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07/06/18-07/07/18: Weekend in Jordan

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I stopped blogging for two-ish weeks since my parents were visiting, and my mother is a far better blogger (for information about what we did while they were here, as well as their incredible trip through Southern Spain before meeting me, go here!). While they were visiting (and while I was working), my mom and sister had taken a two-day trip to Jordan, which they loved (and kept referencing to my dad and me, letting us know that we couldn’t complain about the heat since we hadn’t even been to Petra to experience the real heat). So, I knew that I definitely wanted to go! Maddy and I -- almost everyone (including her classmates) has assumed we are sisters! The Thursday night (equivalent to Friday in the US) before the tour began my roommate Mady and I went out with some of her friends from her Arabic class, as well as their professor! It was a very fun group, and super helpful to have their teacher along -- as a native he knew all the smaller/less tourist-y bars and was a welcome...
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07/13/18 -- Bethlehem

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A young Orthodox girl yelling at a Women at the Wall protester Some of my friends from Jordan (living in Tel Aviv on Yale program) were coming out to Jerusalem for the weekend, so spent the previous night with one of them (Marcelina) in the shuk (market) with my roommate Mady. She slept over in our apartment, and we were up bright and early the next morning to make it to Women at the Wall. Women at the Wall is a reformed Jewish movement to advocate for the right of women to prayer at the Western Wall, one of the holiest places to Jews across the world. Although this is not technically forbidden in Judaism, and there is a law in place that says women can do this, it is a huge and very contentious issue between the orthodox and reformed communities. In order to protest, the organization performs bat mitzvahs at the wall and holds services for Rosh Chodesh. Although Marcelina is Catholic and I am not particularly Jewish, we both wanted to go in order to get a better sense of th...
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Day 7 -- 06/16/18

Woke up today feeling fairly sick (hmm...possibly a result of less than four hours of sleep??), but I had to make it to my free tour of the Old City scheduled for the morning! Because today was Shabbat, all the public transport is shut down, so I had to walk over and the tour itself, unfortunately, wasn't that great -- not sure if it was the illness, the heat, the fairly boring tour guide, or the fact that I had seen most of this yesterday -- but I left early to go explore on my own. I did, however, meet Lona, a wonderful woman from Peru (now living in Spain), so I got to practice some Spanish and hear about all the things I should do while I'm abroad there in the Spring! Now on my own, I walked around for a little bit, before buying some bread-type thing from a street vendor that I had been seeing all around the Muslim Quarter. I went to the near-by park to eat this and my free peach from yesterday, before heading back to the Old City for the Ramparts Walk. This takes you ar...
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Day 6 -- 06/15/18

First day off! I started nice and early (6am...yes, after I went to bed after 2) with a call to my college friends Yael and Kayli (late the night before for their time zone). It was lovely to catch up with them and hear their voices (although I think all of us were falling asleep for our own reasons!). I actually really wanted an early start because, in Jerusalem, the entire town goes sort of dark during Shabbat (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday), so I wanted to get as much in as possible before than. I had been advised not to go to the Muslim Quarter of the Old City any time after noon because this is the big prayer time, which can sometimes result in protests/riots (so strange how causually everyone mentions that here!), so I headed there first to be done before any of that began. I lost a little bit of my early start however, because the moment I was on the bus I checked my Google Maps app to see where I needed to get off, only to find a single blue dot (my location) floating ...
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Day 5 -- 06/14/18

Wonderful day, but as it's almost 2am Jerusalem time, I will keep it very short! (Hopefully -- I always think that and then end up writing an essay -- even just writing this sentence proves that point!) I went to one of my professor's classes today, as they were learning about protein docking in Rosetta, something I am working on this summer. The class was for graduate students, all of whom are most likely miles smarter than I am, but I spent the last week studying all of this from all day for a full week, and the past three months before reading papers on the topic, so it was pretty fun to sit there nodding along as she spoke. Afterwards, she was going to drive me back to the lab, but had to pick up her youngest son (around 10) first. I think she felt bad bringing me out there, but I loved it; her kid and his friends were all adorable, and they all stood around nervously trying out all their (limited) English phrases on me, before bursting out laughing. They had all been i...
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Day 4 -- 06/13/18

Had a wonderful lunch with the other people in my lab today. I felt bad making the speak in English, but they all seemed willing to. I think I said yesterday that it seemed smart to save all of my more intrusive questions for the woman from Philidelphia, but she wasn’t there, so I got to talk to these three women about their experiences with the military, the different religious sects, and education in Jersualem. At the end of work, I talked to my professor for awhile, first about my project, and then she gave me a ton of advice for things to do in Jerusalem! I am really, really happy that she is my mentor -- so helpful and kind, and seems to have a real interest in making sure that I feel comfortable and happy here, and get to experience all Jerusalem has to offer. She mentioned a book fair (ending tomorrow) near the old city, so I of course headed over the minute I left work. It was located at a place called the First Station, the location of the old train station that got taken do...
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Day 3 -- 06/12/18

Today was surprisingly good -- I think just having a general idea of where everything was and how I was supposed to go about it made it a lot easier. Got a cheese danish while I waited for the bus (I keep getting up and thinking that it’s hard to adjust to all this newness, I should get myself a treat for breakfast -- hopefully this mindset fades soon!). Everyone who has heard that I’m living at Mount Scopus but working in Ein Kerem (exact opposites from each other in the city) has told me that the commute is bad enough that I should really look into finding a different place to live. It may just be early infatuation with new experiences (it probably is), but I’ve found the bus rides to be one of my favorite parts of the day! Today I listened to a few Revisionist History and Fresh Air podcasts, and it got even better! I’ve never really been that into podcasts before, but realized that listening to them on the bus combines my favorite part of driving (listening to NPR) with my favorite ...
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