Jordan to Jerusalem

I got to Jordan on the 14th as planned, but didn't cross the Allenby that day. Instead, I stayed in Amman [that's another story] and left on Sunday, the 16th. I was supposed to call my cousin, Adel, to start driving toward the bridge from Jerusalem as soon as I cleared the Jordanian side, which I did pretty quickly, so he'd be there in time as I emerged from the Israeli side. The bus ride across was uneventful and I called Adel as planned. But all sorts of fun awaited me on the Israeli side that I had to call him back to let him know that i'd make my own way to his house as soon as I could. After five hours of waiting, being questioned endlessly, mumbling unseemly curses under my breath and thinking evil thoughts about a particularly smug Israeli officer, they handed me passport and told me to "go". I held my breath at this point, not knowing which direction I'd be going in, back to Amman or forward to Palestine. I must have had a stupid, clueless look on my face because the Israeli officer [the particularly smug one] matched my look with one even more stupid.

I broke the impasse, "go?"

"Go," she reiterated, apparently annoyed that I didn't get it the first time. But she simultaneously waved me in the direction I was headed, so I went with the flow. woo hooo... i thought [that's a natural reflex thought after soldiers hold you captive for hours on end asking you ridiculously irrelevant and very personal questions]. so, i'm thinking woo hooo, when my elation comes to a screeching halt by a man soldier.

"wait, wait" he said. pronounced weet weet [and believe me, he looked like a bird, too].

"what now? they told me i could go" I protested, annoyed enough now that I couldn't help but show it.

"weet," he said, as if I hadn't heard the first tweet tweets, and grabbed my passport from my hand. He conferred with another soldier and came back to tell me to "sit down."

"I've been sitting down all day. What do you need now?" I said,with the meanest face I could muster [it's pretty bad]

"Security," he said...and that did it for me. I sat down with a huff and the F-BOMB! yep. I said it.

A note of caution about the F-bomb around Israeli soldiers: do not try it at home, it makes them mad and as they generally have control over your fate (Palestinians only), you have to use it with extreme caution. As a rule of thumb, if you're a man, you should never use it, unless you just don't give a damn what they do afterward. If you're a woman, use your intuition.

This time, it worked. I felt better and bird soldier brought my passport back and told me to "go."

I went, bought a bus ticket and waited for enough passengers so we could take off.
woo hooo

I left Amman at 9am, left the Jordanian side of the bridge by 11am, and here it was 6pm and I arrived in Jerusalem at the bus station near Babel Amoud. I grabbed my luggage, hopped on the bus to el Tur, and walked into my cousin's house by 6:30pm to a hot meal of grape leaves and stuffed zuccini that his wife, Laila, had made just for moi!

It was good to finally be here.