Oh hey Kaaaaaah-rin,
I love your new alter ego name! It sounds fancy. When I say Kah-rin, I feel like I need to wear an elegant chiffon dress while smoking a cigarette from a long stem, or something.
Anyway, I miss you terribly, my brilliant friend! It’s always been such a fun part of grad school that I could just walk down the hall and say hi. So it’s really nice that we’re doing this pen pal thing and keeping in touch in a way that can also connect us to our communities back home, and to anyone else who might want to learn more about different experiences with international research.
I loved reading about your moving in, and I can very much relate to the tedium of settling into a new life. As of writing this, I still don’t have internet in my house, I’ve moved twice, I’ve been locked into my bedroom twice, it took a solid week to navigate the transportation system in order to get a bus pass, and I could go on, but… sigh, suffice to say, it’s been a ride. But the amazing thing is, with every task I’ve had to do, it’s been accompanied by a great conversation with someone in my new community who genuinely wants to help me. With every visit to the post office or the local vegetable stand or the phone store, came a connection with someone who wants to learn more about me as a person and how I came to be here, and they in turn share a bit about who they are. These conversations are often accompanied by invitations to have tea or dinner, and meet their family. So, while the settling-in process has been slow, the community-building has been amazingly fast, and for that I’m grateful.
It’s also a huge plus that my colleagues at the Geological Survey of Israel are so kind and helpful. We’re already busy with planning out my months here, and it looks like there are several projects where I could model saline groundwater intrusion. My first project uses a 2-D ant farm-style laboratory model to see how saline intrusion occurs inside and along aquitards (or lower permeability) layers, and how that impacts seawater circulation. I’m modeling the laboratory results to provide a more mechanistic explanation of why we’re seeing what we’re seeing.
I’ve also been really enjoying getting to know the geologists at the survey. I have lunch with them every day, which is making me regret that I’ve rarely taken a lunch break at grad school. It’s such a nice way to break up the day and have great discussions with other researchers. There’s a bunch of people here that do groundwater modeling and a few actually focus on density-driven groundwater flow since there’s quite a lot of saline groundwater intrusion from the Red, Dead, and Mediterranean Seas. Plus I’m getting a lot of invitations to go out on field excursions, which will be a nice break from my modeling work.
I’ve already traveled around the West Bank quite a bit since Sam (my partner) visited. We had a great time going around Ramallah, Hebron, and Jericho. I’d been to all these places earlier last summer, but it was really fun to travel there with Sam because he explained a bunch of new phrases to me. For example, I’ve learned, “Goodness comes to the good,” which is a phrase that someone could say when someone you’ve met is expressing how happy they are to know you, and you’d like the return the compliment. And, as a native Arabic speaker (he’s Syrian), we were able to connect with people on a much deeper level.
Living in Jerusalem in general is a very intense experience. It’s a place of consequence, and contradiction, and multitudes. The political situation in itself is tense and perpetually upsetting for everyone. Police and soldiers wielding guns half their size is a daily sight on my commute. As someone living here short term with a lot of privilege, I marvel at the tenacity of the people who live with incomplete human and civil rights, and yet continue. Every day is packed with so many experiences, and I can’t write fast enough to record them all. I already feel like I’ve been here for months, so I wonder if seven more months will feel like a lifetime. More than anything, though, there’s something about the sky. On a sunny day, I look out the window and I can’t help but marvel at how brilliantly blue the sky looks. And the clouds are a crisper white, and so much closer than normal. I know it sounds strange, and it’s almost inexplicable. But almost daily I look up and feel like this place is really special to its core. I never thought a place could feel so draining and replenishing at the same time.
Side note, a nice thing that happened just before I left for Jerusalem was the Science for Palestine conference at MIT. It helped me to connect with Palestinian scientists and learn about the specific challenges they face in trying to do research while having restricted access to resources and travel. So I’m interested in connecting with those scientists more while I’m here and I’ll share more about that later on as things progress.
Anyway, I really like your list of goals and I think I’d like to do the same! So, let’s see… I think:
1) I’d like to create space for peace and tranquility while I’m here. It’s been a rough couple of years. Grad school in itself is rough, and life doesn’t stop just because you’re in grad school. So I’m recognizing that I’m feeling mentally tired and I need to invest in some serious self care while I’m here. I’m talking about yoga, meditation, sleeping more, and taking the time to write reflections. I think that’ll be a great way to stay grounded during this time.
2) I will challenge myself to ask for help. Both in my work and personally. It’s been a flaw of mine since forever that asking for help feels like a sign of weakness, when often it’s just a part of living and not asking for help can be really dumb sometimes. As I’ve already described, this is the perfect place and time to challenge that insecurity.
3) I want to dive deeper and explore discomfort. There are just so many things that aren’t comfortable for my privileged experience, and I’d like to change that because I think it’ll make me an all-around better person. Let me count the ways: watching the occupation happen is hard, talking about the conflict is tough, I’m far away from all of my loved ones, day-to-day life is just a little more complicated in lots of little ways, etc. And I just want to sit with that discomfort more. I want to have those conversations. I want to live this life and let it happen without letting anxiety keep me up at night. And luckily, I’m really well equipped to do that. I speak Arabic, I’ve lived in the Middle East before, and I have a lot of people both near and far who are rooting for me. So it’s really just about going into that place of discomfort and trusting that I can do it.
And on top of everything, I simply feel so honored and lucky to be here. I’m less than a twenty minute walk from the Old City. The amazing gentleman who holds the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre took time between meeting world leaders (literally!) to help me find housing. And I live in a 150-year-old house built by my lovely landlady’s great-grandfather. Plus a lovely little kitty has adopted me and she’s a great work buddy. How cool is that? I’m so excited for the next seven months and I can’t wait to share them with you. Anyway, my dear, take care, pet a reindeer for me, and let me know how things are going!
Ma salama (bye in Arabic),
Sarah