K, so can I ask a favor?  Can you guys post comments so that I feel kinda good about myself?  :)  Thanks.

Well, I found out why my straightener shorted out 2 converters.  Turns out it uses like, 400W of power, and the converters I had were 50W and 100W. ... ya.  So I think that means I have to buy a new straightener, most likely, which is made even more annoying by the fact that, had I known that, I could have left mine home and packed more cute clothes.  I'm getting pretty sick of my wardrobe, not gonna lie.  First of all, not nearly enough selection, and second of all, half the clothes I brought are ugly clothes, and all of them are depressingly drab colors.  I wish I had underestimated the dress code a little more.

Ok, enough complaining, I apologize.  I really am thrilled to be here. :)  Yesterday we went to the Rockefeller Museum, which houses part of an antiquities collection that is usually on display at, I believe, the Israel Museum, or something like that.  They had these really cool jars and pottery that were coated in some kind of iridescent paint.  And there was one display where they mounted all the pieces of molding from some building (sorry I'm not more specific...) on like, a framework, so you kind of got a sense of what it would have been like to be in a building surrounded by all that kinda stuff.  And they had a beautiful courtyard!!  I really can't describe it (I tried and then deleted what I had coz it sucked, sorry), but it was gorgeous, and the sun was shining.  :)  Oh, in other news, my brand new 4GB memory card is too new-fangled for my ancient camera...  And I left my other one at home.  So I'm borrowing a like, 32KB card from someone until I can get another one.  Lol.

So I found someone that knows how to ballroom dance!!!!!!!  He's 17 and he's my Old Testament teacher's kid, but he's really pretty good.  He doesn't know very much but he's got a good, solid technique, so it'll be fun to teach him. :D  I'm very excited.  Oh, kind of a funny note, actually, I was the only girl in heels on Saturday (Sabbath).  The packing list said, "High heeled shoes should be left at home" because like, of the limestone stairs.  Whatever.  Anyone who is even marginally comfortable in heels would be fine.  And my heels that I was going to bring didn't fit, so I wore my Latin shoes to church.  :)  It made me happy.

My Arabic teacher showed me how to write my name in Arabic.  (I wish I could find a way to show it... the online translator won't just do it letter for letter...)  He wrote it up on the board and said, "See, it's beautiful, just like her."  Lol.  He's a pretty funny guy.  Both of my Palestinian teachers are pretty interesting.  My other one is for Modern Near East from the Islamic Perspective (essentially, I don't think that's the actual class name).  They just have a funny sense of humor and a different style of teaching than the other professors.  Mixes things up a little.

Tonight we had a speaker from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.  He's in the Tel Aviv Branch, and he's the official spokesperson for the embassy.  He spoke about Gaza and everything that's going on down there.  It was really interesting, and he made the point that the U.S. isn't really getting a lot of the coverage, because the only news station that's allowed in Gaza right now isn't broadcast on most networks.  If you want to know more about what's going on, see if your cable provider has Al Jazira- English (though I'm not quite sure about that spelling), or maybe you could look it up on the internet, because that's apparently where all the coverage is coming from.  Today we couldn't go into the Old City/East Jerusalem because of a strike going on that had to do with Gaza.  It's an exciting time to be over here, for sure.  

Well, that's all for now, please comment! :D