Morning Musings

-- My spoils from one trip to the shuk. It's good to have a Grandma Cart!

-- I saw a literal cat fight yesterday. There was squealing and flailing and several others ran from across the street for backup. Though I try to not get scared by such things, I'll admit I crossed the street and avoided eye contact.

-- I got to Beer Sheva all by myself! After meetings during the day, my boss drove me back to Jerusalem but he didn't have time to drive me home. So he dropped me in a part of town I didn't know and I walked myself home without a map. It was a fantastically empowering time to gain my own bearings over the city. Total distance from there to the friend's house for dinner? About 4.3 miles.

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-- Walking alone, with my camera, really helps me get control of a city. It's how I learned to love New York. I would decide to take the evening to wander home from whatever office I was at -- 28th and 7th, 18th and 5th, 50th and Madison, 50th and 5th, 98th and Madison -- and just find my way to the UWS. Granted in NYC it's not as much a question of If I'd get there, but How. That's how I learned most of Central Park. Just me and my camera.

-- I'm taking Ulpan classes. They're one-on-one Hebrew classes, 3 hours a day for ten days. It's the more intensive, more expensive option, but I think it will actual produce Hebrew knowledge! I impressed myself by starting in level 3+. When the grading sheet only goes up to 4, that's not bad!

While I've been really hesitant to speak with people I know in Hebrew, when I'm in a shorter term conversation (asking directions, buying food, etc), I'm getting much better at using only Hebrew. And when my very sweet teacher speaks to me in Hebrew, I'm right there with her! So let's all raise our glasses to me being awesome at Hebrew three weeks from now.

-- From a garden store in Baka. Close up, cacti and coral have a lot in common. I'm looking forward to the family scuba diving vacation this December.

-- I've still got lots of feelings from my trip to Bethlehem, but I'm not sure I'm going to post them here. This might be too public a forum for such a contentious topic.

I will say that I wish the Israel narrative my Jewish Day Schools taught me had discussed Palestinians. Do schools now address this or are they still invisible? It's really embarrassing to think of. It's as if you could go all the way through American high school and never learn about Native Americans. How is that an appropriate education? Especially once you're at the high school level and are being challenged to deal with issues of moral complexity and discomfort; why didn't I learn multiple sides of the issues?

-- When I think Obama, I certainly think of pizza, falafel, and supermarkets!

-- Listening to WBUR streaming on the radio does amazing things for my blood pressure. It's a slice of home and comfort.

But please stop giving weather reports for Boston. I'd kill for 45 and rainy by this point. I'm actually deeply relieved that it's only going to be in the 80's today.

And for those of you who want to tell me that I moved to the Middle East and this is normal, I tell you that the Israelis I've been speaking to (since I've got coworkers and all) say this is deeply unseasonable.

-- Really?! Mickey Mouse?

-- I'm going to mail our absentee ballots today. MAKE SURE TO VOTE IN THE MIDTERMS!! There's a ton of kooks running for office and some of them might be on your ballot! I know the Democrats are a bunch of lilly livered wimps, but they're our only chance at progress. If we lose the majorities in Congress we're stuck for years.

-- Luxury in Israel. The Waldorf currently has no interior walls.

-- Was I supposed to wait until after noon to eat ice cream?? Oops!

-- I asked a merchant at the shuk if I could have 1/4 of a bunch of basil. He looked at me like I was nuts and then gave it to me. What did he charge? Nothing!

-- I had a lovely conversation with a Palestinian man who was baking at a bakery yesterday. He offered me his phone number. When I realized that he hadn't recently written it down and just kept the slip in his pocket to offer, I said No, thank you.

-- And now I'll leave you with one more photo.

-- How could I resist? Eggplant Man was adorable.