On Tuesday it snowed.
Wednesday was 50 degrees and sunny.
Remind you of anything?
...Perhaps Minnesota?
I feel right at home.
21 February 2008
14 February 2008
On Normalcy
Hey y'all!
Happy Valentines Day... I had perhaps the best Valentines date ever, with my roommate Adria and our friend Jodi. We went to Tmol Shilshom (Mom and Dad, the place I couldn't find where the candle dripped on my head), which is one of my favorite cafes in Jerusalem. It was pretty fantastic. And now I have lots of reading to do before 2 day-long field studies in a row tomorrow and Saturday. Should be interesting!
I went on a great hike last weekend with a bunch of students from JUC--it was student activity day. Nothing much to tell, but it was a fun hike and beautiful weather--sunny and like 70 or something. We were in the Negev, which is kind of desert-y, so it was very dry and sandy and incredible. Now in Jerusalem it's rainy and 39 degrees... we might get snow again early next week so watch out for another snow day post! Here are some pictures from the hike:
We basically pulled the bus over on the side of the road and started hiking... fun times!
We were hiking through the Maktesh Qatan--the small Maktesh. It's this big crater... I have pictures from an earlier trip to the Maktesh Ramon. There are three makteshes--qatan (small), gadol (large), and ramon (mondo).
The sand was all these amazing colors--red, yellow, purple, black... I drove through the Maktesh Gadol with my parents when they were here, and we saw some sweet colors like that too.
So that's all I have to say about that. I wanted to just comment briefly on normalcy... maybe this is more introspective than my blogs usually are, I don't know. But I have been thinking about what is "normal" here, and I think it's kind of interesting. In the grand scheme of things, I haven't been here that long, and yet the way life is here, has become normal. That's most of what I have been thinking, that things become "normal" so quickly. I don't know if this is true for everyone, or if I'm just extremely adaptable or something like that. Anyway, here are some of the things that have become normal for me. Some of them are really inconsequential, but still I think it's interesting to ponder at least a little!
~Soldiers. They are everywhere. Also lots of big guns, often carried by people who are not in uniform.
~Rice, always. Also lots of other food that I used to not like at all, like cauliflower and chick peas, I now like.
~Non-skim milk--1% sometimes, often 3%.
~Signs are in 2 or 3 languages. If there's just one language, it's not English.
~Laundry takes an inordinately long amount of time. I did 2 loads of laundry today... and by today I really do mean that it took all day.
~JUC (my school) has stairs like Minneapolis has the Mississippi. Everywhere you go, there are stairs. I go down 2 levels of windy stairs to get to the bathroom (also crossing a small open-air courtyard), and if I'm taking a shower, I go up another flight and a half after going down. Class is 4 levels down and across the driveway. Food is at the same level as the bathroom. Laundry is past the food, down another 2 flights of stairs, and at the other end of campus. It's like constant Stairmaster.
~I have to be aware of what time it is if I want to shower. The water is only hot from 5-10 am and 5-10 pm, so if I sleep in late, I can't go for a run because I won't get a shower after it.
~There are also hills everywhere. I go for a run most mornings, and I both start and end on a hill.
~We walk everywhere. I have no concept of how far away places are, because we just walk until we get there; there's no other option. I think the restaurant we went to tonight is like a 20-minute walk away. I just started volunteering at a place that's a 40-minute walk away. No problem. (Although I won't do that one if it's snowing, I can tell you that!)
~The internet is pretty consistently not working. This is frustrating, but has also become normal.
~People honk all the time. No reason necessary, doesn't really mean someone has done something rude or stupid... you just honk when you feel like it.
~I have a lot of friends who are significantly older than I am. My roommate is almost 27. One of my very good friends is 36. Most of the people I hang out with the most are upper 20s, early 30s. Also several married couples are included in that group. It's fantastic, but I sometimes just feel really young and ridiculous.
~So much here is "almost." What that means is that it's "almost" like something from the US--food that's almost like something I'm used to, people that operate almost like Americans, but not really... This is a very Western country, for the Middle East, so it's almost like living in America, but at the same time, it's very much not.
...Those are a few of my thoughts on normalcy. It's just interesting to me, seeing how much this stuff really is how I live my life right now. That's it! Love to you all!
.
Happy Valentines Day... I had perhaps the best Valentines date ever, with my roommate Adria and our friend Jodi. We went to Tmol Shilshom (Mom and Dad, the place I couldn't find where the candle dripped on my head), which is one of my favorite cafes in Jerusalem. It was pretty fantastic. And now I have lots of reading to do before 2 day-long field studies in a row tomorrow and Saturday. Should be interesting!
I went on a great hike last weekend with a bunch of students from JUC--it was student activity day. Nothing much to tell, but it was a fun hike and beautiful weather--sunny and like 70 or something. We were in the Negev, which is kind of desert-y, so it was very dry and sandy and incredible. Now in Jerusalem it's rainy and 39 degrees... we might get snow again early next week so watch out for another snow day post! Here are some pictures from the hike:
We basically pulled the bus over on the side of the road and started hiking... fun times!
We were hiking through the Maktesh Qatan--the small Maktesh. It's this big crater... I have pictures from an earlier trip to the Maktesh Ramon. There are three makteshes--qatan (small), gadol (large), and ramon (mondo).
The sand was all these amazing colors--red, yellow, purple, black... I drove through the Maktesh Gadol with my parents when they were here, and we saw some sweet colors like that too.
So that's all I have to say about that. I wanted to just comment briefly on normalcy... maybe this is more introspective than my blogs usually are, I don't know. But I have been thinking about what is "normal" here, and I think it's kind of interesting. In the grand scheme of things, I haven't been here that long, and yet the way life is here, has become normal. That's most of what I have been thinking, that things become "normal" so quickly. I don't know if this is true for everyone, or if I'm just extremely adaptable or something like that. Anyway, here are some of the things that have become normal for me. Some of them are really inconsequential, but still I think it's interesting to ponder at least a little!
~Soldiers. They are everywhere. Also lots of big guns, often carried by people who are not in uniform.
~Rice, always. Also lots of other food that I used to not like at all, like cauliflower and chick peas, I now like.
~Non-skim milk--1% sometimes, often 3%.
~Signs are in 2 or 3 languages. If there's just one language, it's not English.
~Laundry takes an inordinately long amount of time. I did 2 loads of laundry today... and by today I really do mean that it took all day.
~JUC (my school) has stairs like Minneapolis has the Mississippi. Everywhere you go, there are stairs. I go down 2 levels of windy stairs to get to the bathroom (also crossing a small open-air courtyard), and if I'm taking a shower, I go up another flight and a half after going down. Class is 4 levels down and across the driveway. Food is at the same level as the bathroom. Laundry is past the food, down another 2 flights of stairs, and at the other end of campus. It's like constant Stairmaster.
~I have to be aware of what time it is if I want to shower. The water is only hot from 5-10 am and 5-10 pm, so if I sleep in late, I can't go for a run because I won't get a shower after it.
~There are also hills everywhere. I go for a run most mornings, and I both start and end on a hill.
~We walk everywhere. I have no concept of how far away places are, because we just walk until we get there; there's no other option. I think the restaurant we went to tonight is like a 20-minute walk away. I just started volunteering at a place that's a 40-minute walk away. No problem. (Although I won't do that one if it's snowing, I can tell you that!)
~The internet is pretty consistently not working. This is frustrating, but has also become normal.
~People honk all the time. No reason necessary, doesn't really mean someone has done something rude or stupid... you just honk when you feel like it.
~I have a lot of friends who are significantly older than I am. My roommate is almost 27. One of my very good friends is 36. Most of the people I hang out with the most are upper 20s, early 30s. Also several married couples are included in that group. It's fantastic, but I sometimes just feel really young and ridiculous.
~So much here is "almost." What that means is that it's "almost" like something from the US--food that's almost like something I'm used to, people that operate almost like Americans, but not really... This is a very Western country, for the Middle East, so it's almost like living in America, but at the same time, it's very much not.
...Those are a few of my thoughts on normalcy. It's just interesting to me, seeing how much this stuff really is how I live my life right now. That's it! Love to you all!
.
03 February 2008
On Hell... Frozen Over.
Yes, that's right, folks. This past week, Hell froze over.
The valley below JUC is the Hinnom Valley, which is referred to in the New Testament as Gehenna, also used to describe hell (e.g. Matthew 5:30). So when several inches of snow fell just a few days ago, Hell was officially frozen over.
It only snows this much in Jerusalem about every 7 years or so--it was very exciting! Of course, with this much snow the entire city shut down for 2 days, which was kind of ridiculous to my Minnesotan mentality, but it was fun to get out and see the snow. It was mostly really, really sloppy. Also there were tons of kids running around and wanting to throw snow at us. Unfortunately, when I was out in the snow my friends and I were all trying to take pictures, so we had our cameras out, and so the guys I was with got really angry, one in particular who was carrying a camera worth well over a thousand dollars, and it didn't even belong to him. I got hit in the face with a nasty snowball once on our way down to the Western Wall. My glasses fell off and when I bent over to pick them up I saw a guy videotaping me. I think he was with the hooligans who were throwing snowballs from a nearby roof. I was very, very close to breaking either his camcorder or his face. The guys I was with were also very angry and tried to get the guys to go away, but there's no reasoning with Jerusalemites in the snow. Or pretty much any other time. Hmm... a little too cynical perhaps? Perhaps not.
Anyway, here are a few pictures from my snow time! The snow is now gone, except for piles where kids made snowmen. It was over 60 degrees yesterday, and sunny and 50s today, so the weather is quite nice. It's actually considerably warmer outside than in, because the stone buildings just retain cold like none other.
This is the Hinnom Valley! Hell frozen over.
The view out JUC's front gate. It was snowing!
My friend Karin and I with the Dome of the Rock and some snow.
I made a snowman!
It was a very small snowman.
No fun biking in this stuff!
Palm trees and snow. How often do you see that?
The Dome of the Rock with snow. Love it!
We could barely even see the Mount of Olives.
So that was the fun snow adventure! Of course it would be during the first week of classes... but thankfully we didn't miss any classes at all! It was pretty impressive, considering that nothing was open, and the buses weren't running, and basically everyone just holed up and waited for the snow to go away. Which it now has. My classes are going to be fun, I think. I've already dropped one, so I'm down to 4 classes and 1 audit. I think that's a good load for the semester. I'm taking Cultural Background of the Bible (amazing class! We get to go to Jordan and stay with Bedouin), Jewish Thought and Practice (taught by Rabbi Moshe, the former head rabbi of Japan... head of all 5 Jews there, I guess), Post-Biblical Hebrew (we're reading Mishna), and Historical and Social Settings of Modern Israel, which will also be really good. Then I'm auditing Historical Geography taught by Anson Rainey (if you do any work in historical geography, his name will come up... he wrote the book on it. Literally. It's called The Sacred Bridge... it takes me an hour to read a page, there's that much information). So it will be a good semester I think! I'll be plenty busy, for sure, but I think it will be a good time. I'm going to make an effort to actually do most, if not all, of the reading this semester. Last semester I did little to none of the reading for my classes... oops.
Happy Superbowl Sunday y'all! I will be watching the game at some friends' apartment... should be a fun time, considering that it starts at 1 AM in the morning, and also that I could care less about football. Go team go!
The valley below JUC is the Hinnom Valley, which is referred to in the New Testament as Gehenna, also used to describe hell (e.g. Matthew 5:30). So when several inches of snow fell just a few days ago, Hell was officially frozen over.
It only snows this much in Jerusalem about every 7 years or so--it was very exciting! Of course, with this much snow the entire city shut down for 2 days, which was kind of ridiculous to my Minnesotan mentality, but it was fun to get out and see the snow. It was mostly really, really sloppy. Also there were tons of kids running around and wanting to throw snow at us. Unfortunately, when I was out in the snow my friends and I were all trying to take pictures, so we had our cameras out, and so the guys I was with got really angry, one in particular who was carrying a camera worth well over a thousand dollars, and it didn't even belong to him. I got hit in the face with a nasty snowball once on our way down to the Western Wall. My glasses fell off and when I bent over to pick them up I saw a guy videotaping me. I think he was with the hooligans who were throwing snowballs from a nearby roof. I was very, very close to breaking either his camcorder or his face. The guys I was with were also very angry and tried to get the guys to go away, but there's no reasoning with Jerusalemites in the snow. Or pretty much any other time. Hmm... a little too cynical perhaps? Perhaps not.
Anyway, here are a few pictures from my snow time! The snow is now gone, except for piles where kids made snowmen. It was over 60 degrees yesterday, and sunny and 50s today, so the weather is quite nice. It's actually considerably warmer outside than in, because the stone buildings just retain cold like none other.
This is the Hinnom Valley! Hell frozen over.
The view out JUC's front gate. It was snowing!
My friend Karin and I with the Dome of the Rock and some snow.
I made a snowman!
It was a very small snowman.
No fun biking in this stuff!
Palm trees and snow. How often do you see that?
The Dome of the Rock with snow. Love it!
We could barely even see the Mount of Olives.
So that was the fun snow adventure! Of course it would be during the first week of classes... but thankfully we didn't miss any classes at all! It was pretty impressive, considering that nothing was open, and the buses weren't running, and basically everyone just holed up and waited for the snow to go away. Which it now has. My classes are going to be fun, I think. I've already dropped one, so I'm down to 4 classes and 1 audit. I think that's a good load for the semester. I'm taking Cultural Background of the Bible (amazing class! We get to go to Jordan and stay with Bedouin), Jewish Thought and Practice (taught by Rabbi Moshe, the former head rabbi of Japan... head of all 5 Jews there, I guess), Post-Biblical Hebrew (we're reading Mishna), and Historical and Social Settings of Modern Israel, which will also be really good. Then I'm auditing Historical Geography taught by Anson Rainey (if you do any work in historical geography, his name will come up... he wrote the book on it. Literally. It's called The Sacred Bridge... it takes me an hour to read a page, there's that much information). So it will be a good semester I think! I'll be plenty busy, for sure, but I think it will be a good time. I'm going to make an effort to actually do most, if not all, of the reading this semester. Last semester I did little to none of the reading for my classes... oops.
Happy Superbowl Sunday y'all! I will be watching the game at some friends' apartment... should be a fun time, considering that it starts at 1 AM in the morning, and also that I could care less about football. Go team go!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)