One of the highlights of the trip so far has been all the Palestinian meals I’ve eaten in the homes of our new friends. There’s nothing like home cooking; even when the flavor profiles are completely different from our own, things taste so much better when you know they were cooked with love. One of my favorite dishes so far has been Maqluba, which means “upside down.” This dish consists of rice, cucumbers, tomatoes, spices and chicken. You cook everything…
We saw a motorcycle show. (If any of you know how really hypnotize someone tell me in the comments I mean it) We had a exciting time. 4ufggfdjdhgd. (sorry problem with the keys) In Bethlehem (see maggie’s post) a stunt man was taking photos and there was a crowd after 2 minutes. That guy cannot go anywhere without a crowd following him. The stunts he did were standing up on the motorcycle. I think I saw him do a handstand…
So today despite the name Will can’t talk about anything in his blog, because I am going to talk about anything! So on Saturday we went to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. And there was a little candle to help Jesus and there was also a poor box. People put money in it so they could help poor people. Then we got to touch where Jesus was born and it was super fun. Then once we were done…
Let’s take a moment and write a little post for those who will go after me. (Like on their #fulbrightteach in January!) Currently for international flights each passenger gets one 62″ suitcase. Which means you add length+width+height and the result is 62″ or less. Suitcases can be 50 lbs. You may have additional weight for extra fees or a second bag for about $100. That means that space is at a premium. In our family, our plan was to bring…
The kids started their 3rd week of school today. There were a few minor things they had to adjust to: the “weekend” is Friday and Sunday, they wear uniforms, and they have to carry their lunch every day. Surprisingly though, I was completely wrong about who would adjust better. To begin with, Maggie was by far the most excited about starting a new school. She had been telling people for months how she was going to learn Arabic and make…
I can’t really answer the question what the schools are like because I have only been able to go to 1 school so far. I really enjoyed the school, but I know that any one (of anything) is not a full picture. I have been able to attend 2 classes: 1 English and 1 Writing. Both were actually good. The English class was really interesting. It was grade 11, I believe. She was reviewing past tenses: simple, continuous and perfect….
When I was in St. Petersburg my senior year of high school our hosts referred to the field trips we took as “excursions.” This cracked me up. I don’t know why I found it so hilarious, but I had never heard that term used before. In MS, they are just plain ol’ field trips. So because of that, I always think of anything slightly educational as “excursions” now. Last weekend (Sept 25) we took an excursion to a nearby province…or…
If you’ve been following the blog, you know that my role here on the trip is to wrangle the kids. On Friday, the kids participated a fun run organized by Lost Children with the neighbor kids. The organization is doing some great things here to help Palestinian kids have normal childhoods. All the kids received free t-shirts, hats, and toys and after the run, they had a block party with traditional dancing, face painting, and bounce houses. I had originally…
Today I am going to be talking about the fun run I did. This fun run was a 4k and yet at the end all they handed out to you was water! That was your prize. It was only kids. Literally you had to be younger than 15. Since they had no prizes but water, we got ice cream! There were also people on the track squirting you with water which was actually very helpful because you were running a 4k….
We hear a lot about how everything we do online is tracked, and how companies can put together uncanny profiles of us from all of our public data (for example, that famous story of Target figuring out a teen girl was pregnant before her parents did). While the idea of privacy in a digital age is quickly vanishing, I was thinking the other day about how our digital lives do give us the opportunity to reconstruct thought patterns that we…