And I have arrived! I'm in this lovely dormitory on the outside of Ramallah. Upstairs (where I am) is the guesthouse/dormitory area and downstairs is used for conferences etc.. It is quite beautiful.
There is wireless internet here, though it does not work in my room so I need to come out into the common areas to connect.
Feeling quite exhausted, I think that now I'm here I'm realising how tired I am. The girl I will be sharing my room with is not yet here. The people I have met so far are all very kind. I'm sure I will enjoy it here once I have steadied myself in this new environment - and caught up on sleep!
The trip from Tel Aviv to Ramallah was quite smooth. It's the stangest experience passing from Israeli to Palestinian society in such a small area. The two don't seem to intermingle much, but in Jerusalem Old City they cross paths. Slowly I could stop saying 'shalom' to people and start saying 'assalaam alaykum', which was good for me becuase I have a very small amount of Arabic knowledge, versus no Hebrew knowledge, so I could conduct myself a bit better. I think I was on auto-pilot for most of the trip, just one step at a time: take that bus, find that van, take that taxi etc...
I'll now go and do my first shopping experience, need to buy soap etc. Look forward to a lazy day and hopefully a proper sleep! Jet lag still hasn't left me.
Once I settle in a bit more I'll be able to dedicate more energy to this blog.
All the best
Micaela
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tel Aviv continued...
I'll be leaving my youth hostel in about half an hour to begin my journey to Ramallah, but thought I'd take this opportunity to write a last post.
I see that I didn't give much information about my experience at Tel Aviv airport. It wasn't so much the amount of time it took, or the bag searching and body frisking (the female guard who conducted this was actually really kind and respectful), it was the interrogation part that irked my spirit. I was made out by the guard who was questioning me to be a liar and potentially a dangerous security risk - kept saying that he needed to establish whether I was going to blow myself up. He asked me over and over why I have come all the way from Australia? Why am I apart of all these 'peace things, like the Peace Cycle and Follow the Women. Kept saying that I can either tell him the truth or he can find it out himself, which would be more unpleasant. At times my hands started shaking (which, as anyone who knows me could tell you, is hardly uncommon for me - I could never be a dentist!), and he seemed to take this as a sign that I was lying or something. He would say 'why are your hands shaking? We are just having a nice conversation.' Really the whole experience made me feel quite dirty, made my skin crawl. Unfortunately at one point I tried to make a joke to lighten the situation, but it had the opposite affect and seemed to make the guard even more angry, since it seemed I wasn't taking this seriously. The guard also went through my entire mobile phone contact list - so my apologies to anyone whose number is listed on my phone- they took down any Middle Eastern numbers. There has to be a law against that, doesn't there? Seems silly to even ask that.
After all that, I was given only a one month visa. That just put the icing on the cake for me. I asked - 'what did I do wrong?' and he said 'Nothing. If you had you wouldn't have been let in.' Great. I had done nothing wrong and yet I was given a visa two months shorter than the standard tourist visa. In fact, the three month tourist visa is so much the standard that they don't seem to have a one month visa stamp - the stamp I have is a three month visa stamp with a hand written 1 placed over it.
That's actually another issue - they stamped my passport, which means no more travel to places such as Lebanon for me! At least until I get a new passport, which won't be for about another 7 years, since mine is fairly new.
Tel Aviv itself is quite lovely. I'd like to come back here when my mind is not so stressed so I can enjoy it. Everytime I see an Israeli official my insides start squirming - hence the fugitive feel. I'll shake it eventually.
Well, I'd best go and check out of this hostel and begin my journey to Ramallah. I hope it's without too much difficulty. It's going to be a tough few months, but hopefully it will get easier as I find my feet. I'm looking forward to classes beginning next week, it will give me something to focus on and the chance to find a place here. Only about four days till then!
All the best to everyone!
Micaela
I see that I didn't give much information about my experience at Tel Aviv airport. It wasn't so much the amount of time it took, or the bag searching and body frisking (the female guard who conducted this was actually really kind and respectful), it was the interrogation part that irked my spirit. I was made out by the guard who was questioning me to be a liar and potentially a dangerous security risk - kept saying that he needed to establish whether I was going to blow myself up. He asked me over and over why I have come all the way from Australia? Why am I apart of all these 'peace things, like the Peace Cycle and Follow the Women. Kept saying that I can either tell him the truth or he can find it out himself, which would be more unpleasant. At times my hands started shaking (which, as anyone who knows me could tell you, is hardly uncommon for me - I could never be a dentist!), and he seemed to take this as a sign that I was lying or something. He would say 'why are your hands shaking? We are just having a nice conversation.' Really the whole experience made me feel quite dirty, made my skin crawl. Unfortunately at one point I tried to make a joke to lighten the situation, but it had the opposite affect and seemed to make the guard even more angry, since it seemed I wasn't taking this seriously. The guard also went through my entire mobile phone contact list - so my apologies to anyone whose number is listed on my phone- they took down any Middle Eastern numbers. There has to be a law against that, doesn't there? Seems silly to even ask that.
After all that, I was given only a one month visa. That just put the icing on the cake for me. I asked - 'what did I do wrong?' and he said 'Nothing. If you had you wouldn't have been let in.' Great. I had done nothing wrong and yet I was given a visa two months shorter than the standard tourist visa. In fact, the three month tourist visa is so much the standard that they don't seem to have a one month visa stamp - the stamp I have is a three month visa stamp with a hand written 1 placed over it.
That's actually another issue - they stamped my passport, which means no more travel to places such as Lebanon for me! At least until I get a new passport, which won't be for about another 7 years, since mine is fairly new.
Tel Aviv itself is quite lovely. I'd like to come back here when my mind is not so stressed so I can enjoy it. Everytime I see an Israeli official my insides start squirming - hence the fugitive feel. I'll shake it eventually.
Well, I'd best go and check out of this hostel and begin my journey to Ramallah. I hope it's without too much difficulty. It's going to be a tough few months, but hopefully it will get easier as I find my feet. I'm looking forward to classes beginning next week, it will give me something to focus on and the chance to find a place here. Only about four days till then!
All the best to everyone!
Micaela
In Tel Aviv
Well, I made it!
After a three hour wait with Israeli customs, which involved questioning, searching of bags and me and lots and lots of waiting I was let through with a one month visa, despite the fact that they were completely aware that I needed a three month tourist visa, as that is how long my course at Birzeit is. When I said this the guard just said I'd have to extend it later. Thanks...
Tel Aviv is quite lovely, but I'm having trouble enjoying it as I'm still shaken up by my airport exprience. Can't shake this fugitive feeling, like I'm under surveillance... Suppose this is all just part of the experience!
This will just be a short post, just to say that while I am shaken and quite disturbed my entry experience, I am here and have at least a month here.
Tomorrow I will cross into the Palestinian Territories.
After a three hour wait with Israeli customs, which involved questioning, searching of bags and me and lots and lots of waiting I was let through with a one month visa, despite the fact that they were completely aware that I needed a three month tourist visa, as that is how long my course at Birzeit is. When I said this the guard just said I'd have to extend it later. Thanks...
Tel Aviv is quite lovely, but I'm having trouble enjoying it as I'm still shaken up by my airport exprience. Can't shake this fugitive feeling, like I'm under surveillance... Suppose this is all just part of the experience!
This will just be a short post, just to say that while I am shaken and quite disturbed my entry experience, I am here and have at least a month here.
Tomorrow I will cross into the Palestinian Territories.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Getting there..
I am a Sydney University Arts/Law student and for the next three months I will be studying at Birzeit University in the West Bank of the Palestinian Territories. I will be taking the Palestine and Arabic Studies program they offer for international students. I don't speak Arabic, half of my classes will be dedicated to rectifying this, and I'm neither of Palestinian origin or Jewish. Really I have very little that links me to this conflict over a piece of land that's called Holy. Except for the fact that you don't need to have links to the land of Palestine and Israel to be affected or concerned by the conflict there. One of the major issues that clouds the region is the lack of knowledge of the facts on the ground - the day to day of living for Palestinians and Israelis, but particularly Palestinians living under occupation. So on Monday I'm off to spend (I hope) six months in the area. For most of that time I plan to be in the West Bank, experiencing what it is like to be a university student living under an occupation. While my experiences will be incomparable to those of the people who have grown up there, I hope to at least gain enough insight on the day to day aspects of life there so as to shed some light on the conflict for people back home in Australia.
That's the plan. Takeoff's on Monday.
That's the plan. Takeoff's on Monday.
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