3 kidnapped Americans released in West Bank

It is very funny that the day that all of our parents phoned/emailed/sent carrier pigeons to check on us was the day that 3 Americans were kidnapped here in Nablus.

I reassured all of you parents that nothing will happen here. And I still say NOTHING WILL HAPPEN HERE to us.

These were three women (not us - hardy har har. I'm not a woman remember) who were somewhere they probably shouldn't have been and were taken. Once taken they were probably given tea or coffee (and yummy pastries) while they had a chat with their kidnappers. The kidnappers told them how hard the Palestinian life is and could they please take a pay-cut so that the An-Najah National University wouldn't go bankrupt (wait... that last part was us.).

All jokes aside the women are safe (at least we think they are. Swell is sure that they were just tossed out of a car somewhere in the West Bank because the news reports indicate that they were "released in the West Bank". She is imagining them wandering around somewhere in the West Bank unsure of where they are or how to get home. Poor women.) They are safe, we are safe. In fact today we went to school and came home. Tommorrow we'll go to school and come home. The next day HOLIDAY - we'll just stay home... no... we get to go out again but then next week we'll just stay home because we are forbidden from going anywhere. We were told that they would arrange a tour of the old city of Nablus. We were excited. Then they said "but you can't get out of the car." That is still exciting because quite frankly driving in the cars here is 100 times better than a Disney World ride. You get the same whiplash and the acceleration/deceleration that you would there. The better part is that in the cars here you also get to run over things. Cats, people, anything that gets in the way. (We actually haven't run over any living things yet but the driver did accelerate, on purpose, in the general direction of a cat. Swell cried out. I cheered. I HATE CATS!)

Don't worry. We're not worried especially for the cats.