here (now)

OK. So I have this NEW blog to detail my travels and whatnot. If ya like it and wanna read it, that's cool. If not, that's cool too. I FINALLY can post pictures so I'll have some up too (of Jerusalem at this point; Europe may be a wee bit trickier.)

So to dive in...

I'm processing so much information/ history/ emotions right now. Things here are intense but really, REALLY good. I love it here. I love the languages, the smells, the colors, the FOOD, the crazy delicious Arabic coffee, THE GRAFFITI!!!!

I love how arid it is...and how there can be desert in one paart of the country and ten minutes later mountains with greenery on the other side.

I love this place. I want to embrace it even more but I feel like there is so much swirling around in my head. It's just....surreal, to say the least.

Anyhow, while I continue processing; I thought I'd share a poem I wrote the first day we arrived. Basically, the graduate student assisting our professor was deatined right when we entered Israel. She had some stamps from Arab countries on her passport and is a Palestinian-American and is married to a Palestinian man. It was my first experience seeing a situation that seemed so unjust...she was detained because she was a "suspicious" person. And to boot, when they finally gave her back her passport and we could leave, she was lectured about not telling them that she was married to a Palestinian, even though she was NEVER ASKED. So here it is:

Detainee

detained

because

shecouldbeasuspiciousperson

and youncanneverbetoocareful.

because of some stamps

on her pass(port).

where her husband was born.

(he'll never be able to visit, by the way.)

the fact that she didn't mention everything-

never mind she wasn't asked.

because of something about her.

unnamed but clearer than water.

because of, well,

youcanneverbetoocareful.

So there's a bit of the swirling mess in my head...maybe not a mess, just- hmmm...the birth of a new solar system way of thinking.