First day in Nablus

On Saturday morning, I had a nice breakfast in the guest house. Then I went to the bus station. I asked where the bus to Ramallah was and a woman showed me. I ended up sitting with her on the bus. She had a book that said Travel and Tourism in English. I asked her some questions and she spoke almost no English, so I made due with my Arabic. She is taking a class on tourism in Ramallah, but she only knows a little English.  In Ramallah, I asked for the bus station.  People showed me the Nablus bus.  There was a man sitting behind me with his little boy.  He spoke English and told me he would let me know when to get off the bus.  When we got to Ramallah, I had to ask several people for the Yasmeen Hotel.  Some didn't know, but all answered in Arabic.  This will be a much bètter place to work on my Arabic than Beirut.
At the hotel, I called Taufique. He said his colleague was taking new volunteers on a tour of the city and that he would come for me.  After about thirty minutes, Ahmad came with six other volunteers.  So, I got a chance to start making friends. We got some lunch and I bought a Palestinian phone during the tour and then went back to the office.
At the office, Ahmad introduced us to Taufique and Noura. Noura organizes the classes.  Then, Ahmad took us to our apartment.  The Project House is full, so they got an additional apartment for us.  So far, we have Lena (Australian/Palestinian), Reema (also Australian/Palestinian) and Silvia (Italian).
There was a picnic in a nearby park. We went to it and met more volunteers -  some Brits, Norwegians and Germans. So far, no Americans.
The night went fine except that the house was FREEZING.