March 2010

Wow. The semester is going by so quickly. Spring Break for me begins at the end of March, and then a week after coming back, I turn twenty-one! Actually it's not that exciting for me. I hate getting older, and as far as alcohol goes, even if I were a regular alcohol drinker, it's not difficult to get someone else to buy it for me. Just another birthday for me. But I do plan to drink some alcohol, some fancy tequila.

I almost updated this blog several times in the last few weeks. I was going to write an entry about procrastination (really!), but I put it off and forgot about it. I was also going to write one about how my perfectionism hampers all aspects of my life.

My parents visited today. They cleaned up my apartment for me. I helped very little. It's wonderful. They also brought me a nice wooden bookshelf. Really brings my living room together. And I finally have a place to put that vase I bought in Palestine. I wish I had a story to go with that vase, like if I had met its maker in person. It was at the Lutheran church in Bethlehem - they provide university art classes. Painting, sculpture, and also things like cinematography. Documentary-making is a very relevant skill for students growing up in the West Bank who need the world to know what their lives are like. I bought my vase in the gift shop. It was like 140 shekels, but maybe not even that much. I think a female student made it, but I'm not even sure of that. Whatever the price was, it wasn't as much as that Swatch watch I bought from a watch-shop down the street. I was walking around alone. I was actually looking for a shop someone had mentioned that sold fake designer watches, but this wasn't that shop.
It was tiny, but there were hundreds of watches on display. I didn't want to buy one, but the middle-aged Palestinian man was so excited that I had walked in. Maybe I was projecting onto him an emotion that wasn't there, but he seemed extremely happy to have a customer. His wife quietly sat in the corner of the shop left of the entrance. She was very pretty, with an elegant head scarf, and I could feel her studying me as I asked to see different watches. One watch caught my eye - a silver Swatch watch. I asked to see the box. It was from several years past, though it looked brand new. I suck at haggling and I also suck at walking away. The price was too much, but I took out my Visa card anyway. I can't remember...I want to say that it was more than 400 shekels, which is around 100 dollars. While he was removing the links so it would fit my wrist I tried to talk to his wife. She smiled (again, extremely pretty) but shook her head because she didn't know English. The man was giddy the entire time: while he was adjusting the time, while he was swiping my credit card (I was half-hoping he wouldn't have a credit card machine, so that I could use that as an excuse to walk away), and while he was carefully bagging every thing. They both waved to me as I walked out. I immediately felt embarrassed and stowed the box in the pocket of my shorts. I felt like all the Palestinians on the street somehow knew about my ill-considered transaction, and I didn't mention it to any of the other people in my travel group. Back in my hotel room, I hid the box under the clothes in my suitcase and then recounted the entire experience to my mom via cell phone. That watch still doesn't fit me, but I still get happy thinking that maybe I made that man's day.