Big Orange Backpack

Yesterday we had orientation, which I forgot to mention in my last post and we were told to be careful on the buses, be aware of our surroundings, not to go into the West Bank or Arab quarter... But one thing the guy said hit me. "Just because you're not Israeli or Palestinian doesn't mean this doesn't affect you. Bombs don't look at passports. And your nice blue American passport won't necessarily save you if you're kidnapped. This is the Middle East, you're not in America anymore." He was referring to a Hebrew University student that was kidnapped a few weeks ago when he decided to go to a cafe alone in Nablus and got taken and almost killed, but when they discovered that he was American he was released, however Hebrew University, as well as all other Israeli Universities have a zero-tolerence policy for visiting the Palestinian Authority. If you go to the West Bank, you go home.

This Gaza business is starting to freak me out a bit, I can't believe all of that violence and fighting is happening so close, it's so peaceful and beautiful here, I feel like I should be able to sense it, in the air and in the people around me. But everyone is acting totally normal, although I've noticed extra security in the past two days. The next few days could make or break the current situation I think... I'm keeping an extra eye on CNN. The PA just released a statement: "We are giving the Zionist enemy until tomorrow, July 4th, at 6:00 a.m. (11 p.m. EDT Monday.) If they do not answer our humanitarian demands, the enemy will be responsible for all future consequences." Heavy words. I think I'm going to avoid buses for the next few days, and probably avoid going into downtown Jerusalem too, until this blows over (bad word choice, I realise), or until we find out exactly what the consequences entail.

In lighter news... Class today was fun, exhausting, but fun. We already have a quiz tomorrow and I have a study date with one of my classmates in three hours, I think I'm going to take a nap though. I sat with three French girls (well one of them was Spanish, but she went to Lycee Francais in Barcelona so she's fluent) and we were speaking mostly in French, but in English a bit as well, and the prof would speak to us in French. It's funny because a lot of my notes are in a melange (mix) of French, English and Hebrew, and I think the three languages are starting to give me a brain tumour. However, learning Hebrew is easier after learning a new language, because I understand the idea of words having a gender, etc. My French has gotten much better in the past few days... Weird, I come to Israel and I improve my French. C'est la vie.. Ciao.