yad vashem. mt hertzl... not really sure what to say, just thought i should say something.

old city jerusalem

after a brief stint in frankfurt, germany with my dear, random friend bekah (apfelwein, bratwurst and saurkraut, altstadt frankfurt and yes, frankensteinplatz), i've finally arrived in jerusalem. it's good to be back- especially as i didn't expect being able to return so soon. i still can't believe these MESPers brought me here!

we're staying in the austrian hospice on the via dolorosa- it's funny to me that everyone around me is still speaking german though i switched countries. :)

all for now- mostly just wanted to let the 2 people who read this know that i've arrived safely and i'm so happy to be here!

israeli politics tomorrow. and lastly, no more long distance engagements.

leaves in 2 hours...

the timing of this trip has been a God-send. i'm not sure i could handle another stinking day without dear jonathan pinckney. :)

sitting on my floor... 12:58pm. leaving in a few hours for the airport. am i packed? no.  my dutch-canadian friend dena thinks it's genetic- those dutch roots protest loudly every time we try to pick up something and put it in a suitcase until the absolutely last second... if she's right, i can claim that it's not my fault that my hatred for packing drives me to hold off until i absolutely have to pack something. whatever it is, i've learned to stop fighting it. i think i'm less stressed than your average traveler because i don't start worrying about what's going in my suitcase until the last second possible. but anyway... i'm going to seriously stop using this blog as a platform to procrastinate. i know i've said that before, but this time i mean it.

has anyone else ever noticed that the only time the labels 'packing' and 'procrastinating' show up on this blog is when i don't want to be doing either of those things, but can't seem to help it? :)

i will be here tomorrow. and then i will be here on sunday (ok, maybe not exactly there, at the beach in tel aviv, but whatever.)

and lastly- thanks everyone for the emails, texts and phone calls as i'm off. i'm sorry i haven't had a chance to respond to very many of them. i'm hoping life will normalize a bit when i get back. love you all.

the lament.

i'm packing. that's right, more than 20 minutes before i have to go to bed/ walk out the door. believe it.

but also believe i'm going to quit and wait on the stuff in the dryer (what's a trip without a little last minute doing of laundry!?) and to both do and write out what i've been doing for yoga.

you can lead a horse to water...

i leave tomorrow.

no, i haven't packed yet. of course not. it's part of my identity. :)

engagement photos!

in the past 4 weeks...

i have eaten chicken curry, prawn curry, mutton curry, veg curry in india, mangoes, fuul, tamiyya, roz bi-leben, shwarma in egypt, falafels and nutella pancakes and thai food and pizza with wine and kosher bagels in israel.

i have been to the wailing wall, and seen the apartheid wall.

i have hugged kids and cried and laughed and sang, swam in the mediterranean and the bay of bengal. i have listened to conversations in arabic, telugu, hebrew, yiddish.

i have walked the old city, coptic cairo, hyderabad. i listened to hymns at the church of the holy sepulcher, sang songs at church in an orphanage, visited a museum of art from the coptic church. i have been to a church of expats in a suburb of cairo.

i have listened to the soundtrack to king countless times. i have listened to arabic pop, patty griffin, derek webb. this american life. j's lunch song. i've shared an i.pod and a zune for countless hours of travel. i've listened to car horns and calls to prayer and songs in telugu that warm my heart.

i have slept on trains, on planes, on couches, on mattresses on the floor, on buses and in taxis and graciously loaned beds. i have even slept on half a bed on a sleeper train.

all of this, this entire adventure, i shared with the one i'll share the rest of my life with. i'm so incredibly thankful for these past 4 weeks, and to say that i'm looking forward to the future is a gross understatement. God is so good.