I'm here! I'm home?

Friends! I've made it to the West Bank!! And not only that: I know WHERE I'm living next year and with whom!! I have no concept of it yet because we are in orientation for about a week in the Beit Jala/Bethlehem area, but I will be in Jerusalem starting on Thursday with my new roomie, Mary Margaret, who is from Georgia. Sounds like I will be working most days in the Old City - but I don't know much yet- more to come later.

We arrived in Tel Aviv around 3pm yesterday and Martin and Suzanne were eagerly waiting for us! We drove from there, through Jerusalem, to Beit Jala (very near Bethlehem), which is where our guest house is for the week. After we'd had a little bit of time to settle in our rooms, we piled into "Bruno", the big blue van that Martin and Suzanne drive to cart us all around and headed down for dinner. Honestly, driving through these streets, I immediately felt at home. I know I wrote about "home" a few weeks ago- and it has become so many places for me, but it usually takes awhile for a new setting to feel like home. Perhaps because of the community I already feel here with my fellow YAGMs and Martin and Suzanne (the missionaries who coordinate the program), I already felt that this will quickly become home. I'm sure that the excitement and novelty of it all will fade away soon, but I feel very ready to begin living and working here.

Today we are at Martin and Suzanne's and after we have lunch we are heading down to explore more of Bethlehem and see the Church of the Nativity. More to come later!