Two and a half months in a contested and violent land might not sound like a dream summer to most people.

Langley's Liz Ann Chambers Berg, however, jumped at the chance to spend her summer in Bethlehem in the West Bank in Israel.

"I had no idea when I went that it was going to be as incredible as it was," Berg told the Langley Advance.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict wasn't on Berg's radar screen as a teenager growing up in Langley. Berg attended Langley Fundamental School, and said her family's stance was more or less pro-Israel.

However, when she moved to Goshen College in Indiana on a softball scholarship, she made friends with some Palestinian students and became voraciously curious about the conflict.

Just a few weeks before her summer break, she was offered a chance to take part in Palestine Summer Encounters, which allows students to live with Palestinian families, study Arabic, and work on humanitarian projects.

While she jokes that at least part of the motivation for going was to avoid getting a summer job, Berg actually worked pretty hard once she got to Bethlehem and her temporary home in the Beit Jala area.

A nursing student, Berg spent her mornings in Arabic classes, her afternoons visiting sites in the conflict and meeting people from both sides.

The tensions between Palestinian and Israeli were on daily display near her host family's home, Berg said.

Some areas are under greater degrees of military control. A medium-sized military base was within a short distance of her house. And the separation wall that encircles parts of Palestinian-controlled areas was visible nearby.

The whole neighbourhood sometimes seemed like a prison, Berg said, although her hosts and the other Palestinians had long since become used to the situation.

The walls were marked with bullet holes, and the tracks of tanks were ground into the streets.

"For the most part, people go on with their day," she said.

Restrictions on movement still make it difficult to get around.

Her host family was relatively prosperous for the neighbourhood as shop owners, Berg said. But they sometimes had trouble getting merchandise into their store, and their youngest son, 15 years old, had only seen the ocean a few times in his life, although it is just a short trip away as the crow flies.

When Berg wasn't enjoying the hospitality of her host family - she said they would pull out all the stops for family meals, including breakfast - she worked with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.

She worked in a drop-in clinic just outside of Bethlehem, doing everything from giving shots to hanging IV bags and changing sheets.

"I've never felt so much that nursing is what I'm supposed to be doing," Berg said.

In the morning, Arabic lessons were enjoyable, but by no means did she become fluent.

"I know enough to get taxis, order food," Berg said.

Her instructors say it takes 10 years to become fluent in the language, she noted.

Berg took part in several demonstrations and protests with other students. Some of those involved tear gas, or being forcibly removed by Israeli soldiers. Berg herself was hauled off for trying to block bulldozers.

That incident landed a photo of Berg on the front page of a Jerusalem newspaper.

It also caused a bit of trepidation for her family back home in Langley.

"My parents have been really supportive of me," Berg said.

When she first announced she was going, they were worried about her safety, and not every one of her siblings agrees with her politics, Berg said.

But after she was arrested, Berg said, her father said he was proud of her for standing up for what she believed in.

Despite going so far to support some Palestinian causes, Berg holds back from condemning any side in the conflict.

From Canada, it may all look simple and black and white, she said.

She admits that she was immersed in the Palestinian viewpoint for most of her trip.

"Most of what we heard was more slanted towards the Palestinians," she said.

But she also met with Jewish settlers, with members of Israeli pro-peace human rights groups, and she saw some of the locations from which Kasam rockets were fired into Israel.

Berg said she wants to see walls of hatred broken down, and to see dialogue on both sides.

"I don't have rockets fired at me, I don't have police coming in and breaking down my doors," Berg said.

The summer experience has radically changed her career goals.

"It's definitely reinforced that I want to work with human rights," Berg said.

She wants to finish nursing school, and hopefully go on to medical school to become a doctor. She might take those medical skills around the world. While on her trip, Berg met with the regional director of Save the Children, and with members of Christian Peacemaker Teams.