Kul Sinnah Wa Inta Tayib

Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday, dear meeeeeee.
Happy Birthday to me.

I'm in Jerusalem now. I'm eating breakfast which consists of: apple slices, jelly on pita bread, cheese, tomatoes, and cucumber. There is some other stuff that I'm not eating? In any event, here comes an update.

I didn't make the play, not even call-backs. I'm happy because that means my weekends next semester won't be taken up by rehearsals, so I'll be able to travel. Also, who needs theatre?

Chelsea and I spent all of Friday working on homework. Well, she spent some of the day annoying me, but that's usual. In any event, we left at 10:15 PM for Taba, which is the town on the border of Israel and Egypt. There was some sleeping, but there is this thing about Egyptian buses where they play a movie on the screens that come from the ceiling, which wouldn't be so bad, except the volume is at its maximum level and they play them all night long. When we arrived in Taba, we fell back asleep, thinking it was another break, so we had to be woken up by the nice bus people, who just kept asking, "Where you go? Where you go?"

Sidenote: Israel and the Middle East don't get along so well, so when talking about going to Israel or anything of the sort, well, you just really shouldn't do that unless you want to have an heated argument about its legitimacy as a state (Chelsea wants me to point out that this is a gross exaggeration, and mostly we avoid talking about the subject because it's awkward... okay?).

So there we were, trying not to say Israel but at a loss for words. Eventually, they say, "Jerusalem? Where you go? Jerusalem?" and we nod, and they point off the bus up some dark road where Israel is. Off we go!

So after this long empty road, we find that it really does end in the border. The Egyptian side checks us out with really no issues and we enjoy the sunset as we walk through no man's land to the Israel side of the border. When we get there, we are immediately aware that it is very different from Egypt's side, simply because there are women working! La de da, we continue through ten thousand gates and walkways, until we reach passport control.

So, we had been warned by Andy (who had gone earlier than us) that our Lebanon and Syria stamps might be a problem, but it was still really intimidating when they asked me to go in the little room with them and "talk". I do. We do. Mostly she (the interrogator) kept asking questions that I would answer truthfully, but then she'd ask the other questions and point out how my previous answers were inconsistent. Such as:

What are you studying?
Sociology.
Why are you studying sociology in Egypt?
Well, because I wanted to learn Arabic.
But you didn't say you were studying Arabic! Why are you studying Arabic?
Oh, yeah, well, I uhh... I'm also majoring in linguistics and I like to learn languages.
What?!?

What is your religion?
Atheism, I guess?
[angry look] What are your parents' religions?
I am not sure, maybe sort of agnostic or Christian?
[incredulous look] You don't know what religion your parents are?
Umm... no. I guess not.

On the bright side, at least I wasn't Andy. I'm sure he'll tell you what I mean when he updates. Once Chelsea was interrogated as well, and they let us through after our background checks, we entered Israel. The first thing we did is pay $15 for a taxi to the center of Taba where the bus station was. Then we started wandering around, looking for food and Internet.

A lazy day of napping and beach-side people-watching later, and we meet up with Andy, Lauren, and Corina, the other members of our posse. We wandered some more, tried to buy tickets for the 4:30 PM bus, but it was sold out so we got some for the 7:30 PM one instead. Side note: I forgot to mention that from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday is the Shabbat in Israel, which means nothing is open and no official services run. Which is why we had to wait until so late in the day to continue on our way. After more time-killing, we rode a five hour bus to our destination, watching most of Love Actually on three different computers. I say "most" because even with three different computers our battery power could not get us through an entire 2 hour movie. Lame.

We arrive, mill about, and then start walking toward the city center. We stop at a pizza place and borrow someone's mobile to call the people we met in Egypt who were going to put us up, who, as it turns out, are both out of town. Whoops! We get directions to Old Town and eventually make our way there and procure a hostel. That is where we now find ourselves now. So, I gotta go and like explore and stuff? :)