After I graduated last year and relocated to DC, I started to meet the women in N's graduate program at Georgetown. I made some very close friends, and after a year of being surrounded by brilliant girls who encouraged me to learn Arabic and who understood my rose-colored memories of Egypt I got brave, quit my Commercial Real Estate job and committed to moving to Palestine. 

A lot has happened in the last year. Beautiful, wonderful things and heartbreaking ones as well. I guess I should have been blogging but then again, I guess I stopped doing a lot of things that are important to me.

That ends now- in four weeks I get on a plane to Tel Aviv and drive to the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank where I'll be interning for (at least) three months. I cannot wait to be back in the Middle East. I have dedicated so much time and money and energy to Arabic this past year and the chance to immerse myself and use it every day is like a dream come true. I admittedly can't wait for the little things I remember from my youth, fresh bread and laban (yogurt) in the morning and the smell of shisha outside the cafes at night. I miss the way cities seem to vibrate five times a day as the call to prayer drifts from minaret to minaret. I miss it all and I'm so ready to have it back.

Right now, things in Palestine are tougher than ever. The airstrikes on Gaza started the day I accepted my internship and I have been watching closely. Still, the organization I'm going to work for teaches English, which isn't available in Palestinian schools, to girls and runs an all girl's football league. At times like this, normalcy is worth it's weight in gold. In the end it's normalcy the girls of Nablus need so unless I have to, I'm not planning to back out. 

I'm subletting my apartment but a part of me is hoping not to be returning to the US in January. It just seems like it's too soon. Who knows? Maybe this is going to be my life for quite a while.

Anyway, I have four weeks to put all of my stuff in storage, study Arabic, try not to spend money and get ready to jump back into expat life.

So check back, I'll be updating the entire way. 

K