Photos, Photos, and Contest

I have been painstakingly been going through the thousands and thousands of photos that I took while in both the United Kingdom and the Middle East. I did not even realize that I was taking this many photos (I am truly my mothers daughter). I've also decided to enter a photo contest so VOILA!!! This post shall be my entry.

Todays theme is colors and boy did I get an array of those while I was abroad. Who knew that water could possibly be such a pure shade of Cerulean blue or the grass be made up of such a plethora of different greens.

Red

The artificial and violent red of graffiti stands out amongst the greens that make up the Wicklow Mountains outside of Dublin, Ireland. This was a on the path to a little creek that I had found while everyone else was buying stuff at a tourist shop in a small village. The only graffiti I had seen since we had left the actual city of Dublin, it stood out because it contrasted so well with the background of the constantly green Emerald Isle.

White

One of my favorite statues from the Tate Museum in London. A museum that could swallow you for days, as most of the museums in London are apt to do. Marble statues have always been a favorite of mine which explains why I am not too fond of modern art. A stone that can be so many different shades of white and ivory, is perfectly solid, and yet it has such a frail appearance in some statues, I can't help but love it.

Yellow

Relaxing in the nature that surrounds a Kibbutz outside of Haifa, Israel. We were just taking a tour of the Kibbutz after a nice time by the pool. These beautiful flowers just hung down from the tree right into our path. For a such a dry place, the Middle East has some of the most interesting and delicate flowers I have ever seen. I am not quite sure what kind of flower this was, all I know is that it was worth getting a little behind in the tour to take a picture of them.

Blue

 A lake in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. This was the most beautiful day to travel around the countryside near Dublin. The sun was beating down on us as we explored but that same harsh sun, made the beauty of the countryside come out 10 fold. In this photo, the lake is a dozen different shades of blue from Sapphire to Midnight. In real life, it is even more beautiful and has colors that can only exist in nature.

Green

This category was the hardest to pick for. I have over 1000 pictures of Ireland and Scotland combined, 99.9928% of which are mainly filled by the green highlands or grass that make up most of the region. Yet, I could not pass up this graffiti from outside Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, near the Garden of Gethsemani. This was only the 2nd day we were in the region and already the Israel/Palestine conflict that we had studied so hard and so long was beginning to show itself to us in person. A cry for peace was a common theme that we saw around cities in both Israel and Palestine and continues to be something that I, myself, cry out for. Hopefully, these people can get there one day.

So random photos from the travels, but it is just so hard to try to explain it all to you. I'm still adjusting to being back and it is really hard. Maybe this is a better way to share my experiences with you. Pick a theme each day and then post. Hopefully this will give me a more consistent posting regimen.

Home Sweet Home

So it's been three weeks since I left for my Middle East trip and I have now finally returned. This trip completely changed me in so many ways (many that I have yet to understand or comprehend) and has thrown me for a bit of a loop when it comes to my future plans.

From Washington D.C., to New York, to Israel, Palestine and Jordan, the past few weeks have opened my eyes to things that I could have never known and showed me how much I have left to learn about conflict, the region, and people. We left a group of about 20 wide eyed college kids from UCI and UCLA and returned a crazy family that has constant debates at the dinner table. I wish that I could have kept you all updated and posted things while I was in the region but sadly the WiFi situation was not the best. I think I preferred it that way though. It gave all of us time to focus on what we were doing there and really get to know each other.

OTI at the Washington Monument

First meeting in D.C. at U.S. Institute for Peace

                            

Meeting room at the White House Executive Offices

                   
Little by little, I will post things about the trip and the different experiences that I was so privileged to have but for now, I will leave you with two amazing things that I experienced.

Prayer Candles in Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 The first would be while I was in Jerusalem, we stayed in the Old City. I got to see and experience a ton of stuff while running around the city. The most amazing thing, for me, was going to the Church of Holy Sepulchre. We went at 6am and it was quiet, serene, and peaceful. I was able to see so many different places and stations of the cross within that church, it was a lot to handle, emotionally for me. What really got to me was when we saw the Catholic Alter within the church and the organ went off. We just happened to be there when the Catholic mass was starting and that was just too much for me. I was able to stay for the beginning of the mass to watch, pray, and cry. I cried so much in that hour span that we were in the church. I was overwhelmed by how spiritual the site was, how surprisingly spiritual I was, and was realizing how much I do depend on my faith. That was a huge internal epiphany that occurred on the second day that we were actually in the Middle East and continued throughout the trip.

Crusaders Cross

Slab that Jesus was laid on after being taken off the Cross

               

My main habibti and I in front of the Western Wall, Dome of the Rock, and Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 While the group was in Jordan, we had the opportunity to visit a Gaza refugee camp and have lunch with a family there. Having lunch with the families was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. The group was split into two, so as not to overwhelm a family with 25 people. My group consisted of Daniel (our leader), Monica, Noor, Maia, Toni, Abeer, Bahjat, Hassan, Neil, Elizabeth and 4 Palestinian girls who were our age and acted as our translators. Our hostess was a lovely 90 year old great, great grandmother who had lived in camp since 1948. She was so grateful to have us there and be able to talk with us, even though she only knew Arabic. Just being able to sit and talk with the family and with our translators was so...relaxing and joyful. It was very homey and a ton of fun. We ended up singing songs with the girls that we all knew, belly danced a little, heard our hostesses story, ate an enormous amount of food, and I even got to meet the baby of the family while I was helping clean up. This short little paragraph doesn't do the experience justice but being able to just sit and talk was what I truly wanted out of the trip. Those personal connections and stories that you can't get out of a history book and can't really understand until you hear it come out of someones mouth were really eye opening and made me feel really connected to our hosts. We were so sad to leave and I hope to be able to visit them again someday.

Neil and kids from the camp

Our hostess, Daniel, and our translators and friends.

Leaving the camp and passing by a wedding

More to come once I recover from jetlag. Hopefully I can make a post a day and relive my awesome experiences for y'all.

The Dead Sea 

House of Palestine

True student diplomats glued to the TV screen in Tel Aviv as Obama makes his speech about Syria. This is also at the same time that the Iron Dome system gets deployed over the city and gas masks are being handed out incase of attacks.