Blog Numero Uno

So here it is- my very first blog. Which of course leads me to wonder just what I am going to write about, and why anyone in their right mind would want to read this. So I better tell you- hopefully there will be some "you" and not just me talking to me- exactly how this started. A long time ago, Craig and Betty had a daughter in the wonderfully rainy city of Seattle. Flash forward two decades and said daughter was a slightly neurotic and verbose graduate of Franklin High School and was moving on to South Seattle Community College. Strange and wonderful things ensued, chief of which was a trip to the Middle East.
My trip to Israel during the summer of 2004 was the most challenging and wonderful thing that I have ever done. I have never felt in my life so alive, so out of my comfort zone and mostly just so happy. Keep in mind several things- first, I had lived in the same house all of my life, and had only made brief forays in Canada and Mexico. Secondly, I knew as much about the Mid East and Israel as your average non-Jewish, non-Arab American twenty something would, which is to say I knew nothing. I made some mistakes, a few more friends, and best of all had a blast. During my summer in Israel, I traveled all over the country but stayed mostly in Northern Israel doing an archeological dig at a place called Tel Hazor (if you are looking for a great dig in the holy land, that's the dig to do). For a girl from Seattle, the freedom of being parentless and unknown in a foreign land was a heady thing. As soon as I got home, I started plotting my return which leads us into the why of this blog. During my trip, I wrote everyone back home emails about my adventures, and they went over pretty well. When I finally figured out just how I was going to get back to the Middle East (I am using the pretext of finishing up my bachelor’s degree in Cairo to go back) I was encouraged to start a blog about my experiences. Although I am not leaving for Cairo until late August, I figured that it might be a good idea to get started on this thing before I left, as I will have better things to do when I get there. So there it is, my reasons and life in a nut shell. For those of you who know me, and wondered exactly what I was thinking, this is your way to find out. For those of you who don’t know me, be glad, and for those you who know me and won’t admit it- well, you’re a stinker. As always, may the force be with you-

Sarah M