Return to Jerusalem

I'm back in Jerusalem! Miriam Meltzer dropped me off near Danny's apartment Tuesday afternoon with an invitation to come back anytime. The people I've stayed with so far have all been incredibly generous. For many, this is our first time meeting, and yet no one asks me how long I plan on staying with them and they always let me know that I'm welcome back anytime. It's a little tiring being "Phillip and Noreen's daughter" or "Noa's little sister" all the time and I wish I had some of my own friends here. It's harder when you're only somewhere 4 or 5 nights max to make good friends, but at least the people I'm staying with will know who I am now and in future meetings won't just think of me in reference to someone else. What I've been really surprised about is how easy it is to "make yourself at home" when homeless. Before coming here I thought it would be a bit exhausting what with all the moving around and not having any place to really relax or settle into, but it's not difficult at all. I've learned to assume that if people tell me to make myself comfortable, act like I'm at home, eat whatever I want, etc that they mean it. And so for the time that I'm in a certain place I really try to live there and get to know the people and the surroundings.

I really didn't get to see as much of Neve Ilan as I would have liked because it was raining or unpleasant at least half of my time there, but on my last full day I went on a two hour long walk with Miriam up to a lookout spot and then to some Roman ruins. It's so cool how many ruins there are everywhere, and how well put together the remains are. The fact that anything is standing after thousands of years is remarkable. For an older woman, Miriam never fails to surprise me with her vigor. The last stretch of the walk was very uphill and the sun was out, but while I was struggling upwards Miriam was chatting away about the book she's writing without any hint of tiring. As I've said before, she and Collin are such sweet people and I really hope I'll be able to see them again before I leave Israel.

Tuesday was the last night of Hanukkah and I spent it with Danny at a musical get together of Hebrew and Hanukkah discussion. Danny translated for me so I got the gist of what was going on and being said. After a while they had us do this exercise where we were each given a candle to light and then we focused on it for a few minutes and wrote down whatever the candle inspired us to write. Watching everyone light their candles off their neighbors until the whole room was lit I wrote about how the candles represent the light within each of us, and how sometimes we shine brightly and sometimes we're little more than an ember. But we know that if the light goes out we can count on those closest to us to light it again. On our way home we passed a dance party in the shuk (market) and how can you just walk past a dance party? It was getting late so Danny looked at me and said, "Alright, we have about 30 seconds to just go crazy." A few minutes later, completely out of breath, we resumed our route to his apartment. I'm sad to say that I didn't get a single latke during this Hanukkah, but the amount of sufganiyot I consumed more than made up for that.

Earlier on Tuesday I had met another one of my sister's friends, Ariel Fisher, and he very exuberantly offered to show me some places in Jerusalem on Wednesday. So Wednesday morning, after grabbing some yummy snacks in the market, we walked about 10 minutes north and were in a different world. We entered the Haredi neighborhood, the home of the very extremist religious people. They have signs all over asking woman to dress modestly; I had a skirt on but I still got a few upset looks, though thankfully no one said anything. The signs all over the streets are so filled with propaganda, the whole group is anti-zionist and anti-internet/electronics. It's quite a poor group of people due to many factors; the families have sometimes up to 15 children, the women are in charge of the houses and children, and a lot of men don't work because they are studying the Torah. Ariel explained that the government mostly takes care of them because they act as a tie-breaker during voting in return for financial aid. This is certainly not a place I would have gone to on my own, but I'm glad I was able to see it. Afterwards we entered the old city through a different gate than I had and went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There was so much artwork! And in such a variety of styles and range of condition. There were some mosaics that looked as if they could have been done yesterday, and then there were paintings where you could hardly make out what it must have shown originally. Ariel had to leave after this but he pointed me in the direction of the Tower of David museum where I spent the next hour or so. This museum is all about the history of Jerusalem, but the best part was the view you get from the tower. You can see in every direction for ages! It was also pretty interesting reading the history of Jerusalem, though there was a lot of things to read and not much to look at. Either way, I'm glad I went. I really didn't realize just how dynamic the history of Jerusalem was.

Wednesday afternoon I was pretty tired and just kind of hung out, but the nice thing about being abroad is that even when you're just "hanging out" you can always remind yourself that you're hanging out...abroad! And it works even better for chore-type things. You're not just washing dishes, you're washing dishes...in Israel! Or making my bed...in Jerusalem! Later in the evening Danny received an order of fresh, organic vegetables and we made a really delicious dinner. I like being here because they all try so hard to eat well. For instance, today's breakfast: Granola with sheep yogurt, unsweetened peanut butter, a little agave nectar, and some acai berry powder. Good and good for you!

Today, as usual, looks really nice out and I'm about to head out to the Israel Museum and maybe the Botanical Gardens. I really love Nachala'ot (where Danny's apartment is) and I've decided to stay here until Sunday. Then it's off to volunteer at a kibbutz (communal living area) in the south of Jerusalem!