As I mentioned in my last blog post, the parental units came to visit for us in Jerusalem for ten days along with my aunt and uncle and wow, did we pack in a lot. I borrowed a minivan from our friends and we put some miles on their 1997 Honda Odyssey, hitting most of […]
When I wrote this, I was in the midst of a chill out day at home – relaxing on the most beautiful sofa in the world and decompressing after an awesome go-go-go nine-day visit from my mom, dad, aunt, and uncle. I’ll blog our family visit to Wadi Rum in the future, but for now, here’s a […]
Jews around the world say “Next year in Jerusalem!” at the end of the Passover seder. I know because, while I’m not Jewish, I’ve joined Mr. Em in Jerusalem’s family seders pretty much since I’ve known him (and we even co-hosted a particularly interesting one at our hotelpartment in Yemen). I’ve now spent two Passovers in […]
On the first day of Passover, a group of friends and I went on a hike. Our plan was to start just outside of Jerusalem in an Israeli National Park and end up in the Palestinian town of Jericho. We figured it would take us about six hours, because some ultra-fit friends said they ran […]
There was a time when I thought I’d be a person who is really in to camping. In my early twenties, I slept outside in a tent a few times — along the Rifle River in Michigan; in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland; one night on the Appalachian Trail, that time on the lawn of an […]
I recently had a weekend trip to top all weekend trips: A group of Jerusalem friends and I drove to Jordan’s second largest nature reserve and spent two serene yet adventurous nights in an ecolodge run by Bedouins and spent a day herding goats with a local. We left Jerusalem on a Saturday morning and […]
Bethlehem is just a few miles down the road from us. There’s not a ton to see there after you tour the church where Mary is said to have delivered Jesus and after you stock up on all the nativity scenes you’d care to display in your home. But during this past weekend’s visit to […]
I’ve been at the new job for a little over a month now, and while it’s been interesting so far, it hasn’t left me much time to write (as evidenced by the lack of updates on this blog). I figured I’d come home and write after work, and I totally would if I didn’t suffer […]
Just when I was complaining about how lazy I am, I got the call: My security clearance finally came through and I could begin work at the government job for which I was hired ten months ago. So, last week I bid farewell to the Diplocats and the blue velvet sofa and I ventured out of my […]
When I was 28 and had just quit my job as a journalist, got married, and moved to Yemen, I wrote a blog post in which I vowed to never stop with my creative pursuits, and to always live a life of passion. Four years later is probably a good time to revisit my wide-eyed […]
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