Monica left last night. Or this morning. Or somewhere in between. She stayed up reading a book. I went to sleep for a couple of hours, set my alarm for 1:40 in the morning, sat half-awake probably not as very good company while we waited for her shuttle (which, for the first time in my experience, was late), and then at 2:15, I went back to bed. Hence the confusion over when she actually left. And a few minutes ago I got an IM that she made it home safe and sound! I love that everyone knows to check in with me and let me know that. Thanks, mom, for the extra measure of concern. (For the record, I had checked Monica's flight a couple of hours ago, and I already knew the plane had landed in Boston. But I appreciate the check-in IM all the same.)
It was so much fun to have Monica here! I love that with Monica (and also Saroj who was here a couple of weeks ago), I haven't seen her for more than 6 months, but she arrived and it was like no time had passed at all. We had lots of stories to catch up on, but there was no lack of comfort or anything. Friends like that are not easy to find, and I'm glad I have them...and that they were willing and able to fly around the world to visit! She did some touring on her own, and we did some together between my classes. She seemed to enjoy Shabbat services at my favorite synagogue and we had a delicious Shabbat dinner with friends, one of those dinners where we're having a great time, and all of a sudden it's midnight. We went into the Old City twice. The first time we did the part I know: the Kotel (Western Wall) and the Jewish shopping area and Arab shuk (market). The second time we were aiming for the Church of the Holy Sepulchere, where I had never been. We only made a couple of wrong turns, but with some timely help from my StreetWise, we made it there without too much of a problem. Unfortunately, neither of us had managed to read about it before we arrived; we just knew it was supposed to be an important and impressive site. Also unfortunately, neither of us had remembered to put a guide book in our bags, so we didn't really know what we were looking at. We walked around though and talked about our various religious experiences and marveled at the building and its art, which really is amazing. And then after we got home, we read up on where we had been. It's apparently the site of Jesus' crucifixion and burial! The part of the church with his tomb is through the room which was so small and crowded that I couldn't stay in it. Also, we didn't know why everyone was in there, so we didn't stay, so we kind of missed a main attraction. Oops. But now that I know more, I kind of want to go back (with a book) and really know what I'm looking at.
Tuesday evening we went on the weekly visit to my Ethiopian family, but this week all the HUC families were getting together for a Tu B'shevat party, the holiday that celebrates "the birthday of the trees." It turned out to be a great time: we made tissue paper flowers, handprint trees, and lots and lots of pipe cleaner crowns, for us and the kids. I also learned that Monica has amazing language skills. For someone who could not name a Hebrew letter when she arrived, she picked up a good amount of vocabulary, and now can recite most of the alphabet! She wrote "Monica vas here" on our fridge with our Hebrew letter magnets before she left.
In spite of being completely exhausted, today was an amazing day. For this week's Israel Seminar, we were learning about the Palestinian-Arab-Israeli citizens. These are Arabs who live within the main part of Israel (not the territories) and have full citizenship and full rights under the law, although often not in practice. We went to an Arab town north of Jerusalem, to an Arab teachers' college. We did some learning about the issues on our own, and then for the afternoon met in small groups with students from the college. Our best days of seminar have been when we get out and really talk to people, and this one was definitely not an exception. We were all told that no topic should be off limits, and we really had a conversation about tough issues: how they feel about Jews, what we think when we see a Muslim, the likelihood of peace, Palestinian-Arab-Israeli identity, family, dating and marriage, politics...you name it, we talked about it. It was a great activity, although it was far enough away that we probably won't see them again. Our professors were talking about trying to bring the same group of them down to Jerusalem to meet with us here, and I would absolutely love for it to happen, but given the craziness of our schedules, I am unfortunately pessimistic that it will happen. I truly hope they find a way to make it happen though. We all need more encounters like this one as a reality check: they're not so different from us at all! and as a small, but hopefully not completely insignificant, road to peace. We did all agree that if there aren't interactions between Jews and Muslims, peace is just a dream.
And why do I have a feeling I may fall behind on posting again? Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to the airport to pick up my parents!! I can't wait! :)
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