Lovely Drive to Ramallah...?

Last week we went out for dinner In Ramallah! We were there for a farewell event for our boss and it was to be the who's who of Palestine (minus the Prime Minister) at the nicest restaurant. It take more coordination than you can image for us to go and about 30 (15%) of our office was there. Dinner was okay and there were ministers and governors, but that didn’t really matter to me because I don’t speak Arabic so I couldn’t really talk to them.

The noteworthy part of the trip was the trip itself – which honestly I’m not sure I can do again.

The first time I remember ever being car sick was with my in-laws. We were about 15 minutes into a 6 hour drive when I started to feel nauseous. I sat up straight, looked out the window and still felt sick. We soon pulled over and after some Dramamine and pizza I was out.

This trip was a million times worse. First because instead of beautiful country roads we were going up and down dessert hills, twisting and turning on an uneven road trying to catch up with the other cars. I wanted so badly to look out the window and take in my first glimpses of Palestine, but I couldn’t. I put my head back and fell asleep.

The way home from dinner was about the same. The sun was setting over Ramallah and I was thinking how badly I wanted to take a picture to share with you all (I didn’t have my camera). We went down a hill, up a hill, around the hill, down the hill, to the right, to the left, more left, down, down , fast, slow, right, up….

When we got to Jerusalem (45 minutes away) I stumbled (no joke) out of the car and quickly grabbed onto the massive potter in front of the U.S. Consulate. My legs were shaking and all I could think of was “don’t throw up in the flowers!” You would think this was the end of my story…but no. Less than 3 minutes after exiting the first car we loaded into the next car to head back to Tel Aviv another hour and half away. Oh geeze…I slowly tossed my purse into the massive Trail Blazer and climbed in on hands and knees. I braced myself for another horrible ride – but was happily surprised when my car sickness went away 20 minutes later.  

We made it home okay (no barf bag necessary) – but I’m not sure my stomach can handle that again, at least not without some Dramamine. But if I took the Dramamine I’d be passed out when we arrived and thus defeat the point of going. We’ll see…