Red Carpet Treatment

Today began with the worst conference I've ever attended. The speakers where all jumbled up and it didn’t even start until 10:30. They didn't even have hot water for tea and coffee when we got there, at 9:20. I could have used the extra hour of sleep. Instead I kept dozing off during the conference which I didn’t feel the greatest about. Needless to say, I didn’t stay long, I left and just went to work.

BUT going to work today was still worth it when Huwaida invited me to go with her to a 4th of July reception at the US embassy.

For starters, I haven’t really been back into Jerusalem since that one day they took me off the bus. I haven’t had a reason to, nor the motivation to risk being stuck by myself again. Today one of our students drove us into Jerusalem, and they didn’t even stop us at the checkpoint. I’m guessing being on a bus is just more the reason for scrutiny. Anyways, we were in the city early so Hamza (the student driving us) took us for a bit of sightseeing to this one spot on Mount Olive from where you can see the entire city. It was breathtaking. It was a much better way to experience Jerusalem then my first day there.





From there he dropped us off at one of the entrances to the Old City so that we could walk through it on our way to the embassy. I appreciated both Hamza and Huwaida for even going on these slight detours to show me a bit of the city. Now at least when I go back, I’ll already have a decent idea of the city. Walking into the Old City was really cool though, we were literally walking on the roads that were thousands of years old. And on top of that, the stores had such amazing clothes, jewelry, and so much beautiful stuff I was thrilled J I’m going back to go shopping, eventually. And at least actually get closer to the Dome of the Rock.

The embassy reception? Wow. What a nice place, but very typical of an embassy and such. They always tend to be a world of their own within their compound walls. There was more greenery in there than I’ve seen in all of Ramallah. We had the pleasure to walk down a red carpet, I think we shook the hand of the deputy consulate general. Who knows. It was all a bit surreal. Even for Huwaida. We felt so underdressed though, until I realized the most dressed up ppl in suits were either diplomats or the secret service. The food was catered by one of the best Palestinian restaurants around, and wow was it good. Wow. Did I say wow? I think my dinner consisted of the constant flow of hoer’ devours that ranged from barbequed chicken, to mini quiches, to interestingly good cheese filled dates. Mmm I’m getting hungry thinking about it again.

We only had about half an hour to spend there, and honestly didn’t think we’d actually schmooze that much, until the first person we spoke to was a woman who worked on the Palestinian refugee issues. Needless to say, we occupied her for quite a while, and hopefully will be in touch over email as well.

Our half hour there was spent well, and talk about luck? Running into a US official who actually works on my particular project. Let’s see where this goes.


Random note: I think I’m going to kill these stupid dogs that are always barking non stop every night. Every night. All night. At what? God knows. There’s nothing to bark at here. The only animals I see are stray cats and mosquitoes. I'm going to go to sleep now with the pillow on my head.