Evacuations are not as bad as they might seem. Not sure how many of you have had the chance, but I would strongly recommend traveling to a soon to be unstable country, purchase some Frontier MEDEX insurance and just wait. Insurance has always been one of those things that I know I need to have, but it kills me that I pay for it and never use it. I finally got my chance. Take that insurance company. They paid for my flight to a "safe haven" - Jerusalem - and then one more flight - either home or elsewhere. I chose Greece. No biggie. I just spent the past week in Athens and Crete with Solomon Braun, Anna Rubin and Andrea Ucar. Boom. (Whattup BOOM playlist!! You know who you are... Add songs please!)
The past week in Greece has been beautiful and relaxing and I highly recommend a visit, but I want to focus more on my time in Jerusalem. I mentioned in my last post that I was staying with my aunt and uncle in Jerusalem, seeing friends, playing basketball... all that continued. It was great. Except for my elbow... I really have been feeling so old.
I love Jerusalem. I don't know why exactly and sometimes I feel like I have to pretend to downplay my affinity for the city. I just don't feel like I have any great reasons. Granted, my experiences in Jerusalem have always been uniquely different from any other place in which I have spent time. I am not working. I am not in school. I am on vacation, living in a house stocked with food. I go and come and do as I please. Who wouldn't enjoy that? That being said, I really do love it and I think it transcends being my ultimate vacation. Walking (gavigiating?) the streets, bumping into old friends and Shabbat dinners with family that are comprised solely of salatim... every day really just feels like such a pleasure. And now that the shuk has a bunch of chill bars where you can grab a beer (or a coffee in my case)... what else could I be looking for? Even my thirst for Arabic is quenched.
Every time I am here I try to get together with some friends from Seeds of Peace. It just so happens that most of the people with whom I stayed in touch are Arab-Israeli and from a city up near Kfar Saba called Taybeh. I have made the trip up a few times to see them, but now most of them are at Hebrew University so my life has gotten much easier. I rarely leave Jerusalem when I am in Israel.
This time around I got the chance to go around the Old City with a good friend of mine, Saeed, and his friend (forgot his name... but a very nice guy). Though I have been studying Arabic for a while, this was the first time I really felt comfortable busting it out with him. It felt so good. Comfortably transitioning between Hebrew, English and Arabic, I felt this tremendous sense of accomplishment. Though my interest in Arabic in recent years has been more in the realm of Islamic law, it really began with my Seeds of Peace experience and wanting to connect and listen.... to the other. A cliche I have grown found of in many application essays. But in all seriousness, hanging out with Saeed and *friend* that night and a couple of other experiences these past few weeks really has encouraged me to think about what type of work I could see myself doing in the region. I might give SoS Kerry a call. Or apparently Ambassador Kurtzer? Rumors about him helping lead the upcoming round of peace talks... How cool would that be??
What else? Oh, right. A few days ago CASA informed us that given the current security conditions in Egypt, CASA was being suspended for the year in Egypt. They presented us with three options. First, defer the fellowship until next year and automatically be readmitted for the 2014-2015 year. Not even on the table for me. Second, return to Cairo for the year through a program that they will call CASIC. Basically all that CASA has to offer except for the name (I know, CASA has a real ring to it) and that the funding would no longer be through the DOE, but rather AUC. Though tempting, two huge downsides. A) All fellows would have to live in the Zamalek dorms. As riveting as that was my last week in Cairo, I couldn't do that long term. B) You should turn on the news. A lot of very scary and violent rhetoric is being thrown around by both sides, yet when talking to many Egyptian friends (and even teachers!) it doesn't seem to phase them. "It is necessary," they say, or "We are tired of all the noise. It is enough already" (one of my teachers actually said that to me). Meanwhile check this to get a sense of what is going on. Mind you, it's pretty gruesome. As great as Cairo was last month and inshallah will be in the near future, I think it is the wrong choice.
So that leaves me with the third option. I will be studying Arabic for the remainder of the year (starting in September) in... drumroll... Amman, Jordan (I was debating an exclamation mark there, but I realize that might be a little premature since I have no idea what life is really like in Amman). I hear it is a little sleepy, not a ton of night life, so my weekly routine of all nighters to which I have gotten accustomed in Cairo might be coming to an end. Short-lived, but definitely whetted my tongue for some more. Oh yeah. #Reunions2014
The program will be run through Qasid, an Arabic institute in Amman that I have heard is wonderful and demanding. I have a couple of friends who have been there so I am hoping to get some pointers of how to capitalize on this new start. Beginning a new dialect will be somewhat frustrating, but will open up new doors and opportunities... (something like that). Also, I need to start looking for an apartment, but more importantly, I am going to need a new blog title... Suggestions are welcome. Gavigating the Streets of Amman is lame.
Last two things about Arabic more generally. I learned the word for kal va khomer this week which was freakin awesome ما بالك ب or ناهيك عن. Not a perfect translation, but it works and I loved learning it. Second, I am not sure if I should be embarrassed to share this or not, but I learned a new word in English through Arabic. To calumniate - يشنّع (yushanna3) means to make false statements about (someone) (I am willing to bet that Ben is sitting there, hands crossed, feet up, thinking - obviously I know that). I feel like learning English through Arabic marks a certain stage in my Arabic journey.
Off to Nice for a few days to crash with my mom's college roommate and then Spain for a couple weeks with my family. Summer is shaping up to be just alright.
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| Solomon at his finest |
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| Paid vacations are awesome |
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| First class slippers or Toms? |
I love Jerusalem. I don't know why exactly and sometimes I feel like I have to pretend to downplay my affinity for the city. I just don't feel like I have any great reasons. Granted, my experiences in Jerusalem have always been uniquely different from any other place in which I have spent time. I am not working. I am not in school. I am on vacation, living in a house stocked with food. I go and come and do as I please. Who wouldn't enjoy that? That being said, I really do love it and I think it transcends being my ultimate vacation. Walking (gavigiating?) the streets, bumping into old friends and Shabbat dinners with family that are comprised solely of salatim... every day really just feels like such a pleasure. And now that the shuk has a bunch of chill bars where you can grab a beer (or a coffee in my case)... what else could I be looking for? Even my thirst for Arabic is quenched.
Every time I am here I try to get together with some friends from Seeds of Peace. It just so happens that most of the people with whom I stayed in touch are Arab-Israeli and from a city up near Kfar Saba called Taybeh. I have made the trip up a few times to see them, but now most of them are at Hebrew University so my life has gotten much easier. I rarely leave Jerusalem when I am in Israel.
This time around I got the chance to go around the Old City with a good friend of mine, Saeed, and his friend (forgot his name... but a very nice guy). Though I have been studying Arabic for a while, this was the first time I really felt comfortable busting it out with him. It felt so good. Comfortably transitioning between Hebrew, English and Arabic, I felt this tremendous sense of accomplishment. Though my interest in Arabic in recent years has been more in the realm of Islamic law, it really began with my Seeds of Peace experience and wanting to connect and listen.... to the other. A cliche I have grown found of in many application essays. But in all seriousness, hanging out with Saeed and *friend* that night and a couple of other experiences these past few weeks really has encouraged me to think about what type of work I could see myself doing in the region. I might give SoS Kerry a call. Or apparently Ambassador Kurtzer? Rumors about him helping lead the upcoming round of peace talks... How cool would that be??
What else? Oh, right. A few days ago CASA informed us that given the current security conditions in Egypt, CASA was being suspended for the year in Egypt. They presented us with three options. First, defer the fellowship until next year and automatically be readmitted for the 2014-2015 year. Not even on the table for me. Second, return to Cairo for the year through a program that they will call CASIC. Basically all that CASA has to offer except for the name (I know, CASA has a real ring to it) and that the funding would no longer be through the DOE, but rather AUC. Though tempting, two huge downsides. A) All fellows would have to live in the Zamalek dorms. As riveting as that was my last week in Cairo, I couldn't do that long term. B) You should turn on the news. A lot of very scary and violent rhetoric is being thrown around by both sides, yet when talking to many Egyptian friends (and even teachers!) it doesn't seem to phase them. "It is necessary," they say, or "We are tired of all the noise. It is enough already" (one of my teachers actually said that to me). Meanwhile check this to get a sense of what is going on. Mind you, it's pretty gruesome. As great as Cairo was last month and inshallah will be in the near future, I think it is the wrong choice.
So that leaves me with the third option. I will be studying Arabic for the remainder of the year (starting in September) in... drumroll... Amman, Jordan (I was debating an exclamation mark there, but I realize that might be a little premature since I have no idea what life is really like in Amman). I hear it is a little sleepy, not a ton of night life, so my weekly routine of all nighters to which I have gotten accustomed in Cairo might be coming to an end. Short-lived, but definitely whetted my tongue for some more. Oh yeah. #Reunions2014
The program will be run through Qasid, an Arabic institute in Amman that I have heard is wonderful and demanding. I have a couple of friends who have been there so I am hoping to get some pointers of how to capitalize on this new start. Beginning a new dialect will be somewhat frustrating, but will open up new doors and opportunities... (something like that). Also, I need to start looking for an apartment, but more importantly, I am going to need a new blog title... Suggestions are welcome. Gavigating the Streets of Amman is lame.
Last two things about Arabic more generally. I learned the word for kal va khomer this week which was freakin awesome ما بالك ب or ناهيك عن. Not a perfect translation, but it works and I loved learning it. Second, I am not sure if I should be embarrassed to share this or not, but I learned a new word in English through Arabic. To calumniate - يشنّع (yushanna3) means to make false statements about (someone) (I am willing to bet that Ben is sitting there, hands crossed, feet up, thinking - obviously I know that). I feel like learning English through Arabic marks a certain stage in my Arabic journey.
Off to Nice for a few days to crash with my mom's college roommate and then Spain for a couple weeks with my family. Summer is shaping up to be just alright.
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