Insert Clever Title.

Dear Miriam's Blog,

This is a celebrity shot. No, not Michael Boublu here; only the next best thing. Megan "Miriam's 100% American friend (boring!)" Larcom here. Ha, jokes. But really.

As a refugee-of-sorts (yes, as in a temporary migrated person, NOT a refugee-of-the-Palestinain-sort, i.e. a permanent migrated person) from the Pharoah's land, I've joined Miriam in the lovely contested lands of Palestine, Jerusalem, West Bank, Occupied Terrorities, etc. We've been having quite the week.

First, we met Gaddafi.

Then, we watched a live performance by Lady GaGa.

Oh, we also played pin-the-eyeball-on-the-clown with some 7-year-olds.

A few days, some hours of commuting and one very large concrete wall later, we arrived to Ramallah in the West Bank, to meet William, a baller Boren Fellow. After exploring the West Bank town-- casually passing the grave of Yasser Arafat and marveling at the originality of the town's central cafe, "Stars & Bucks"-- we proceeded to cook a feast from a collection of fresh, uber-cheap vegetables. Good thing an eclectic group of William's Palestinian friends showed up for dinner, because we prepared an eclectic meal. Nothing says "we da best chefs in town" like undercooked stuffed vegetables, some unsalted Egyptian stew, and unperfectly paired Indian carrot sweets with oddly flavored ice cream. Epic fail.

Leaving our culinary skills in Ramallah, we traveled to Bethlehem to visit a friend-of-Miriam's-friend (and the birthplace of Jesus, of course).

We painted some murals on The Wall. 

We serenaded each other with our miniature guitars in a bedouin tent.

Next up this week: scaling the Western Wall, building a clay model of the Dome of the Rock, and break-dancing outside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Perhaps teaching some children in Hebrew and Arabic, finishing her master's research design, and leading a conflict resolution course, but only after writing the Egyptian constitution and dealing with the civil war in Libya.

Until we have more interesting stories, peace out,

Megan

(p.s. Miriam doesn't know the contents of this blog post yet but I'm 37% confident she will agree with the contents. regardless, I assure you she sends her greetings)