Thanksgiving might be American, but food and family is universal.

Since the fourth Thursday of November isn't a holiday in Israel we had class. However being a Thursday, it was a field trip day. This week we went to Abu Ghosh, an Arab town west of Jerusalem. First stop was the town mosque and then we got to visit the elementary school that's associated with it.

One of the residents of Abu Ghosh giving us the history of the mosque.

Melanie and I inside the mosque.

The first grade classroom in the school.

The second part of our day trip consisted of what we were told was going to be an Arabic cooking class. What the teacher really meant was she was about to unleash 15 international students in an operational restaurant's kitchen. We entered the restaurant and were immediately beckoned into the back. After a little awkward shuffling around to fit all of us in, production began. There was little explanation and a lot of activity. Commands and questions went back and forth in Arabic and English as students began chopping ingredients, preparing food, and frying falalel. It was productive chaos as students began doing anything and everything in the kitchen. Activities included just as much coffee drinking, socializing, and hummus spilling as it did anything productive, but I think both the restaurant workers and students had an immensely enjoyable time out of it. And in true Thanksgiving style, it ended with an absolute feast worth of food.

Frying falafel.

Hanging out with chef master Taisub in the kitchen.

Jasper cooking potatoes like a boss... and getting in some practice rounds before being on potato duty for Thanksgiving dinner.

Kitchen selfie with the restaurant owner's brother and my classmates.

After our first feast we all returned home to work off our lunch feast by preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. Although there are plenty of activity options for a Thursday night in Israel, I decided that I really wanted to just enjoy some good food and company so I opened an invitation for people to come over for Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment. The only catch was everyone had to bring some sort of food. After all, I had dessert covered.

الأميرات all dressed up for Thanksgiving dinner.

My part of the pot-luck. Three pies and spice cookies with pumpkin dip.

My abroad-family dinner.

From the left is Jasper, Taisub, Melanie, Nora, Lisa, myself, and Teresa. Noah's behind the camera per usual.

Our Thanksgiving feast consisted of salad, mashed potatoes, pomegranate seeds, pad thai, chicken wings, and lots of dessert. Honestly, I'd take Taisub's pad thai and chicken over a roasted turkey any day... he knows how to cook! Our dinner was blessed in a variety of languages and religious traditions before dinner continued in the same way. Noah was outnumbered 7 to 1 by Arabic students and so more often than not Arabic slang was being thrown around the dinner conversation. Overall though it was a great holiday and it's hard to be anything but thankful about a day full of food- Arabic, American, and otherwise.

To all of my family, friends, and sisters back home - I hope you had a great holiday and I miss you all! And to all of my friends here in Israel (at dinner and otherwise) - it's hard to be homesick when I have you as my family here abroad, I am so thankful to have you all as a part of my study abroad experience. I hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving as much as I did!

Wednesday Night Challah*

*pronounced like 'holla'

Today progressed like the typical school day with my biggest plan being to run to the grocery store for the first time after classes. On my way back Noah and I pass his neighbor who debates saying something to us and then just mysteriously says, "they'll fill you in" before he walked out of the apartment complex. Laughing at the weird and ominous interaction we enter his apartment building where we find a group of people gathered in the lobby all on their phones. I'm not sure who talked first, but the first words that registered were "terrorist attack".

In case you haven't seen the news yet, there are plenty of articles you can catch up on (such an article can be found here) but the general points are that an Arab man drove a car onto one of the light rail platforms where he killed an infant and injured a handful of people. 

The craziest part to me is that it's literally the train stop right after the one we use to get to campus. The light rail is a train that runs into the city, and I had literally been on it only 24 hours prior. I'm also planning on going on it again tomorrow. It's weird how such crazy events can just happen and life goes on like normal. 

The incident happened at Ammunition Hill where you see the flame. It's roughly just over a mile from where I live, although so far I've taken the train from Giv'at-Ha Mivtar (French Hill) past Ammunition Hill toward the city.

Although it wasn't entirely like normal. Security was walking around the apartment building complex telling people to close windows and stay inside so as to avoid any tear gas that may be traveling via wind from where rioting broke out after the incident. I guess there's a first time for everything, so now I can add avoiding tear gas to that list.

Staying in was pretty great though. Noah and I were eating dinner in my kitchen when my roommates walked in with friends and challah dough. What was sort of a crazy evening turned into a really awesome night where I got to eat and hangout with good company. 

My roommate preparing the challah dough.

The challah pre-oven.

The best part- enjoying the bread! The two girls to the left of me are my roommates Leslie and Joelle.

As sad as I am that people were severely hurt today, at least I can be thankful for a lot of positives, including good food and great company!

"Thank God I found the GOOD in Goodbye!" - Beyoncé

It happened. We threw our going away party last night. But for all intents and purposes it was more of a gathering of friends to break the fast. It was absolutely wonderful having all our friends, and those who have practically become family, all together in our house. We got to gather together, give thanks, and celebrate; because these past six weeks have been well worth celebrating.

We had our first Selamatan. A Javanese tradition celebrating the unity of everyone participating in it, sort of like an Indonesian Thanksgiving. And what would our first Selamatan be without a tumpeng? It's a giant food platter shaped geographically like the mountains (which are spiritually and culturally important in Java). The tumpeng is a symbol of gratitude and there's a ceremonial practice in how it is cut and served, honoring a particular person (or people, in our case).

Our tumpeng.

As Wikipedia so eloquently explains, "with tumpeng, people express the gratitude to God and appreciate togetherness and harmony" and I don't think I could find a better example of what occurred last night. I am so thankful for everyone who's been a part of this trip. Hands down my favorite part of Indonesia is the people I've met here.

And by no means could we end without a bang... but thanks to Nana and Ayu we ended with quite a few, as they bought us fireworks as well.