Blogs from Jerusalem, Jerusalem District, Israel, Middle East - page 16

Today I visited Caesarea. It is an old, old port city on the Mediterranean in central Israel. It was once a major city under the Romans, then later it was used by the Crusaders as a fortress. After that it was abandoned and covered by shifting sands until it was rediscovered in the 1950s. Today it is a national archaeological park with displays of the ruins (see picture) and a well-done presentation of the area's history. After Caesarea, I took a hired taxi to Jerusalem, which is about an hour and a half away. Originally I had planned to take the train, but today is a Jewish holiday and the trains don't run on holidays. I walked around here in Jerusalem for a little bit before supper. The streets are practically deserted (see picture), but I ... read more

Our final weeks and days in Israel came with raw and mixed feelings. We had created a new world for ourselves, and had come to feel that Jerusalem and Israel were our home. Our life in Vancouver seemed distant, unreal. Adin was having trouble remembering his old friends. We had all made more new friends over the last year than we had in several years combined. In my case, I had made more friends in the last year than in the last two decades. Being a curmudgeon may have something to do with that, but somehow in Israel I was less curmudgeonly and more open to new relationships. With the exception of Adin, who invested much in strengthening his new relationships, our emerging circle of friends grew naturally; encompassing neigbhours, people met at synagogue, rekindled relationships ... read more

Last week we went to Jerusalem. First stop was the Holocaust Memorial. At the end of the museum memorial, we saw a room filled with books, and each book contained 100 names, and the room was FILLED with books, and a room with some soft playing music with words on the screen. I remember sitting there with Lisa and Rachel Greathouse and we listened to our information players and we just sat there solemly. Easily one of the more touching moments in my life. Later, as we exit from the museum, we were treated with a view of Greater Jerusalem, with trees and a lot of buildings, symbolic of the rubuidling of life. We later went to the Mount of Olives where we got an amazing view of a lot of the city of Jerusalem, including ... read more

Blog # 19 – A Basket Full of Memories With time running out on our year in Israel, and with a couple of months having gone by since the last blog entry, I’ve opted here to include a scattering of memories rather than a chronological summary. Since the last entry, Aimee and I have spent much time considering where we go from here and, more specifically, whether we should, or could, stay on longer in Israel. In the end we concluded that we need to return to Vancouver for the coming year, where we will continue to figure out our long range intentions as we go. The fact that we tormented ourselves so intensely over the issue of staying or returning is an accurate indicator of how positive, overall, our time has been here. There have, ... read more

After shuffling home from the Jerusalem Marathon I stood in the shower for longer than Israel’s water shortage could ever justify and let the hot water massage away the heavy stiffness in all my muscles. After previous marathons, my body and brain instantly forgot how hard the run was the moment I crossed the Kav HaSee’um (the Finish Line). This was different. It took one very long shower and at least four hours before my internal auto-delete program began wiping away the painful memories, leaving only the highs of running the byways of my new hometown together with 1500 other meshuga’im(crazy people). By evening – thankfully Shabbat - my mind started reviewing the detailed schedule of gentle workouts provided by my running guru, Jerry Ziak of Vancouver Forerunners, in preparation for the fourth annual Tel Aviv ... read more