volunteers.

Peasant and son.

A donkey. I wish I had a picture of the people riding them up those streets. It's like right out of a movie.

The last couple pictures are from my mountain walk to a park with my local volunteer teaching assistant. There I received my first (and last?) kiss from a Palestinian. Don't worry, it was only on my head.

Tanning in Late October

Tel Aviv=The Beach

The city itself was…underwhelming. But so would any city be when it’s 90 degrees and sunny on the Mediterranean.

That's Jaffa in the distance - the old old old port city from which Tel Aviv sprang.

Political insights from a cabbie in Tel Aviv: Somehow it came about that I asked him how he feels about Obama. I promptly received a poli sci lesson on the demography and political history of Israel...Israel is very small, full of Jews, and surrounded by Muslims.

Cabbie statistics...Population of Israel: 7 million, of which 6 million are Jews and 1 million Arab. It is surrounded by five seven (57) Islam states.

Thus, Israel is in a precarious position. The U.S. has historically backed Israel, and Obama shouldn't change course.

He supports a two-state solution (as everyone does, he says) so long as it is peaceful.

Cabbie profile: middle-aged; Jewish; born in Israel; parents from Iran

Istanbul was Constantinople

I don't know how to write a blog, much less introduce one, so let's just jump right in, shall we?

Right now I am sitting on the terrace of my hostel in Tel Aviv – feel free to conjure images of a spectacular view of the Mediterranean, rather than ragged buildings, loud buses and power lines surrounding me —and I'm about to document the Best Layover Ever.

First thing I did in Turkey: ate a kebab.

A kebab, a.k.a heaven in a pita

The waiter guy thought I was Turkish; he told me so. He might have been hitting on me but I'm ok with that because boy was he attractive. I think I might just move to Turkey some day.

This is what I saw on my walk from the train to the hostel...get ready for it...

The Blue Mosque

I didn't get to go in that night, mostly because it gets dark ridiculously early in this corner of the world and I was too much of a pansy to be out alone at night.

Visitors are requested to remove their shoes and women to cover their heads when inside the mosque. I didn’t have a scarf with me so I made do with a spare shirt.

The Basilica Cistern: the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul.

The Grand Bazaar: a ridiculously huge covered market.

I wanted to buy a rug but couldn't quite figure out how I would transport it.

Another Mosque. There was a mosque every few blocks or so in this city but I only took pictures of the really big ones.

My new friend. We met over breakfast at the hostel—both lone travelers—and spent the day touring Istanbul together. We also shared some strange food, like a pasta/cheese street food that resembled an omelette and a fish sandwich bought straight off a boat. We watched them fillet the fish right in front of us.

Reflection in strange art sculpture's mirror, and a fairy smile to boot.