Blogs from Israel, Middle East - page 158

After days of torpor in the heat of a Jerusalem summer, I’ve managed to make the most of my last few days in Israel. I spend an afternoon in the Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim and a morning watching the sun rise over the ramparts of the Old City. I head to the shouk to watch the shopkeepers pushing buckets of soapy water over the sidewalk and stacking crates of produce. The fish are getting laid out on beds of ice, their mouths agape. Two Arab deliverymen are having a smoke in the back of their truck, crouching beside rows of empty palettes. They’re flirting with a pair of Israeli soldiers in rumpled uniforms who giggle and nervously twirl their hair. The sun is dipping into the alleys of Nahlaot, casting long shadows over the ... read more

June 26, 2007 So a lot has happened over the past few days, but to be honest I'm way too tired to write about it all. To start, Tel Aviv is in the midst of a heat wave, as is most of Israel. It's 100 degrees Fahrenheit and higher everyday. For those fans of the metric system, that's 38 degrees Celsius and up. It wouldn't be so bad if I could go to the beach everyday, but I started my job a couple of days ago. The hours really suck during my first week because I have to go through training. Basically, I’m at work from 8:30 AM until about 5:30 PM everyday. Today I worked until 6. It’s exhausting and I’m already sick of work in general. There’s a lot more responsibility than I expected, ... read more

After a week’s worth of doctor’s visits and more than $1,000 worth of supplies, I’ve finally managed to book my flight to Nairobi. It’s an emotional moment, less for the unparalleled possibilities of six months in Africa than the irrefutable fact that my bank account has dwindled down to just a couple of hundred bucks. How I’ve reached this point is worth no small degree of speculation; how I can high-tail it in the other direction is, of course, of somewhat more pressing import. I’ve shared the good news of my impending departure with friends in Jerusalem, though I’ve kept to myself the less-savory truth that I’ll be learning what it means to live in Africa on an African budget. I meet an American one night at a café in Nachalat Shiv'a, a tall, ruddy ... read more

Okay, das hier ist mein letzter Tag und ich bin, wider Erwarten einiger Leute, relativ gut angekommen. Zum kroenenden Abschluss habe ich mich dank einer obskuren Promotion der Intercontinental Hotelgruppe fuer mehr oder weniger umsonst (Punkte) im Crowne Plaza eingebucht und den gestrigen abend und heutigen Vormittag mit Rumdoesen und Buch lesen am Strand / Pool verbracht. Datt hab ich mir ja wohl verdient :) Tel Aviv hat ausser Party und Strand nicht viel zu bieten. Vorhin bin ich die 2km am Strand entlang nach Jaffa spaziert. Die alte Stadt ist inzwischen zum Vorort degradiert, trotzdem ganz nett als Abschluss noch ein paar Ruinen zu sehen :) Abrechung / Charts Da wir nun eindeutig am Abspann dieses kleinen Blogs ankommen, hier mal meine Abrechnung: Billigstes Leben 1. Syrien - 10Euro am Tag und du lebst wie ... read more

On June 20 we departed for Israel on our long anticipated pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of the precepts of the Bahá’í Faith is that each believer should try to make a pilgrimage to Bahá’í holy places at least once in their lifetime. Unlike the pilgrimages of other faiths, Bahá’ís must make a request for pilgrimage to the Universal House of Justice in Haifa. The UHJ is the nine-member body that governs the Faith internationally. Once you have made that request, you are placed on a waiting list, which usually takes about five to six years. This insures that the nine-day experience is maximized for the Bahá’í believers, who are given wonderful tours, with well-trained guides and have the opportunity to spend time with other Bahá’ís from all over the world who speak the same ... read more