The Holy City

I'm in Jerusalem right now, visiting a cousin. And I have to say, I absolutely love it. Granted, I have only seen the Hebrew University campus (where my cousin is a student) and the neighborhood that he lives in, but still. It is beautiful, and just so much better than Tel Aviv, for me. So far.

I have noticed that the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli issues (not quite the same thing, although connected) are constantly present and accounted for - understandably- in everyday life; but the truth is that I do not feel unsafe at all. I feel more scared when I am in the car with an Israeli driver, with a bunch of other Israeli drivers, than I am just being in Jerusalem - which is a city on the border with the West Bank and notorious as a focal point of the Jewish-Muslim disagreement. I have also been seeing quite a bit of a cousin who is in the army. I love her dearly, and while spending time with her and her friends should make me more worried (haha I love them, but they're not the way you would think of people employed in protecting their country), it doesn't. It is interesting to hear the persective of young soldiers. The word "terrorist" is interchangable with "Palestinian" for them. And the rest of the Arab world is pretty much as bad. I am glad that I did not grow up in a country where I had to become that defensive and angry and judgmental and violent. But the thing is that they are thinking about these important issues, and they care. It is refreshing after the apathy of most US citizens today.

off to look for a place to live. I seem to have picked the most difficult possible way to move. Who knew you couldn't just buy a plane ticket, make sure your passports were current, and go?