Another Week

Ahhhhh1 I'm so far behind on my blogs it's not even funny...and unfortunately, I only have two more weeks here! And I'm busy busy busy (finals start today) so while there's lots to write, I don't have much time to write it.

So where to begin? Here are some highlights from last week.

Monday - tour of the Supreme Court of Israel. Every little detail in the building is designed for a special purpose. For example, the entrance is designed to imitate a normal street of Jerusalem, to remind people that anyone, any regular person can visit (additionally, the rules to gain standing in the court are also much more relaxed in Israel so most anyone can bring a claim for anything, even if they are not personally harmed). Also, the geometry is designed with straight lines to represent the law, and circles to represent justice - it's a very common theme throughout the building. The court has currently 15 Justices (well 14, one just retired - mandatory retirement at 70), but that number can fluctuate. Not all the judges hear every case either. It is actually more like an American circuit court. A panel of judges hear the case, but the court can re-hear the case with more judges a number of different times. Only once has a panel of 13 judges heard a case, that was the most ever. We sat in on one case dealing with women's employment rights (I think) but it was in Hebrew (obviously) so I couldn't follow.

Tuesday I went to see the movie "London Boulevard." It's kind of an indie-film from the UK, and I don't even think it was released in the States, though it came out in the UK almost 6 months ago. If you do ever happen to see it, I recommend it. Two things about that experience. One, the movie theater is in a mall, which is no big deal. But also in the mall is a ballroom...and there just so happened to be a bar-mitzvah party going on (I'm pretty sure it was a bar-mitzvah party)...so yeah, they do that in malls here. The second thing is that I'm fairly impressed at how easy it is to get around on the buses here, and that I have figured it out so well. Except you have to push your way onto the bus. The other day, an old woman cut me off getting on the bus, and the driver closed the door in my face...maybe the driver was anti-semetic?

So Wednesday was a pretty cool evening. I walked around the downtown pedestrian mall for a while and had some schnitzel. All over the place are people playing guitars, or violins, or accordions. But they're not all just homeless hippies. One guy was a haredi (ultra orthodox religious Jew, wears the black hats) and he was singing (among other things) "Nowhere Man" (although he sang it "no-one man"), and what I think was a Tom Petty song, with Hebrew lyrics. I'm pretty sure that was awesome.

Anyhoo, later on I met up with an old buddy I went to summer camp with. We also did the year long study abroad program together about eight years ago. He never left. Now he works for the Lone Solider Center, a program for soldiers who are serving in the Israeli army but have no family in Israel, so they get taken care of. Some of you may be following the story about Ilan Grapel, the American law student arrested recently in Egypt accused of being an Israeli spy. He was involved in the Lone Soldier program as well along with my friend. I am told that Grapel is the most pro-peace guy around and would have had no interest in being a spy. Spread the word, pressure the government, they should not be holding him in Egypt - could become a scary situation.

Anyway, as we were drinking, another friend of ours who we went to camp with and did the year program with showed up as well - he's here staffing a summer program. And eventually along came another friend who was a camper at the camp I used to work for many years ago. Wait, wait, not done yet. We went down to a different bar after a little while, and as we walked in, another friend of ours from camp happened to be sitting at the bar, and none of us even knew he lived here! Israel is such a small world (even today I ran into yet another friend I went to camp with, who I had no idea lived here, while waiting for a bus).

Thursday was an interesting day. We went that afternoon as part of the program to Yad V'Shem, the Holocaust Museum and Memorial. They opened a newly designed museum since the last time I've been here, very interesting architecture - the museum cuts through a mountain so you are underground while walking through. Now, I won't bring down your day with any interesting tidbits about the Holocaust, but it took almost three hours to go through that museum. Also there were a group of soldiers and a group of Thai tourists.

Why do I mention the Thai tourists? No it's not my infatuation with Asians, it's to give you an insight into something interesting happening in Israel. For many years, Thai (also other Asians, but mostly Thai) people have been coming illegally into Israel to work in the agriculture (similar to Mexicans coming into the U.S.). The government tended to look away, for various reasons. But lately there has been a lot of opposition to these workers because the people who are here legally need jobs as well (in addition to the fact that these Thai are not Jewish). So the government is deporting many of them. Well in and of itself that doesn't seem like too bad of a thing. But in Israel, being born here does not make you automatically a citizen. So these Thai people come, have children here, raise their children here, send them to Israeli schools - these are families who only know life in Israel, they speak Hebrew, they know the Jewish holidays, eat falafel, etc. and they are being sent off to a country with which they have very little connection. There is a committee in the government created to deal with just such a dilemma.

But I digress. Anyway, unfortunately because we spent so much time in the museum (with a tour guide that thought she was narrating a BBC documentary), we didn't get to see any of the memorials or artwork there. It's really too bad because I think those memorials are really where the emotion lies.

On to other things.

That evening I went with a friend from the program to find some dinner. We walked downtown and found a cafe with some outdoor seating. Seemed nice. Also, we noticed that just down the street there was a stage being set up. Perfect, a nice cafe and an outdoor concert. People started to arrive and there was such a diverse mix of people I had no idea what to expect. Well, that's almost a lie. I should have expected it. I'm always poking fun at Israelis for their cultural infatuation with this specific music. So when an ABBA cover band came on, it was only appropriate! I don't know why Israelis love them so much, I think it's hilarious...we left quickly.

Time for bed, hopefully I can do more catch-up soon. Hope your summers aren't too hot, the high temperature in Jerusalem is the low temperature in Vegas!