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