Syria, Soccer, Israel, and Refugee Camps

This will be my last post. I've learned far too much in my four months abroad to neatly conclude in a brief paragraph so instead I'll just continue as I've been doing by telling you about some of the things I've done and seen in the last few weeks.

Despite cold rainy weather the local soccer game was packed and exciting

In Northern Jordan there are more Roman ruins. In the background you can see the Golan Heights.

The Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee 

Fast forward a week and I found my self in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. This coastal European style city felt like it was in a bubble shielding it from the troubles of the region.

In the heart of Jerusalem's old city there was no shortage of merchants eager for my New Israeli Shekels

While I went to many of the most holy sites in the world I found myself more interested in the bullet holes covering parts of the wall surrounding the Old City.

In the city of Hebron the Palestinians are forced to put a chain-link fence above the market because Jewish settlers routinely throw trash, rocks, and anything else down on them.

Security was tight trying to get into the Israeli settlement. The Israeli Defence Force is well disciplined and doesn't mess around.

Once inside the settlement we went into the Tomb of the Patriarchs where Abraham was laid to rest. In 1994, a radical Jew entered and began to shoot up the Muslim worshipers inside. He killed 29 and wounded more than 100 others before he ran out of ammunition and was beaten to death with fire extinguishers. To this day the mosque is separated from the synagogue, you can see bullet holes in the wall, and the only fire extinguisher in the mosque is very large an unwieldy.

Inside a Palestinian refugee camp the art makes it clear there is plenty of hate on both sides

The green graffiti represents Hamas, black Fatah, and red the communist party

I may have been a little photo happy with the graffiti but some of it was quite good.

Back in the Jerusalem's old city I couldn't believe how close all these incredibly important holy sites were to each other.

I give the Dome of the Rock (and the entire excursion) two thumbs up

That's it. I'll see you all in about 9 days, In Sh'allah.

Wadi Rum and Petra

I don't really have anything new to say but a picture is worth 1,000 words, right?

We arrived at the desert nature preserve of Wadi Rum and were given an off road tour.

Despite the harsh environment, many people lived there.

Lawrence of Arabia



My climbing crew, triumphant at the top.



The sandstone provided great traction but broke off in you hand sometimes.

We explored unti the sun went down...

... and the moon came up.

The next day was Petra

It was alot of walking

I still don't think I saw it all

The Monastary

Ignoring all signs and the shouts of the merchants we climbed to the top of the Monastary

Then we headed home

Spring Break

Quick Facts, then pictures.
Sri Lanka is not a country Americans visit often because its on the other side of the world, but the Sri Lankan people still praise the US for its aid after the 2004 tsunami. Sri Lanka is also home to sizable populations of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Buhddists, yet they seem to get along fairly well. A war between the Tamil and the Sinahlese very recently ended on the island and while it has the potential to begin again, the people are genuinely tired of it. Here are some of my pictures.

We arrived at 2 in the morning at wandered around until breakfast



The next day I went downtown to see what I could.

The busy streets of Columbo

The Indian Ocean was very warm and had some great waves

A Hindu Shrine

There was a strong military presence on the streets. I knew a war just ended but I still wasn't expecting it.

Playing cricket at the park.



The food was very spicy but scrumptious



They're watching a cricket game on a tiny TV

The tuck-tucks all had weird little sangs written all over them.

A Chinese guardian outside a buhddist temple

Waiting for the sunrise after a difficult climb up Adam's Peak. This is a holy site for Christianity, Buhddism and Islam

It was worth it

During the climb down it was easier to see



We traveled around by train. It was great to be able to see the countryside and there were no assigned seats so I always tried to sit between the cars.



In the town of Kandy, the fire chief invited us in.

Making friends on the train

12 hour layover in Dubai for architecture fans.

The tallest building in the world

Enough uploading. And they lived happily ever after.



Skipping Rocks in the Holy Land

Hey guys,
I feel like its been a while so I might as well update you. Some of you may have heard that I'm going to spend my spring break in Lebanon and Turkey but several days ago there was a loud... sound during the day. At first we were told it was the aftershocks of an earth in Turkey but the next day we started hearing rumors that it was an Israeli airstrike somewhere around the West Bank. Now, Arabs love rumors and conspiricy theories so I'll probably never know for sure what it was but the more research I've done the more likely it seems that Lebanon and Israel will be at war again soon. Instead of that spring break I'll be going to Sri Lanka instead to explore the jungle and meet buhddists.

For one of my classes I got an internship working at the Department of Palestinian Affairs and as part of that I accompanied my boss to a Palestinian refugee camp just outside of Amman. There we met a delegation of Norwegian members of parliament and their aides. We toured the camp briefly and alot of empty words were exchanged about improving the situation.

Monday we had another excursion to the holy sites in Jordan and topped it off with a visit to the Dead Sea.


A mosaic map of the holy land in some church...



The view from Mount Nebo where God killed Moses

Surprise there are churches in the holy land

Jesus was here. Being baptized.

That's... the legendary Jordan river?

Across the river is the occupied West Bank. On the left are two Israeli soldiers with loaded assault rifles. Behind me was a Jordanian soldier similarly armed and a techincal with a mounted M-60 machinegun. It wasn't exactly relaxing being between them.

We finished out the day at the Dead Sea swimming and skipping rocks. Here's a pro tip you won't find in any travel guide. Don't fart in the Dead Sea. It seriously burns.