HOLY LAND!!!

TRIVIA TIME:
it's been about a month since Megan's been travelling... in that month she has done all but one of the following:

A. hitch hiked with German tourists
B. used a squatter toilet
C. changed out of bathing suit on a public beach in UAE as the Muslim call to prayer went off in the background
D. toured with a group of Jews for Jesus




It's not as bad as it sounds...
Well, believe it or not, the answer is B... i have been fortunate enough to avoid the Squatter (Alhamdullah for excellent control of my facilities :-) )

Our trip to Israel was quite the adventure: took a bus that was supposed to take us to Nazareth, but left us at the border (bc Katie's passport took a long time to process bc she had been to Syria and Lebanon and they don't like that).
Stranded at the border we had no choice but to find two nice friendly German men who took us in their beat-up BMW to Nazareth. I saw them as we were coming in, and commented about their car... little did I realize we would soon be traveling in the back of it. Once we got to Nazareth none of the ATMs were working so a guy at the hostel spotted us some shekels. Nazareth was nice but a little boring... it's mostly Christian Arabs who live there, so lots of Arab food (hmm, getting tired of it).

Next day we went to Haifa, did a lot of walking saw the Bahai Gardens, but there's really not too much to do in Haifa. Met some Jewish girls from NYC who assumed we were Jewish too... lol.

Which reminds me, languages that people assume we speak: Hebrew, Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Russian... possibly some others bc in Jerusalem people would come up to us and i had NO IDEA what they were saying.

Anyway, I loved Jerusalem, it was great. SOOO many different cultures. Hasidic Jewish men, mixed with scarved Muslim women, and old people tourists with belt bags.
The city has SOOO much history too! Everywhere you go it's someone's birthplace, deathplace, something!

A few highlights:
Jesus!!!! Yay for Jesus-ness bc i was really missing out on it in Jordan. Place of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, Mary's tomb (where some little Arab kid excitedly hugged us), Garden of Gethsemane, place of Last Supper, and MORE!
Wailing Wall (for Jewish religion), Dome of the Rock (where Abraham almost sacrificed his son... Muslim place), King David's Tomb, OSKAR SCHINDLER'S GRAVE! yes, ladies and gentleman, my sister and i even put rocks on it like they do at the end of the movie.

We also got harassed by a few people in the Arab markets... one guy would not LET up on bartering w/my sister. We also got followed by this guy who saw us earlier and remembered us and my sister and I were walking fast to escape him and we said "once we get to the Jewish quarter he'll stop" and alas he did... that was his boundary! Some interesting quotes: "You want coffee, tea? You want husband?" "Why do you call her young lady, she is still a teen angel." "I know you all!" (uh, stalker?) and the obligatory "hellohellohellohello! iloveyouiloveyou!" i don't know WHERE they get these things...

I'm used to those kind of things in Jordan but even the Israeli army guys got into it in Jerusalem! Altho a lot of them have REALLY boring jobs!
Stayed in an Arab hostel in the Old City w/great location, but the guy tried to give us a REALLY bad exchange rate when we tried to pay our bill, so we decided to pay in US dollars, like we originally had on the bill for our reservation... so in vindictive fashion, we gave him $102 US in 1's, 5's and 10's... hahahahaha have fun using all those 1's in Israel! And think before the next time you want to cheat whitey!

The Israelis are a lot less formal than Americans. Some postal employees dress like prostitutes. Vast contrast to what you see in Jordan. Many military people running around bc it's required for Israeli youth. Though I'll be the first to admit, the Israeli army uniform compliments just about anyone. :-) The gun helps too.
On the way back, we couldn't find the right bus in Tel Aviv and no one could help us (the bus station is 7 stories tall) so we ended up taking a really round about way home. Took us from 9:30 in Jerusalem until 6:30 to get back to the dorms, but at least we're back in Jordan now.

Overall, I really enjoyed Israel! The way in and the way out were trying, but it was worth it for all of the stuff in the middle. We met lots of nice people: tour groups of Jews for Jesus (actually Messianic Jews as they will tell you), Presbyterians, Baptists, a cute little French nun who wouldn't stop talking... it's amazing the conversations you can have with people while you're traveling... i even made friends w/a cat who wouldn't stop following me around!

Ooops, forgot we also went to Bethlehem which is in the West Bank of Palestine, so it was interesting to see the flipside of life... they are very poor in the west bank. still pics of yasser arafat all over the place. i'm not sure how i feel about the israel/palenstine conflict but my perspective has been permanently changed from my experiences both over there AND here in Jordan bc i have met many Palestinians and Syrians who have been effected by the conflict... one Palestinian guy even gave us a quick Hebrew lesson before we left Jordan altho it didn't really help. Won't write my opinions here bc that could get me in trouble!
Even tho many people speak English in Israel, next time I go back I would like to be a little more prepared in the language arena.

Just got back from dinner at a girl's house who is 1/2 Jordanian and 1/2 Mexican. Yummmm, Mexican food.... :-)

Now we're spending the night at my sister's tutor's house. Then we're off to Aqaba and Petra tomorrow!

Heard that the Mavs are in the Finals... hahahaha and people said it couldn't be done... go MAVS! and if the mavs aren't going to be champions, I couldn't be happier for DWade!!!

Also, heard that Zarqawi is dead? People are keeping pretty hushhush about it in Jordan, since he's from here (city of Zarqa)...