Until next time - cheesy post, but heartfelt

Jerusalem is such a short term place for many groups of people. NGO workers, students, international employees. You meet someone for the first time and ask, "how long have you been here?...Two years? Wow!" Impressive. Because life is kind of just weird here. Lots of diverse groups. Three big religions.

Racism. Crazy bus drivers. Pricey meat. Dusty heat. Pushing and yelling just to get what you need (normal customer service). Its not an easy place to live.

Lots of folks don't live here long for one reason or another. We've been saying goodbye to many friends lately. Its that time of year, and its the nature of graduate school. Most of our departing friends are students and either done with the semester or have finished with the university. Our canned goods are overflowing, I have a lava lamp to give away, almost a whole new wardrobe, and I have enough ziplock bags to last me well into the next year. Thankful for the gifts! But I am sad to see them go. I am excited for them, of course. Grand plans await them on the other side of the world - Yet my world will be a little less bright for a time because they've left.

Summer 2010

(ignore the bedhead)

 We're missing a picture of Shawn and Si on his first Father's day! Bummer.


This week marks Si's eight week birthday and the one year (actually 51 weeks) anniversary of our move to Jerusalem. That means that the one month "Jerusalem" Ulpan starts at the university today. Shawn is taking both the Jerusalem ulpan and the regular summer ulpan (the one that starts in August).

  Obviously, Shawn has a busy summer ahead of him! The Jerusalem ulpan schedule is Sun-Thurs from 0830 to 1330 (except for Sun starts at 0930). There is a Biblical Hebrew exam on Thursday and he also has a few papers to write. Here in Israel, class papers are actually due after the semester ends. Strange, and some professors are more relaxed about the deadline than others. Is it any wonder that there are folks with their papers unwritten...years later? Degrees. Who needs them. Well, Shawn does. 

To celebrate the *almost* end of semester for Shawn, we are going to shop at the Book Gallery for yet another Hebrew dictionary and eat Ethiopian tonight. Our friend Adam showed us this restaurant a couple of weeks ago. Its fairly cheap, tasty as all get out, and friendly!  The dishes come with a small bowl of whatever dish you ordered (a beef, chicken, or veggie choice) and served with a flat bread, that to me, looked gray. Adam explained that the bread "expands in your stomach" and he was right. You don't need that much to be full. This was my first experience with Ethiopian food. Is this pretty usual? Grace, what do you think? Gray sponge-y bread? 

We are also upon the dreaded Jerusalem summer. Today is a little unusual with the intensity of the heat, but we will be in the mid-90s and as high as 98. Its also really windy. I am not venturing out until at least 1700. By the way, did I ever tell you about how we talk about the time here? From what I understand, Europe and Israel write 0800, 1300, 1400, etc, but say eight in the morning, one in the afternoon, 2 in the afternoon. Correct me if I am wrong. 


Anyway! Time for another feeding!

eight weeks

Update: Way too windy for us girls to go out today. Shawn may enjoy his bookstore though!

Lunch in the Old City

Shawn is officially on Passover break now and we celebrated the first day off with lunch in the Christian Quarter  (at Papa Andreas) with another of his classmates and his family. The views at the roof top were spectacular (Mount of Olives, all the Christian domes, and the Dome of the Rock), the food was not.

Looking east to the Mount of Olives

Buddy

Church of the Redeemer (beautiful Lutheran church) in the background

Hard to see, but the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is behind Shawn who was talking "shop"

Shawn and Jojo

Our new friend Jojo goes to the neighborhood Gan (also called a kindergarten, but really its a preschool) so she understands quite a bit of Hebrew and loves to tell you all about her school, her friends, and her travels in Israel.

A Saturday walk

Shawn and I just finished a nice walk to the university Mt. Scopus campus and back. Its a nice thing to do on Shabbat and it was sunny and a mild temperature. To see my photos, go here.

Changing plans

There are a lot of things I like about the Hospital in Bethlehem. Its calm. Its clean. The staff are friendly and the nurse recognizes me and they speak English really well. The price is right too. But in the past several weeks Shawn and I have been thinking about delivering closer to our apartment. We'll have to pay quite a bit more (thankfully still not a US price), but we've found a few advantages. For example, most of the Jerusalem hospitals have midwives (in Israel, midwives deliver the babies and Doctors are only called in for complications) that are supportive of natural birth. However, if a c-section becomes necessary, surgery is right there and done well. Another reason is that Shawn could travel back home at night easier while I am recovering. Husband visiting hours in all of these hospitals are only until 9 or 10pm. If we deliver at Mt. Scopus, Shawn could walk the two blocks to the Student Village and then be back in the morning on foot.

Peace of mind about distance on that day is the other reason. I'll probably have a long labor with this being a first birth, but its still seems like a nice long ride to Bethlehem even by Taxi. That sounds less and less like any fun. I don't imagine there will be any checkpoint problems in the next several weeks. But if there were? We'd be headed to Mt Scopus anyway. So instead of stressing about it, we're planning a Jerusalem birth. We attended one delivery floor tour last month and we plan on touring two more hospitals and preregistering at a couple of them.

In addition, we interviewed a Doula (labor support)! Our childbirth educator put us in touch with some (affordable or even volunteer) trained women to interview. I am really excited about the possibly of having a Doula help us on that day. The woman we interviewed this week is from North America. She is fluent in Hebrew and will be invaluable with the language barrier as most of the Jerusalem nurses don't speak English well.

In the meantime, I am trying to cook more with hopes to freeze meals and doing lots of washing and cleaning!

The Negotiation

Several weeks ago I began the Negotiation Phase. I started to really miss the states and things familiar. I started rejecting most of the local food, too.

A few things I struggle with:

- No buses on Shabbat. Really inconvenient when I want to travel outside Jerusalem on our weekend.
- Shawn having class on Sunday. We knew the work week would be Sun-Thurs for the most part, but I really miss going to church on Sunday mornings with Shawn and having a Christian Sabbath.
- Kosher food. It just doesn't taste right and a lot of good hard cheeses are not kosher and therefore a pain to find.
- The price of everything except chemically grown veggies is expensive.

I am now starting to settle in to life here. Its still really hard sometimes and there are days when I am accosted with a memory of Chicago or I suddenly think I want to ride my bike to Glen Ellyn. I guess the humor in that is how I hated Chicago the first year (at the very least). But I started looking for positive things here and couldn't see any for a while! However, here are some good things to list:

- The children (all kinds!) here are so much fun to watch. On the bus to class, I get a good dose of Jewish religious children on their way to school and all dressed in the same style. I probably won't be brave enough to ask to take their pictures but I did find some photos that will give a good idea of what I see -- Kaparot Ceremony
- Bagels. Wonderful fluffy things for 4 shekalim each (about $1).
- Sharp cheddar can be found...at a price.
- We found a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm that delivers and our first shipment of clean veggies is coming next Wednesday. Let's hope its worth it!
- I can eat hummus again without gaging.

I hope to continue to add to the "like" list. And maybe some non-food items...

Kfar Ha'Studentim

We live in the University's student village or as they call it, the kfar hastudentim (ha-stu-den-teem). Here's some photos of the village to give you an idea of what it's like here.

From Kfar Hastudentim

The south gate of the village (the one Shawn goes through to get to the University). Guards at each gate. We have to show ID every time we pass and sometimes they want to see what's inside our bags/purses. As a spouse, I don't get a school ID but I have a piece of paper (that I show with my ID) that says I can get into the university.

From Kfar Hastudentim

From Kfar Hastudentim

There's about a dozen of the newer buildings, and most of them have ten levels.

From Kfar Hastudentim

From Kfar Hastudentim

From Kfar Hastudentim

A nice place to sit just outside our door.

From Kfar Hastudentim

From Kfar Hastudentim

One of our windows that faces the front of the building.

From Kfar Hastudentim

A grassy area that we see from our back windows. We're bound to see groups having a bbq or picnic on the weekend evenings, people studying in the shade, and those sun bathing in the middle of the day.

From Kfar Hastudentim

Building two has the laundry room on the main floor. Nice American front load washers which are fairly clean. It costs ten sheklim per load (about $2.50).

From Kfar Hastudentim

From Kfar Hastudentim

Playground between buildings one and two.

From Kfar Hastudentim

A market, next to the playground. Items are usually slightly more expensive here than down the street, except for hummus. Alcohol is prohibited in the student village but you can find almost any kind of liquor you want at this market.

From Kfar Hastudentim

The north gate, which faces the French Hill neighborhood.

From Kfar Hastudentim

From Kfar Hastudentim

The super market ("Mister Zol" is the name of this chain) in the small French Hill strip mall. It's only a block down from the north gate of the village. They have monthly sales and two-fer deals, but most of the time things are still a bit pricey compared to the midwest. On the left you can see a blockbuster dvd rental box. I think they've had them longer than we've had Red Box in the States.

From Kfar Hastudentim

Update: Shawn apparently passed the level test because they let him get into the level Bet. The first several days were a little confusing in Bet, but Shawn is catching up with the class. We are also excited to have met a few more students this week and had them over for cookies. Many of them are here for the MA so we hope to have them over again.

Mount of Olives

On July 4th, We went to the Mount of Olives to see some of the Christian sites there. Here is a picture of the Mount of Olives from Mount Scopus.

From Mount of Olives

I believe this is part of the Jerusalem forest. Just beyond the trees is the desert (close to the West Bank).

From Mount of Olives

Our first stop was the Auguste Victoria (also spelled Augusta). A German hospital, guest house, and church ("Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension"). The pictures didn't turn out super great so I recommend seeing some excellent ones at this site.

This picture is of the ceiling of the church. The figures around the buildings that represent Jerusalem are crusaders.

From Mount of Olives

From Mount of Olives

We climbed up to the bell tower (quite a hike, especially since some of our friends had already walked a couple of miles just to meet us there) and found some really great views. It really is a very strategic spot to see many sides of the city.

This pic is looking north towards Mount Scopus and Hebrew University (see the university tower). It was such a beautiful morning.

From Mount of Olives

Here are a couple of pictures looking east to the West Bank. You can just make out the separation wall.

From Mount of Olives

From Mount of Olives

The west side of Jerusalem.

From Mount of Olives

The old city (can you make out the walls?) and the new city beyond.

From Mount of Olives

Looking south now to Mount of Olives (and another church of the Ascension, we didn't make it to that one).

From Mount of Olives

And me, next to the bell!

From Mount of Olives

This is the Chapel and Mosque of the Ascension. A holy site to both Christians and Muslims (again, better pictures and more history see go here).

From Mount of Olives

What do you think? Footprint of Jesus as he began his ascension? Apparently Ignatius Loyola visited here with his Franciscan Brothers after some difficulty with the Muslims that were in control of the Chapel/Mosque. But they say Ignatius forgot which way the footprint was facing and just had to come back that night. So he bravely snuck in to see. His Brothers were not very happy with him after they found out. I have no idea which way the footprint is facing. Do you?

From Mount of Olives

Next stop was the Pater Noster convent. Again, I really have to recommend this site for photos and a better job with the history. Straight ahead in this picture you can kind of see the back of our tour guide, Dr. Kirsten Stoffregen Pedersen. Our soft spoken Sister has written many books and articles about the Christians here in Jerusalem.

From Mount of Olives

A few Our Father's we found interesting:

From Mount of Olives

From Mount of Olives

Aramaic? Perhaps the language Jesus spoke it in.

From Mount of Olives

After this, Dr. Pedersen showed us the Benedictine convent where it seemed she lived and we saw their chapel there. Many of these nuns specialize in making icons. Dr. Pedersen talked about how the Mount of Olives used to be a heavily Christian area, but the in the last several decades the Christians have moved away. What we saw was an economically depressed neighborhood as well.

By noon we were all very tired and said goodbye and thank you to Dr. Pedersen. The fastest way to get back to the university was actually taking a bus to the Damascus gate and then take another bus up north from there. But, once we got to the gate, we felt like getting something to eat in the old city. We made our way down a few streets and found a place with mirrors on the walls. There were serving falafels and shawarma, which we were all ready for. We ordered hummus and pitas which were served with pickles and olives. The girls ordered falafels (with shredded cabbage, pickles, and tomatoes) and the boys ordered shawarma (here you can find them with either chicken or lamb).

Later that day, after a good nap and an iced tea, we visited a reformed baptist congregation where the sermon was in English and translated into Russian for most of the members were Russian. What a full day!

A note of caution: Be meticulous about where you buy a shawarma sandwich.

Distracted by Food and Markets

So I said that the Mount of Olives would be next, but I lied. I've decided to talk about food a little bit and share a couple of pictures from the market.

Zatar pyramid.


Nice toys. This shop was in the old city. Shawn learned a Hebrew saying the other day that was something like "eat more", "eat all that's on your plate...so you'll grow big for the Army."

And eat we have. We bought overripe figs this week. I didn't know what they were but the salesman opened one and gave it to us. It was amazingly wonderful. I was really surprised.

You eat the whole thing!

I have done a little cooking. Last night I made no bake cookies. This is the recipe that I have memorized because it has been such a regular treat in the last ten to fifteen years. I have to say though, I had never before tasted no bake cookies like the ones I made last night.

Dark and gooey!

The items that may have made the difference were the butter, cocoa, and vanilla. The package on the butter said it was dutch. The cocoa package I haven't read with a dictionary yet, but it smelled delicious.
Good vanilla. The vanilla was actually given to us by a very nice student was leaving after completing the same degree Shawn is going to be in. This gentleman and his roommate left us several dishes and pots and pans. We are very grateful and wish them the best as they BOTH start PhDs at Harvard this fall.

Shawn has a level test this Sunday. It will be a really tough one but its important that he pass because if he doesn't, he'll start from the beginning of the first level in the next Ulpan class that starts in August. Please keep him in your prayers!


Shawn, diligently memorizing vocab on the iPod Touch.