adjustments

I moved to college when I was 17 and made the adjustment just fine. In fact, I was more than fine; I met amazing people and truly have lifelong friendships and memories. I studied abroad in Morocco for a summer and made the adjustments there as well: fell in love with beautiful people and a beautiful culture, had a family, great friends, and learned a lot about myself. I learned to be independent and how to travel whilst alone. After I graduated from college I worked a full time job until I moved to Jordan for a year. I had the most amazing experience and wouldn't have traded that year or anything that happened during that year for anything. I found six best friends that I know I can count on for the rest of my life.

Now that I'm back in the United States, I have found that the hardest adjustment in my life so far is moving...home.

i'm back

My life has been rather drab. It is quite a shellshock to go from living in Jordan with my best friends, studying Arabic, tutoring English, constant traveling, laying out by the Dead Sea, etc. to living with my parents. Or in the words of Harold and Kumar:
Kumar: You're worthless.
Harold: I'm not worthwhile.

My typical [not worthwhile] days go a little something like this:

1 - Wake up at the earlybird time of 10:53am. Facebook for a while, obvi.

2 - Attempt to apply for some sort of job. My standards are a bit low at the moment as I applied at Ultimate Tan this morning.

3 - Physical therapy session, enough said. Having a dislocated knee is awful, if only I could walk like a normal person.

4 - Met my Mom at Sholem Pool for a little sun. Came to the realization that I actually don't love kids all that much. Not that I hate them, but being surrounded by hundreds of them is almost like my hell.

5 - Nap.

6 - Dad wakes me up for dinner. Today he woke me up and asked if I would like Mexican. Margaritas? Cheese dip? Fajitas? Is this even a question Dad? Yes.

7 - Post-dinner, watched a movie with Dad.

8 - And here we are.

So to sum up, life is good.

shzm

There was a time
I thought, that you did everything right
No lies, no wrong
Boy I, must've been outta my mind

Thank God you blew it
Thank God I dodged the bullet
I'm so over you

I wanted you bad
I'm so through with it
Cuz honestly you turned out to be the best thing I never had
You turned out to be the best thing I never had

You don't deserve my tears
I guess that's why they ain't there
When I think that there was a time that I almost loved you
You showed your ass and I saw the real you

Thank God I found the good in goodbye

to read or not to read?

I have realized that with my time closing here in Jordan, I still have 9 books left to read. Unfortunately, I have only just about a month left here. What to do? I don't want to lug the books around with me through Europe and then onward to the States. So, I am starting a challenge with myself to finish these 9 books before I leave. If I do so, I think I will reward myself with 9 straight days of Jimmy John's (which will probably happen anyway regardless of if I complete my challenge or not).



Of course I could be reading right now instead of writing this blog post, but here we go. Let the reading begin...

i got it from my momma

the wall that separates us all

**These are from the wall that separates Jerusalem from Bethlehem (part of Palestine). It is also a barrier that keeps Palestinians from entering Jerusalem, Israel.

al-kuds

S and I just spent a beautiful four-day weekend in Al-Kuds (Jerusalem in Arabic). Of course we traveled around to Bethlehem and the West Bank as well, but my favorite morning was our last one spent in Jerusalem. We woke up at the wee hour of 5:30a to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We had gone the day before, but the line had been outrageously long to see Jesus' tomb so we went back early in the morning to be able to see it without the crowds.


It was surreal to be praying over the Jesus' tomb next to a nun at 6a.


Then we strolled through the souk over to the Dome of the Rock. We also wanted to be there early enough to see it without massive crowds. As you can tell, we were really excited to be the first ones in line...