Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

I am leaving for Turkey in four days! Seven of my friends and I are taking the two hour flight on Thursday after Hebrew class and staying for 6 days. We will be staying in a hostel, which will be a first for me. (I agreed to stay there on two conditions: there had to be a shower and they had to allow me to use my hair dryer and straightener.) There will be four boys and four girls so I feel okay about it. I think this will be a phenomenal experience. Plus, it will be nice to get out of Israel for a couple of days. In case you haven't heard, there has been a ton of activity here...

On Thursday, I was eating falafel with a group of people at this small restaurant by school when suddenly everyone went silent and their eyes were glued to the television. The news was in Hebrew but someone there told us what was going on. Apparently, gunmen from Egypt crossed over the border and started shooting at a bus. It was later found out that there were explosives and a suicide bomber involved as well. Eight people were killed. The IDF retaliated and killed five of the gunmen. Then they launched an airstrike into Gaza that killed five others who were a part of the same group that attacked the bus earlier. (Yea, the IDF doesn't mess around.) Since then, there has been nonstop fighting. We read today that over 100 rockets have been launched from Gaza into Israel. More people have been killed and many have been arrested.

It's so interesting being here during all of this. I think the media wants us to believe that when these things happen here all of Israel panics and runs for cover. But that's not what it's like at all. People just go one with their lives; they work, go to coffee shops, go out to dinner, go to the park. Whatever it was they were going to do, they just go ahead and do it. So we all did the same thing. We were supposed to take the bus downtown to meet some of our Israeli friends, so that's what we did. It was actually liberating in a way.

In other news, I made couscous tonight that was so delicious! I was thoroughly impressed with myself. Oddly enough, this is the first time I've cooked something since I've been living here. Usually I go out or just eat something that doesn't require a lot of work like pita and humus. But the problem is, I am already sick of falafel, humus, and schwarma, and these are basically the only things you can grab on the go here. As my friend Miriam put it, these things are like McDonalds in the U.S. Anyway, I just mixed the couscous with craisans, carrots, cucumbers, almonds, and parmesean cheese and that was it. So yummy!

Oh, and I got a 100% on my second test. :)

Matsuyan! (That's Hebrew for "excellent")