Just Hanging Out in Nablus

First things first, I am safe. What's happening in Gaza has very little effect on my life here. The news sounds scary, but here in Nablus, it's pretty much life as usual. And now there's a ceasefire! So hopefully the violence will end!

This past weekend was three days, which was super exciting. Thursday was Palestine's independence day (when asked what this meant for a land under occupation, the Palestinians mostly said that it was about the hope for independence someday). We still had to work on Thursday so to make up for it, we got Sunday off instead. Yay three day weekend! Of course, we're all too broke to do any more traveling, and since we've mostly seen everything we really wanted to here, we decided staying in Nablus was fine with us.

We didn't just bum around the center either. On Friday Megan, Lila and I went to Hanin's house for dinner. Hanin is our Arabic tutor as well as translator for women's aerobics and IT. She made us the Palestinian version of dolmas as well as stuffed eggplant, stuffed zucchini and stuffed cucumber. It was a lot of fun, and her family was really nice. (Note Tommy did not come. He husband was apparently uncomfortable about having a "strange man" over.)

Yummy.

On Saturday we got even more food. Lila, Megan, and I went to the home of one of the women that we taught in aerobics class.  Abeer fed us more food than I thought I was capable of eating. She would not take no for an answer. Seriously. She took my spoon, heaped it with food, and PUT IT IN MY MOUTH. She's such a mother. We had a lot of fun. She's a total sweetheart who doesn't deserve to be married to the old jerk that is her husband.

This is chicken on top of rice and veggies (peas, carrots, etc.) with hummus, lebaneh, salad, etc. We also had fruit, cake, and tea later.

Now I'm in my final week of classes so it's been a lot of goodbyes. It's truly terrible. I've already cried once (one of the women in my English class gave a speech during our volunteer/intern appreciation ceremony about how much she liked my class--I managed not to cry until everyone left though so that's a win). I will certainly cry again.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so I'll be making a sweet potato casserole for the staff dinner, and we also go to see The Lorax in Arabic with our kids. It's the last time I'll see them before I leave.

I'm going to be a wreck.

Mary the Party Animal

The semester is nearly over! Today I have a final in my Japanese politics class then Monday I have my last class for both Japanese and Social and International Relations of Japan. That just leaves my Asian Religions class. So basically, I'm almost done! That means...party time!

I started a little early though. Last Wednesday was Asuka's birthday so we had a tabehoudai/nomihoudai (all you can eat/all you can drink). Sadly I couldn't stay too long because I have class Thursday morning and felt that staying out late would have a negative effect on my grammar quiz grade. I have a picture from then though. In it are Kathleen, me, Asuka (the birthday girl), and Rachel. Sorry, I'm not naming the people in the background since you can only see their backs anyway. It was lots of fun and we got to grill our own food (see that stove thing behind us?). I love do it yourself restaurants though they can get pretty toasty.

Friday I went to Harajuku with Lydia and Briana and Rachel joined us after her class. I got three new pairs of pants! Yay! I now have jeans that aren't falling apart. I also bought a really cute coat for only 3000yen. We also explored a wonderful poster shop, got hit on by a half hispanic half Japanese guy, did purikura (instant photo booth), and ate kabobs and crepes. All in all, a wonderfully fun evening.

Saturday, I was a bum. Nothing more to say about that.

Sunday I again went out (bad Mary!) and met up with Lydia, Briana, and a friend of Lydia's. The friend (his name's Juusong--not sure of the spelling here, he's Korean) invited a Japanese friend of his named Etsuya, and we had lots of fun. I stayed out a little to late and thus did worse than usual on my Monday morning kanji quiz (probably a B instead of an A is all). The picture is Etsuya, Lydia, and myself. This is one of the more normal pictures taken that night. We got a bit silly... There were supposed to be more people, but Rachel had a paper to write and Juusong's other friends apparently got into a fight with some yakuza (Japanese gangsters) the night before. Not sure I would want to meet them anyway. They don't seem that smart if the pick fights with yakuza.

Ok, now you can have pictures

I really should be working on my research for my panel presentation, but whatever. I've got a pretty good start so I'll post some pictures for you guys.


This is a picture of a model at the Edo-Tokyo Museum where I met up with the Japan Term students. There were lots of cool things to look at there though to be honest, I was paying more attention to my friends who I had not seen in six months. Also, a lot of places you weren't allowed to take pictures. After the museum, I tagged along with Ashley's group to Roppongi where they had to find certain landmarks and take pictures. They were happy to have my Japanese experience though you really don't need to speak Japanese in Roppongi (it's where all the foreigners hang out).


This is a picture of our table at the Waseda-Japan Term faculty free dinner. Sooooo much food! They just kept bringing it out! This was obviously taken before we started eating. That was a really fun night though it also kind of sucked because it was on Wednesday night and I had to get up the next morning to go to class and take a kanji quiz.......


Friday, I once again met up with some of the Japan Term group and accompanied them to Yokohama. Here they are in front of some roses at a garden around a preserved diplomats house. For those of you who don't know, Yokohama is a port so many Westerners lived there after Japan was opened to the world by Commodor Perry. There are still a lot of Westerners there (as can be seen by the many international schools and the more European feel to many of the businesses).


This was also taken in Yokohama. It says that children are not allowed to enter, but I thought it was an entertaining picture.


And look! Food! After returning to Tokyo, I took Ashley and Jessa with me to Shinjuku to meet up with my friend Lydia and a couple people she knows at Waseda. We decided on okonomiyaki for dinner. It's like a pancake with veggies and meat and stuff in it. As you can see, you generally cook it yourself at the table. They just give you a bowl of the ingredients which you stir then pour on the griddle. It's super delicious.

Japanese Festival!

Hon-Kawagoe festival! I went with Kate and her host mom on Saturday. It's a ways a way (it took me an hour and a half to get there), but it was lots of fun. Plus, it was a true cultural experience.



In the video you'll see a dashi (Jessa knows the kanji, mountain + car). They're really cool. The festival had at least 10 of them moving around, each with different stuff going on. The only downside of the festival was how crowded it could be, but you could put up with a lot because it was so fun.


This is a picture of sweet potato swirled with vanilla flavored soft cream (we know it as frozen custard). It's really really good. Seriously, very awesome. There was food everywhere at the festival. Chocolate covered bananas, lots of stuff on kabobs (including really yummy cucumbers), cotton candy, dumplings, and so much that I don't even know.


Next is a picture of a little stage that they had every block or so with musicians and the dancer. Very cool. When a dashi would come by, the dancers on each would often react to each other which was fun to watch.


This is for Mom. This sign was at a yakisoba booth (yakisoba is one of the tastiest things in the world by the way). Soba is buckwheat noodles.


Finally, this is a picture from a haunted house at the festival. I didn't go in (it was kind of expensive and that's no really my thing), but I thought it was interesting. The woman in the well rises up and down from it.

Anyway, today I'm off to Jimbocho to check out the used book store area there. Later!

Update, or whatever...

So I've been here a few days now so I thought I would give a bit of an update as to what I've been up to. Anyway, here goes...

Tuesday, we went to a different town (Higashi-Murayama) where we went to a Buddhist temple. I don' remember the temple's name right now though, sorry. Then Tuesday night we started our language lessons that were to help prepare us for everyday use and talking with our host families. After that a bunch of us went to karaoke. I sang so much I got really hoarse. I even wound up singing one song entirely by myself (Don't Stop Me Now by Queen). The language lessons continued yesterday (Wednesday) and we also continued to explore the area we are in right now. We discovered a wonderful sweet shop (mmm... ichigo no keiki) right next to a wonderful little udon and soba shop. Yummy yummy food.

Today we got our first look at Waseda University as we had to take a Japanese placement test (very hard by the way...I did terrible though we don't get the scores until Monday). We also got a tour from the Rainbow Club who were AWESOME. I talked with a girl named Yuri in a sort of English-Japanese hybrid and we already have plans to go to karaoke and a bar together.

Anyway, I'm going to go now as I have a piece of cake waiting to be eaten...