new homeland

fighting w/ hezbollah? fine. ill find a new homeland.  i think belgium is the answer.  im currently sitting in an internet cafe in brussels (and yes, this one is ALSO run by arabs), and really feeling like i could make a nice home for myself here... belgium is known for chocolate, waffles, beer, fries, and cheap internet... so basically, ive found my new homeland.  ill start my  hajj as soon as i can get my laundry done.

 

the quick update is as follows:

we were in switzerland last week- in geneva, interlaken and bern.  geneva was home to a really funny and awkward fountain, i think i mentioned this... interlaken is situated in the alps between two lakes (one is supposed to be green and the other blue... they both looked blue-green to me) and is beautiful and home to adventure sports and crazy hostels.  we did both.  our hostel was called the "funny farm" and it was basically like the movie "camp nowhere" except without christopher lloyd and with more beer.  in interlaken we went all out... went skydiving (yes, i jumped out of a helicopter strapped to a man that resembled a grizzly chain-smoking keifer sutherland) and canyoning (which involved rapelling down rock faces, jumping off cliffs into waterfalls, ziplining, lots of rocks and water, and uncomfortable wetsuits...). it was probably the most expensive day of my life, but not one ill soon forget.  from interlaken, we went to bern for a day, which was basically germany. it was hte only part of german-switzerland we visited, and thus, im goign to call it germany.  the language was german, all the signs were in german, and the food was gross (if the cheese on your baked potato is closer to gray than it is to yellow or orange, just say no)... thus, might as well be germany, its not like any of these places are stamping my passport anyway (lame. been to six countries since i got here and only have one stamp to show for it.  oh well).  bern was really cute and had a fountain with an orgre on it that was eating babies.  it was weird.  other than baby-eating ogre fountains, bern also led us to albert einstein's old apartment, which was really cool to visit. i love him, and, along with emily hyatt (and legitimately elissa froman) feel a familial like connection to him, like i want him to be my great uncle or something. i digress.

 

from bern, we went to luxembourg, which was non-descriptly european... no distinguishing foods or culture, but very pretty... went on a walking tour led by father time (the guy was probably in his 80s), visited cathedral notre dame number... 6 i beleive (dont worry, there are 3 more in belgium, and who knows about the uk) and ate a really amusing cross section of trashy american restaurants... literally.  we got there, walked around, passed a bunch of bogus other cuisines, realized there was nothing particularly "luxembourgish" and personally, im sick of sandwiches of pain and fromage (aka bread and cheese), so we decided to go for the funny and eat at chi chi's mind you, i have not eaten in a chi chi's in the states in probably.... ever.  so to eat in a chi chi's in luxembourg only felt right. and by right, i mean really funny.  dont worry, we had pizza hut for lunch the next day before leaving, jsut to continue the streak.  (slash, the pizza hut was kind of amazing, WAY nice food, different menu, but still the hut. haha)

 

from luxembourg we went to amsterdam, which is a city that is best tackled with excellent recommendations from friends.  thank you to all those of you who have studied or travelled in these crazy places and given me excellent advice of where to go, what to do, and mainly what to eat/drink. we went to some really cool museums in amsterdam (thanks valerie!) both very colorful and interactive- one was the troppenmuseum, which is the museum of the tropics, which basically was a giant museum of cultural anthropology of all different regions of the world. the tropics thing was a misnomer (aka non-euonymous, jesse).  we walked around there a bit,a ndt hen i got really wrapped up in the middle east/north africa part... suprised?  the other museum was a hands-on science museum, which was definitely fun, and involved lots of buttons and bubbles and machines and a really awkward floor for "teenagers" that was uncomfortably explicit about puberty and teenage sexuality.  only in the netherlands woudl that appear in a kids museum. we also went to the van gogh museum, i went to the anne frank house, and we walked through the red light district the first night we were there... id liek to thank my friend joel for warning me of some of the things i might hear while walking through there, it was surreal... i felt guilty and offensive to women everywhere just by being there and walking by, very unsettling... but i guess this is what these women do, i just cant really get a grip on it.  weird.  oh, and the last night in amsterdam adam and i went out to dinner with my friend natalie's boyfriend jop!  it was really nice to take a break from being tourists and just lay back with some natives. 

 

yesterday we made our way to brussels, which adam dictated was to be my city... im on duty for logisitcs and planning of what we do and when, and im enjoying that tremendously. thanks to stanley for expert recommendations, so far everything is delicious. brussels is beautiful.  we found our way to the grand place last night, which i guess is the main square and has lots of old buildings and castles and stuff and each night they have like a light show on the face of the biggest building with classical music emanating through the square... we did not expect it, but it was quite a cool suprise.  for nwo were taking a break to do important things like check emails and the like, since internet is relatively cheap here, woohoo!

 

thank you again for all your concern about my future in haifa... right now im nto really sure hwat is going to happen and thats scary and unsettling and a big concern. my biggest concerns are obviously for the citizens and soldiers of israel and lebanon, espeically friends that are in the region right now, whether just living there, travelling, or specifically on army duty on the border... as for me, my ticket out of europe is a week from tomorrow, on august 5th, and is to tel aviv.  i do not know for sure where i will be going, but ill keep you all updated as soon as any decisions are reached.  as of now, haifa has relocated their august ulpan (hebrew program) to the hebrew univeristy campus in jerusalem.  there is a chacne i will do that, but ive also been looking into options at ben gurion univeristy in the negev, as well as other programs, or trying to figure out if it just makes more sense to go back to gw, though that would mean having to scramble for housing, classes, and having to take classes next summer in order to graduate... so basically, i dont know what the plan is, but as soon as one gets figured out... ill let you all know. 

 

ok.  there are waffles to be eaten, and im up for the challenge.  keep the emails coming, ill check them as often as i can.  miss you all a lot. and snapple. i miss snapple. that was one of the good things about bern- they had snapple... mmm. 

 

be in touch

-amy

it's true what they say...

some people in france do smell.  switzerland too.  2 of those people are me and adam... europe is hot in the summer.  really hot.  i havent looked at a weather report since ive been here, and even if i did, me trying to convert celsius to fahrenheit would just be asking for trouble.  in my assessment, europe is approximately... a lot of degrees...

 

anyway.  right now we are in geneva, we left france this morning.  so far geneva is the city im finding most relatable- it's pretty and all, but it's not so provincial or pristinely beautiful that i cant wrap my brain around how it functions as a city, which has been my general feeling in every place we've visited thus far.  i get how this works as a city.  there's a lake, some mountains in the background, a lot of diplomacy, i think there was a big convention a few years back, and awkward giant fountain in the middle of the lake that is apparently 134 meters high and sprays a 12 ton plume of water...whatever that means.  it's not a picture-esque fountain, it literally looks like someone spraying a very large, very powerful hose up into the air... for no reason... this makes me love geneva...because it is not that impressive, and has a quirky and unnecessary giant fountain.  and as soon as we got here i could see how it functions as a city.  also, the hostel we're staying at here is awesome... it's unbelievably clean and well organized and they gave us free chocolate bars for filling out surveys... amazing.  it seems a lot like what an ordinary college freshman dorm would feel like (were i to have gone to a school with legitimate dorms instead of living in a hotel freshman year... ironic).  average sized rooms, communal bathrooms on the hall, internet downstairs, friendly front lobby... and a lot of orange, which i guess is neither here nor there.

 

so far in geneva, we arrived in the train station, made some arrangements and booked more trains for our next couple of stops, and made our way to the hostel.  we then realized the full magnitute of our sweatiness, and quickly remedied it by eating a lot of the aforementioned free chocoate bars... in looking at the guidebooks on the train here, guess what we discovered?  ANOTHER basilique notre dame.  i could not believe it. this was number five. obviously it was our first stop.  (ps theres apparently one in luxembourg too... i'm excited).  notre dame number 4, in nice, was closed when we went yesterday and didn't get to go inside, so it shall be famous for being the only basilique notre dame which adam and i did not successfully visit.  number 5, here in geneva, was yet another proof that geneva is a real functioning city...we got there just as evenign mass had started.  we sat in the back and observed respectfully, though it was hard not to take pictures of the stained glass (im a big sucker for stained glass).  notre dame number five shall be famous for acutally being functional.  word.

 

from there, we found our way to rue de la synagogue (not kidding). the books indicated that this street existed, but did not mention whether or not there was a synagogue on it.  we decided to investigate. in fact there was. and guess what? it too was functional.  after some creative begging and proving we were jewish and american (checked passports and everything), he let us into the synagogue, where they were in the middle of the evening service.  i went upstairs to the womens section and adam joined the men and we were able to catch most of mincha/maariv in a beautiful, albeit random, swiss synagogue.  cool huh?

 

after services, we had dinner at a moroccan restaurant nearby that came highly recommended.  for probably the 5th time so far this trip, my arabic came in quite handy.  obviously it would be helpful to speak, oh, i dont know, french, when travelling in europe, but apparently arabic is pretty helpful as well!  when a waiter or shopkeeper speaks no english, and you speak no french beyond 7th grade "je vais a la plage" (im going to the beach), apparently arabic is a handier fallback language than i thought!  the first time was in an internet cafe in lyon.  it was the only place open on sunday (because like us jews, the muslim arabs in lyon also did not particularly care that sunday is jesus's day) and the guy didn't speak english... apprehensive of my speaking ability in arabic, once english and french were knocked off the list of potential ways to communicate, in arabic i hesitantly said "i speak a little arabic...."  and his face lit up.  we were able to have a brief conversation and complete the whole transaction in arabic, and even got free soft drinks as we left!  sometimes being a random whitegirl who can speak arabi comes in handy... as we later learned again at a lebanese restaurant (ironic, eh? it was earlier in the week), another kebab stand somewhere, and again today at the moroccan place.  who knew i'd speak so much arabic in europe?  my professors would be so proud... hell, im really proud!  i didnt know how easily understandable my pathetic arabic would be, or how well id be to understand others, but i'm trying, and its really rewarding.  and it's the one thing i CAN do here, because apparently i am worthless when it comes to getting my bearings in these cities... so much for having a good sense of direction.  im constantly lost, and hot. did i mention hot? 

 

after dinner we walked around a bit, stumbled upon some sort of festival with lots of booths featuring all kinds of ethnic foods (geneva is a very international city, hello), different bars, and a concert in the middle.  one of my new favorite genres of music is outdated old euro-rocker.  it was our second free outdoor concert featuring outdated euro-rockers, the first was in paris on erev bastille day (erev meaning the night before- jewish holidays all start at sundown the evening before, so we figured we'd apply that idea to a french national holiday...obviously).  the bastille day concert featured a euro-rockers doing some english covers, which was suprising, since the french (especially on bastille day) are reportedly so anti-american influence.  covers included such memorable hits as "should i stay or should i go now" as well as some madonna... and in general a lot of unattractive grown-ups dancing drunkenly... and fanny packs.

 

europe features an absurd amount of fanny packs.  we were going to try to count them one day, but like our count of mapris (man-capris), it got out of hand.  the first night we were in paris we counted 93 pairs of man-pris.  93.  since then, our counts have gotten more creative, as counting euro-mullets, fanny packs, and socks-and-sandals become exhausting... our personal favorite is the euro-style of, what we like to call, the blanch-i-tard.  based on the concept of a jean-i-tard (which is when someone wears denim on denim, also called a denitard, stemming from the idea of a unitard or leotard), a blanch-i-tard is the rampant phenomena of white-on-white (blanche being french for white...or something, i dont actually know).  it is everywhere.  blanchitards with pants, skirts, capris, mapris... you name it.  the occasional jeanitard can be seen, as well as rare gems like lime green-i-tard, teal-itard, or azur-i-tard (blue, but, you know, frenchly).  anyway, the numbers are spiraling out of control, but i thought it my responsibility to educate you all on the fashion trends currently rampant in europe. ha. read that sentence again, and remember me...and the fact that my wardrobe consists of over 20 pairs of pajama pants... awesome.

 

i should probably get back to what im actually supposed to be doing...which is booking hostels for brussels and amsterdam, and flights from brussels to dublin and dublin to london for the last legs of our trip... im glad i got to update the other day, it makes me feel better to feel like im a little in touch... i wouldn't say i'm homesick, but i DEFINITELY miss my friends and family. im sure adam is tired about hearing me talk obsessively about a lot of you... he'll have to deal with it... at least my stories are funny (that statement should be funny to you if you are lucky enough to know adam. he is a wonderful person, but cannot tell a good story if his life depended on it)

 

more updates to come, hopefully ill get to fill you in on whats been going on for the past week, as opposed to just the past 2 days.  thanks for continuing to send your thoughts and concerns about haifa.  i will keep you posted as far as any decisions made on my part, but for now, there really aren't any decisions to make... i have to keep waiting to see how the situation progresses in the coming days and weeks...which is a really hard place to be in.  as of now, the university has relocated its current program to the campus of hebrew univeristy in jerusalem.  they have not made any decisions yet regarding my programs.  ill keep you posted.

 

tomorrow's mission: UN european headquarters and red cross museum, grocery store to buy provisions for our do-it-yourself shabbat, probably some more exploring before our train to interlaken tomorrow evening. note: apparently it is one of the most beautiful cities in switzerland, but i can't help but think of geeky music kids playing oboe/bassoon/clarinet in northern michigan. 

 

(early) shabbat shalom, miss you guys

-am

 

ps- within a 3 block radius, we passed three h&m's and two claire's... apparently one wasn't enough of either. i think h&m may be a swiss company, but claire's?  i guess crappy accessories are in high demand wherever you go travel...

covered in salt

at some point i hope to have time to actually write a legitimate blog and post all the adventures that have been filling my days thus far... now does not appear to be that time as this internet cafe is closing in just a few minutes.

 

my trip has taken a very different turn than anyone expected with the horrible events in haifa, and the israel-lebanon border right now.  it is hard to feel so disconnected, especially when this affects me so directly and so closely... it seems all i can do is try my best to stay in touch and updated on the situation, which is hard.  relying on the international herald tribune, and occassional internet access is a strange way to keep on top of such a rapidly developing major situation... my thoughts and concerns are there, i feel like im on the wrong side of the mediterranean right now...

 

which brings me to the title of this post... today we are in nice (in southern france) and went to the beach (which, as my mother warned me from her backpacking trip through europe in the 70's, is actually really rocky and not sand at all).  i swam a bit in the mediterranean, which was beautiful, etc etc.  as a kid from the midwest, all the time ive ever spent in my life swimming in non-swimming pool bodies of water has been in lakes... and thus, i learned the hard way that when one swims in a body of saltwater, it is best to take advantage of the showery things on the beach and rinse off said saltwater, instead of letting it airdry in the sun... while that sounds lovely, having dry salt caked all over your body is not the most pleasant of sensations.  but you live, you learn (yessss i love when i inadvertantly quote alanis morrisette)

 

ill try to give a quick rundown of whats been going on so far, but i fear this place is closing as we speak...

 

basics: started off in paris for 3 days, then went to lyon, then to marseille for a day, monaco for a day, and nice.  tomorrow we head to switzerland, where will will go to geneva, interlaken, and bern.  from switzerland, we're heading to luxembourg, then to amsterdam, brussles/bruges, dublin, and ending up in london.  as of right now i have a flight from london to tel aviv on august 5th... we'll see what the next few weeks hold. 

 

highlights: ive eaten some really ridiculous things.  the top of this country (france) is not so vegetarian friendly... the medeterranean coast, however, has been better... our "let's go" book directed us to a vegan buffet (YUMMMMMMMMMM and so needed) in marseille and tonight to an adorable little hole-in-the-wall vegan restaurant in nice, run solely by this one woman...who adam and i decided was named something like rosemary or margerie or alice.  today was actually a big food day (shocking).  we made a concerted effort to eat things that were uniquely nicoise (though we did not do nicoise salad, as i dont eat tuna, and it is gross) which resulted in a multi-stage lunch (suprised?)... the first stage involved some slimy quiche, an unidentifiable fried vegetable substance, and more fried.  i was not such a fan. and the one thing that we read to eat, this place did not have. its called socca, and was described fried chick pea paste... being unsatisfied with lunch number one, on our walk to our next destination, we saw a stand that was selling "socca" and went for it.  the best assessment i can make is that socca is somewhere between a giant potato latke and big flat falafel...thus we called it "falatke"  not bad. not good. just falatke... glad we tried it.  

speaking of foods im glad we tried, today included not one, not two... but five different flavors of gelato... ok, maybe a bit excessive, but if were supposed to try the local flavor, and there are 40+, we've gotta start somewhere?  really it was that one place had an absurd selection,a nd we got 2, and then on our way out, we saw another place with other flavors we wanted to try...and decided we wouldnt have the opportuntiy to necessarily try it ever again, so on the way back form the beach, ended up trying three more. mmm.

the most important part of that story was the flavor selections... toblerone, roche (I love when things are based off of actual candy bars/delicious t hings like nutella gelato the other day in paris, mmmmm), creme brulee, cassis (i dont actually know what it is, i think it may be black currant, which i also dont really know what that is, but i recall valerie recommending it), and... t the kicker... AVOCADO.  ladies and gentleman, my world will never be the same.  my lifelong dream of creating a dessert hybrid of avocado and chocoalte chip cookies has finally seen a light at the end of the tunnel... avocado gelato.  there is photo documentation.  a full description to come eventually, but it was one of the most bizarre things ive ever tasted... not great, not bad at all, totally weird... avocado. what?!?!

 

i have been doing things other than just eating weird stuff and worrying about haifa, but i think this cafe is actually already closed...and the guy just hasnt kicked us out yet... or the two asian guys who are here playing online poker (hi j), and overusing the word "retarded" in really inappropraite contexts.  i digress.

 

lots of museums, lots of culture, lots of beautiful cities and unbelievable views... lots of churches called "basilique notre dame"... literally, we're going to our 4th tomorrow, just because its hilarious that every city we've been to in france has a church called notre dame.  one has a famous clock, one has a famous statue on top, one has a famous hunchback, and one was not open when we went today, so i dont know whats famous about it...but i am amused that it exists.   monaco lost 1 point in my book for not having a church called notre dame, that we could find, but won lots of points for being beautiful, which clearly is all that actually matters in life.  ha, i jest.

 

ok.  this place is definitely closed, and if its not, it should be... im covered in salt and in need of a shower... but i hope this post finds you well.  thank you again for your emails and concern, keep israel/lebanon in your prayers if that's your thing, and on your radar regardless...

 

hope to update more soon, miss you guys

-amy

obligatory first post

welcome friends, loved ones, strangers, stalkers...come one come all

at the request of a disproportionately large number of my friends and acquaintances, i've decided to cave on my strict "blogs are lame" policy and start one for my upcoming adventures abroad. one week from today i leave the comfort of the fattest state in the most overindulgent country in the world for thin and foreign lands across the ocean...

starting on wednesday, july 12th, i will be backpacking through europe for a few weeks with my best friend, adam horowitz. as of now, our plans are tentative, but we will be meeting in paris on the 13th, and ending up in london by august 5th, from whence (whence? awesome) i will fly to israel to start my summer programs and fall semester at the university of haifa.

for now, it looks like we'll be hitting up paris, the south of france, monaco, switzerland, luxembourg, belgium, the netherlands, ireland or scotland, and england... and potentially liechtenstein, but only if we can learn how to spell it.

from london, adam flies home to the states, as this is the conclusion of his abroad adventure, and merely the start of mine. i fly to tel aviv and make my way up to haifa (a port city in the north of israel, on the medeterranian [another word i should probably learn to spell], with a vibrant and diverse community and, allegedly, the closest thing to arab-israeli coexistence anywhere in the world...more on that later). i will be in haifa for their summer ulpan (intensive hebrew program... i know... i already speak hebrew...but it can only get better, and i'm getting five credits for it), then their "september study tour" (i don't really know that much about it either... but 4 credits, and study tour around israel, how bad could it be?!?), and finally, starting in mid-october, fall semester. for now, i'm planning on taking 2 classes in the international school (taught in english), 2 in the regular univeristy (taught in hebrew...including an arabic language class), and interning with a daycare program for children with special needs.

if there's a chance you'll be in israel between august and january [winter break anyone??], DEFINITELY holler at me. i will be in israel through mid-january (though i'll likely be doing some traveling from israel as well... hopefully prague, italy/croatia/greece, turkey/cypress, and some other middle eastern adventure travel), at which point i'll make my triumphant return to the states, and finish up my final semester at gw! crazy.

ok. i'm sorry for not capitalizing. you'll just have to get used to it. i'm a decent speller, and to quote a t-shirt my friend jesse wears proudly, bad grammar makes me [sic]. YES!! always end with a bad joke. that shall be the strategy of this blog. that and being unnecessarily verbose. awesome.

i'm off to explore the intricacies of my new backpack, make hostel reservations, play on ryanair, and fill out forms for haifa... and eat, obviously.

be in touch! i'm a compulsive gmail-er and will post contact info for my time in israel once i get it. for now, i'm out. save this link and check it periodically, hopefully i'll be able to keep it up to date... otherwise you can just laugh at my awkward long-windedness...and how i just made long-windedness into a word. greaat. (2 a's were deliberate there.)

peace, love, and new backpacks,
-am