Update-o-rama:

It's been a crazy couple of weeks - Palestine-or-bust at the UN followed rapidly by vacation-or-bust in Jordan.  Here's a few brief ones to whet the appetite for more bloggin' down the line:

• Jordan is a great, great country.  I know it has its haters (especially in Palestine), but it's a beautiful place full of lots of great nature, really hospitable people and a huge variety of stuff to see and do.  I highly suggest a visit, and am happy to provide suggestions: ecotourism!  Scuba diving!  Desert romping!  Petra!  Dead Sea!

• Matt and I got back from our Jordan vacation to go to Palestine's Oktoberfest celebration at Taybeh brewery - literally crossed the border, dropped our stuff at home and hopped in the car to go to the festival.  On the way there, we passed through the diplomatic checkpoint (DCO), which is what fancy-pants diplomats and UN workers use - and one Boomtown Arabia writer.  You need to have an authorized ID to use this checkpoint and it's well-guarded by soldiers who are instructed to be friendly and not harass you.  Which is nice.  In any case, we're driving through the DCO and see on the hill below us ( aka, on the settler roads) a group of teenage settlers, all with guns, surrounding Palestinian cars trying to drive by.  Terrifying.  We had to drive through this gang.  You could tell the soldiers were concerned - one was talking hurriedly into his radio and the other instructed me to not stop if they tried to surround the car.  I gave them the finger as we drove by.  Welcome back to Palestine, indeed.

• Nothing has happened on the whole statehood bid (surprise, surprise).  Watching Abbas' UN speech was completely unforgettable, to be here for that was incredible, but now it's just back to work and yoga and coffee and dinner parties - baking under occupation, jogging under occupation, and so on.

• It's my 29th birthday shortly.  (DAD, CONVENIENT REMINDER!) Shoot me!!  29!!!  How did the years escape!!  Here I am, 29 and in Palestine - hilarious.  Who would have thought mindlessly signing up for Intro to Islamic Civ would lead to this.  More on that later.

• I figured out how to watch TV online.  I know for most people this was discovered about a decade ago, but I'm not known for being the best at technology.  But there's websites where I can watch the latest episode of my beloved a capella show The Sing-Off for free, and that's really all that matters to me.  That and hot chocolate should see me through the long, cold winter I am in for.  (A full wall of your bedroom being sliding glass doors in the summer: awesome. Same thing in the winter: horrible.)