Where to even begin. This last week has been packed full with so many different emotions and experiences, its hard for me to truly know how I actually feel about all of it.
This past week, from Saturday to Saturday I traveled with some friends around Israel/Palestine for our spring break. I knew some things going into it, but even so, nothing really prepares you for it until you actually experience it (kind of like my trip to Jordan, right?). My experience had many good points and some bad ones as well.


Lets start with day one.
It got off to a rough start because some of the other girls we were going to the border with were late. Four of us (six of us were going to the border together) had spent the night together and one of the girls landlords offered to give us a ride to the Abdali bus station where we needed to depart from. We were going to meet the other two there. We had already bought ourselves bus tickets the previous day and were set (or so we thought). We leave the apartment about 6:20am with the understanding that we needed to be at the bus station at 6:30am (by now, my nerves were a little on edge). The nice landlord crammed us into his car, along with his dog, and we drove to the bus station. We get there, and immediately I realized this was NOT the Abdali bus station. He assured us it was and we got out of the car at exactly 6:30. A bunch of taxi drivers ushered us onto the only bus there speaking rapidly to us in Arabic. Before we know it, we're somehow on a bus (NOT the bus company we were supposed to be taking). We try to tell the bus driver this by showing him our bus tickets and he waved his hand at us saying "Ok ok, sit down". I don't even know if I can describe the confusion we were all feeling at this point. The bus started driving away, giving us no other option but to sit down and enjoy the ride and pray to God the bus took us to the border. I had to call and inform the other two girls of the situation (they were at the CORRECT bus station). All in all, we made it to the border although we had to pay for an extra bus trip (just because the driver waves you on after you show him your bus ticket for another bus company apparently means you still have to pay for the ticket). None of this matters. We made it to the border. 'Nuff said.
The King-Hussein/Allenby land bridge is something else. We were all expecting some huge man-made structure bridging the two countries together. We were sadly disappointed to see a tiny little concrete bridge that took all of 5 seconds to cross. The experience wasn't anything unusual---until we got to the Israeli side. The first thing that struck me was how young everyone was. The border officials were mainly young women and a few men that looked bored and cranky. The only time they were nice to any of us was when (out of 5 girls) I was the only one to ask that my passport be stamped. A brief smile by the border official was really the only pleasent experience we had with any of the officials. Four of us made it to the other side. We waited patiently for the other two to come through. One hour---two hours----three hours----no sign of them. Finally we started trying to ask someone if they had any information. NO ONE was helpful. NO ONE. We asked two passing young girls (officials) if they could give us any information. "Uuuuuh.....no. We don't know" and they left. A few seconds later they walk back and address my friend "Um, could we like, take a picture of you? You look just like our friend!". They sounded like a bunch of junior high girls. We looked at each other puzzled and said ok. They took it, giggled, and walked away. I could not believe the level of unprofessionalism that I saw (a common theme through out our trip). FINALLY, our friends arrived. One of them is an Iranian Muslim and OF COURSE this was the reason for their delay. She had been detained for three hours and questioned. Needless to say, we were happy to leave there and continue our spring break.

This is where our groups seperated. We traveled on a bus to Jerusalem but broke off once we got there, leaving just three in my group to travel together. We walked around the old city for awhile and made our way to our hostel which we had to wait to check into until after dark because we arrived on Shabbat. The next day we explored more of the old city and hit up the major holy sites including the church of the holy seplucher, the wailing wall, and the dome of the rock. This was western easter and there were lots of people there crowding the narrow streets. We enjoyed our time despite a few incidents of being turned away because our friend was Muslim and another time because I was questioned and asked to show my passport along with my other friend. Mind you, not ONCE during our ENTIRE trip was our blonde haired friend questioned. My other friend and I both look Arab (even though we aren't) and constantly ran into problems because of it. I guess this is shocking to me only because I've never had to deal with any of that back in the states.

The next day we made our way to Tel Aviv where we walked around, swam in the mediteranean, and laid out on the beach. We met a German and a Canadian girl that we went out to dinner with. Tel Aviv was kind of our "relaxing, do nothing" city for the trip. After two days there, we went to Nazareth and enjoyed the cozy hostel that we stayed at and walked around the city, eating fresh baked bread and drinking tea. The next day we hoped on a bus to Tiberias were we stayed for a grand total of 30 minutes, long enough to snap some shots with the Sea of Galilee. We hoped another bus to Haifa where we went to the stunning Baha'i gardens. After a few hours there we hoped another bus down the coast back to Tel Aviv where we spent the night. Next morning we bused back to Jerusalem where we dropped our stuff off at our hostel within the old city and took a bus to Bethlehem. One of the most intense experiences that we had was seeing the wall that separates the West Bank from Jerusalem. Immediately, the Berlin wall came to mind. Then a prison. I had no idea anything like it even still existed. This is the 21st century. How can something like this still be tolerated? Had I been allowed to, I would have taken pictures to show how truly evil this structure is. We planned on spending the day with one of my travel companions friends family. She knows him back at her school and he wanted her to contact his family in Bethlehem and spend some time with them. We were expecting a short visit with maybe some tea. We got WAY more than we expected (one more reason why I love Arab hospitality). This guys cousin, who I will call "B" met us at his house. He invited us in to meet his family and we sat around talking with them for awhile while they offered us first tea, cookies, fruit, then coffee. B showed us around the property and his families shops, explaining some of the things he's experienced, including showing us where bombs during the last intifada fell near his house. He took us back to his house where we watched The Incredibles (in arabic :D) with his family and his mom made us an amazing meal. They wanted us to stay there overnight and preferably a few days longer. We told them that we couldn't because we had already paid for our hostel and had to get back for class. B then took us out and showed us around the old city of Bethlehem including the Church of the Nativity where Jesus was supposed to have been born. After the tour he helped us get a taxi back to the wall and we thanked him for his hospitality. Where do you see hospitality like that? I certaintly haven't experienced it much in my life and it was a very welcoming experience (definitely the best part of the entire trip).

I was actually kind of sad to have to go back to Jerusalem although this didnt last long when I realized what an amazing view we had from our hostel of the old city. I have an amazing recording of the evening call to prayer from the top of our hostel. Church bells were ringing throughout most of the night because Eastern easter was the next day.

Next morning we got up early and made it through the border without any problems.
It feels strange to be back especially knowing that at any given time, I was only a few hours away from Amman. All of it is SO close, yet so different. I felt like I was in a completely different world in Israel.
I'm glad I went and saw some of the things I did, but I will die happily if I never have to experience some of the hostility and discrimination that we experienced while there.
Really, this entry isn't anything but a quick summary of what happened. I think it would take far too long to actually write down in good enough detail the actual feelings I felt and some of the more specific things I saw. Guess you all will just have to ask me someday!