Hebron James

Despite having some sort of kooky stomach-flu like thing, I went (stuffed to the gills with Immodium) to Hebron on Friday. What a messed up place. 600 settlers, 450 soldiers and 35,000 Palestinians who are not allowed to walk or drive down the main market street. We were given a guided tour by an Israeli leftist organization called Sons of Abraham who are affiliated with Breaking the Silence, a group of former soldiers who served in Hebron who have come out with their stories of what actually goes on out there. As a surprise added bonus we met and talked with Baruch Marzel (google him) who is one of the most bonkers settlers in the whole bunch. All in all a very interesting day out.

Nablus

Finally got myself together and did a little touristing this weekend. Went up to Nablus, a town about an hour north of Ramallah famous for its olive oil soap, sweets and Israeli incursions. My Arabic teacher lives there, so we had a really nice lunch together. I walked around the old city and checked out the Turkish bath which dates back to 1480. Beautiful. I also met the olive oil soap king of Nablus who was lamenting the decline of his sales. Not resting on his laurels, he is currently working on a liquid version of his soap (no, don't just grab the bottle from beside the stove) and also reshaping his soap blocks into more user-friendly bars.
One of the hardest things about going to Nablus is the Huwara checkpoint, about 10 minutes outside of town. This checkpoint controls all movement in and out of Nablus to the south and is well known as being a nasty one. I saw the first example of wanton cruelty by the Israelis (besides the normal cruelty of making people wait for no reason) and was really saddened by how inhuman the checkpoints make the guards and the people waiting. The occupation is really taking its toll. On both sides. More pics on Flickr.

Cottaging

Spent 10 days in Canada visiting with my Mom. The first 8 were at a cottage that she and Al (my step-father) had rented on lovely Georgian Bay. Just fantastic. Even had the added benefit of Rachel's company for the first weekend.
Pictures on Flickr tell the fuller story. Suffice to say that much canoeing was done and it was just great to spend some quality time with my Ma.

I'm fine

Dear All,
I'm fine. Things on this side of the conflict are pretty calm these days and Ramallah is far far away from any real problems.
So please don't worry about me, but feel free to drop me a note to say hi...
Mike

Jordan Rocks!

Good news - a ton of new pictures on Flickr.

Bad news - I am wayyy too lazy to tell you all about everything that we did and also managed somehow to upload a bunch of the pictures without describing what they are of, so you'll just have to figure it all out for yourselves.

Sabr

Means patience in Arabic. Also means cactus. Interestingly, the Israelis who are born in Israel are called Sabras.

All this to say apologies for not having updated for a while. Rachel is in town and I am on vacation. Still posting pictures on Flickr, so please go and check them out...

Paris

Woe, woe is me. I have to leave Israel every three months in order to renew my visa. Tough life that I lead, I decided to head over to Paris this time. Coincidentally, my Dad and Stepmother, Brother and a bunch of my friends were all in town at the same time. We had a wonderful 5 days of walking, eating, eating, walking, eating and walking. Yum. Not sure how I came out on the caloric intake balance, but I certainly sampled some of the best sights and tastes of that lovely city. A whole bunch of pictures over on Flickr (link to the right).

Jaffa

Walked around Jaffa with my friend Conol yesterday. Beautiful historic city. One of those places that you could live in and just keep peeling back layers of. Conol has the nicest apartment I have seen in a long long time. Hgh ceilings, rooms that give way to more rooms and more rooms. Mosaic tiled floors and solid hardwood furniture. Lovely. More pics to the left…

More lounging

Another wonderful weekend. Went on a hike Friday morning then went to the Dead Sea for more floating around. You all really have to swim (?) in the Dead Sea once in your lives. It is such a comfortable feeling - like being in a sunny armchair of water.
This time I tried out the mud, which you slather on and then rinse off in the salt water. Skin like butter! I tell ya!
Loads and loads of pictures on Flickr. Enjoy!

More Culture!

Thanks to my friend Sarah (www.lavalove.org) I was introduced to some of the folks at one of Israel’s best dance troupes – Batsheva (www.batsheva.co.il). Last night I drove down (up? across?) to the Suzanne Dellal dance center in Tel Aviv (pictured) to check out their new show called Bertolina. It was amazing. One of the best contemporary dance shows I have ever seen. The dancers were incredible, the costumes were beautiful and the music was wonderful.
Then I found out that all next week is a contemporary dance festival here in Ramallah (here’s the schedule -
http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/showeventsincat.php?cid=8&citid=3) and, tomorrow night I am planning to go and see Michael Barenboim (son of Daniel) play the violin here in Ramallah as well.
Who knew that I would move all the way over to Ramallah and see more cultural events than I ever did in New York?
Funny funny life.

Who needs a doorman anyway?

I went on another hike this weekend, this time to Wadi Zakar (the blue wadi), a very pretty stream bed that wound through lovely olive groves.
We stumbled across some really amazing caves near the wadi and I took the chance to climb down into one and check it out. Bigger than my apartment in New York, lovely and cool in the heat of the day. I am thinking about moving in and saving some cash on rent – you’ll still come visit, right?
Also included in the batch of pics on flickr are some of Ramallah, one of a dinner I went to in Tel Aviv and my last view as we picked up the bus back home after the hike – some kids playing on a garbage heap, chasing the bulldozer around to see what it turns up.
It is really nice to be able to go out and enjoy these lovely hikes, but as the kids reminded me, this is still a very poor place with deep problems.

Culture!

Seems that there was a Mozart festival going on here in the West Bank for the last couple of weeks… (http://www.palestinemusicfestivals.org). So myself and some yahoos from work decided to go down and check out the Requiem gala concert last Wednesday.
It was surprisingly good and the concert hall was really quite fantastic. Beautiful! This city continues to surprise me. I mean, considering that the population is somewhere around 50,000 folks it is a pretty sweet hall.
Some more pictures on flickr.
Also went for another lovely hike on Friday, but couldn’t upload the pics from that just yet. Will do tomorrow.

What a weekend!

Howdy All,

Sorry for the long gap between postings - I have been busy as a little bee at work.
I just got back from a fantastic long weekend. As yesterday was Easter, I had Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. I began the weekend on Thursday night in Jerusalem with Ben and Abigail and their folks. After a nice dinner, we went back to the hotel and slept for a few hours as we had to get up at 3:30am to drive to a climb Masada before the sun comes up and we get fried.
Despite the fact that we got a little lost, we made it to Masada while it was still dark and managed to climb to the top in time to see the sun peek out over the mountains of Jordan. Masada is a fascinating place (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada) amazing history and stunning views. After Masada we went down to the lowest place on Earth (the shores of the Dead Sea) and swam (floated) around in the salty water. The Dead Sea is so strange to splash around in, as you cannot keep your arms and legs in the water without effort. Wacky. Next was a short hike into Ein Gedi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Gedi) where we did some more splashing around. Whee.
Back to Jerusalem and as it was Good Friday I decided to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and do the stations of the cross along the Via Dolorosa. Wish I had read this ahead of time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_Dolorosa) but whatever. It was jammed with folks carrying all sorts of lumber around, so I bought a little (very little) cross and joined in the fun.
Next stop was up North for a Sabbath dinner with a friend of a friend’s family in Khadera. Yummy food, but I ate wayyyy too much (as usual). Saturday I went to Caesaria and checked out some old Roman ruins (aqueducts and such) and then to Tel Aviv for a walk around and another dinner.
Sunday back to Jerusalem with Ben, wandering the markets, eating more yummy food and laughing our way around the city. All in all a fantastic time – thank you Ben!
Of course, all this would be pretty boring without pictures, so click on the Flickr link to the left….

Now it is back to work but I promise to post again as soon as I have something interesting to tell all you folks.

Snow!

Well, I think that I may have spoken too soon with all of my fancy pics of sunshine and tanning. Woke up this morning and what did I see? Big fat flakes of the white stuff falling all over my poor rose bushes.

Luckily, I had the car today (I am in a car pool with two other people) and didn't have to walk to work, but it was still shocking to see. Most of it has now melted all away and I hope to have pics of me browning myself in the sun again soon but in the meantime it looks like hiking is cancelled for tomorrow.

More pics in Flickr.

Hiking

What a fantastic weekend! Started off with me meeting a local hiking group at 6am on Friday. We jumped in one of the orange 'servis' taxis and drove about 30 minutes out of town to a small village called Kurf Nameh (or something like that). We there met up with a local woman who then guided us on a 4 hour walk through beautiful olive groves and other small villages along the way.
In Bel'in we were stopped by a woman baking bread in a round outdoor oven. She invited us to sample the fresh goods along with some pure olive oil and thyme mixed with sumac and sesame. You rip off a bit of bread, dip it in the oil and then into the herbs. Delicious.

Tons more pictures of the hike over there on the right in my flickr account.

Rest of the weekend was spent studing Arabic, playing ping-pong and eating good food. Not a bad life, just wish you were all here to enjoy it with me.

Sheep, sheep everywhere

Sorry for the delay in new postings, kiddos. I have been busy busy busy with work. We are working through the inception phase of our new project and hosting conferences, etc. In other news, there were sheep grazing outside of my window today. 21 degrees! I do feel for all of you out there in the wintry lands, I really do.
Posted a few pictures over on Flickr, including a couple of some martyr posters. Weird things those. When people die in a martyry way, they put a poster up around town of them. Some of these include obviously staged pictures with guns and bombs, but others are weird ‘just sitting around the house’ kind of pictures. Very macabre.
All that said, I have yet to feel any real threat to my personal safety and have been having a very nice time with folks both Palestinian and foreign. Hope to get over to Israel in the next few weekends and do some touring around. Maybe down to Eilat for some scuba diving. I’ll keep you all posted.

Spring

That's right you unlucky northerners. It is the second of March and the bushes are just bursting with life. One more good rainstorm and I think that my garden will be in full bloom. Still a little nippy some days, but rarely below 12-15 degrees. Wonderful.

Life is good. Working hard these days preparing for a conference that we are running. Playing a bunch of ping pong, studying Arabic and missing you all very much.

Abu Dib

And a good time was had by me this weekend, which involved a bunch of going out, a pretty good mark on an Arabic test and my being given my new Palestinian nickname - Abu Dib. This means "father of the wolf". I had suggested something that evoked northernliness and maybe a hint of snowy weather and so "wolf" was chosen. Farley Mowat would be so proud. As some of you already know, males are often re-named Abu ____ after their first-born son. Seems that this practice is also done with dudes who are not yet fathers but who need a nickname, but the attribution of fatherliness can extend to all sorts of things, such as hammers, love and moustaches. So Abu Dib I am.

All part of my integration into local society, which so far consists of lots of delicious dinners (I have been sparing you all the pictures), some ping pong and a whole bunch of slow and careful explanations of Arabic terms and local customs.

After last week's lovely 20+ degree weather, we are back to rain and fog today. Summer, I am told, is just around the corner, but with my garden already starting to bud, I am certainly not complaining about the needed watering coming from the heavens. A few more pics over there on Flickr and more posting to come...

New York

It was a weird experience. Flying back from sunny Tel Aviv to this. Wintry, cold and wet. I spent the first two days just wandering around like a stunned tourist. Golleee! Look at all dem tall buildings.

It was a fantastic week. Lots of good food, hanging out with friends and lazing around in bed. Got a bunch of things done, including rafts of shopping (including a stop at the Patagonia annual sale). Whee.

Now I am back in Ramallah, where it was 21 degrees yesterday and they are promising even more today. Shawarmas for lunch, Arabic homework and busy busy times at the office.

What a wonderfully confusing and interesting life...

Goats!

Funny how you start to forget where you are and then something happens to bring you right back to Ramallah. The other day was walking home from the center of town and as I turned the corner to my street I came across a goat herd. Just walking along. Not sure where they were coming from, or where they were going, bt now I understand why my neighbors' shrubs are all so nicely trimmed.

This weekend was crazy busy, what with moving, some Arabic homework and regular work (which, as I am sure you can tell from the news, is crazy busy these days). I also managed to get to Jerusalem for a UN OCHA party, eat all sorts of yummy food and do some shopping. A couple more pics on Flickr, check 'em out.

I will be back stateside next week to take care of personal stuff, so posting may be a bit thin on the ground. But we'll be back with more Ramallah excitement soon...

Home Sweet Home

I've finally moved into an apartment! A really nice place within walking distance of the city center and the nice restaurants in town. It is a 3 bedroom/2bathroom place (places of less than 3 bedrooms seem quite rare, and they are all in the same price range- about $600 a month). I'm living downstairs from a very friendly Greek Orthodox family (who own the apartment) on a very quiet street.

The best part about the place is the patio. Just a gorgeous spot, quiet, sun drenched and surrounded by rose bushes and grape vines. I really cannot wait to see how nice this is going to be in the summer. Once all of the roses are in bloom and the vines and fruit trees start to burst forth I will be snacking away in my own backyard. Yum!

I am taking bookings now, so let me know when you will be stopping by - with three bedrooms, I can host a bunch. Now I've got to go and do some grocery shopping...

Loads more pictures on my flickr account by the way - link on the right.

Downtown - Where the Lights are Bright

Ramallah is a city of about 40,000 people, and it seems that every single one of them has a car, likes to double park and has no hesitation about stopping in the middle of the street to chit-chat with their friends. Crossing the downtown ‘core’, which is the equivalent of about 4 square blocks, takes forever. Much better to take side roads, detours, dirt tracks and alleyways. Of course I have no idea where these are, where they lead or where I am, so I tend to stick to the main roads. Me and the double-parkers.
Hard to get a good picture of the traffic insanity of a small town like this that is worse than 5th Ave. on a Monday morning, but I will continue to try. In the meantime, check out my attempts and other recent pics on my Flickr account (link on the right).

New pictures, new phone

Oh, and a little note. You may notice that the quality of the pictures has declined a little. Not the framing and composition, which I doubt could get much worse, but the pixel count. I've decided to try out my new cell phone camera for pic taking. Let me know if they are too bad to view properly. This will save me the trouble of carrying around the camera as well as my phone. Or, actually, phones. See here in Ramallah we are on Jawwal, which is the Palestinian cell phone operator. In Israel the main provider is Orange. Unfortunately, you cannot text between the two. You can text anywhere else in the world from either one, but not between them. As half the staff live in Jerusalem and have Orange numbers I have two phones, one for each system. Funky place.

Middle East?

Remember that pic of the view from the hotel restaurant? Well, this is today's view. A guy I work with said that winter here is like living in Transylvania. Not sure about over there, but here the fog is ridiculous. Took almost 15 minutes to drive to work today (usually a 5 minute drive) because we couldn't see 10 feet in front of us. Crazy.

How many of you told me: "make sure you bring your sunscreen"? Here I am, covered in spf45, smelling like a pina colada and it is rainy, foggy and cold. I guess I'll have to move to Dubai...

Fun and games

Went down to the local pool hall on Friday night. From the pic you will note the incredible amount of smoke and the casual dress of the local Ramallians. No booze, no women. Not that there are that many women in most dingy pool halls back home, but this is the Friday night hotspot...

After a few rounds of pool, we turned our attention to the real reason we had come all the way to downtown (a 5 minute drive). Yes, that's right. I cracked out the rusty ole ping-pong skillz. No one has a better backspin. No one. That said, it is often top-spin that rules the game, so I went down 1-4. Tariq (pictured) had the advantage of a pro racket from the US. Poor craftsmen and all that. All in all a really fun time, and all at a cost of $6 (coffee, teas and pop, some snacks and 2 hours of pool and ping-pong).

Funny to come from New York and all of its crazy nightlife options and spend a Friday night playing ping-pong in a small town (pop. 40,000) and have a really nice time. One of the local high-school kids came over to practice his English and said to me "you know, once you get used to it, this is a pretty good place to be".

Tadriib

Arabic is coming along. I have the numbers down and am working on the letters. Also mastered the basic “hello”, “how are you”, etc. phrases. But boy is it a confusing language. Not only is there a significant difference between the colloquially spoken Arabic and the 'standard' Arabic that no one except tv news anchors speaks (which is also the language in which all books are written), but the scipt is completely different, there is a masculine/feminine distinction, it is written backwards and most of the sounds are ones that I can't pronounce or distinguish. Whee! I wanted a challenge...

All that said, I am enjoying the studying. Being really really new at something means that you have a great sense of accomplishment each time you learn something. Also, everyone is really encouraging and helpful. So, insh'allah, I hope to be able to at least order a drink when any of you come over and visit...which will be soon, right?

More food

Finally got around to really hardening my arteries. Mmm. Shwarma. This is the menu in the 'best place in town' and we stopped by for a couple of sandwiches for lunch the other day. As you can see from the sign, they are 10 shekels a piece and worth every penny. While stuffing my face I ran into the guy who picked me up at the airport when I arrived last week and one of the staff members from the Unit. Life in a small town.

Still looking for an apartment. Coming fom New York it is weird to be in a situation where you can look at all sorts of places and then just think about them all for a while. No pressure, no rush. Most of the places I have seen have been empty for months. Just not that big a turnover in property here.

Yum

Two shots - the first is of my daily breakfast. Hummus, pita, cheese & cucumber along with some fruit and juice. The second is of dinner with the parents of a friend of mine. So many delicious things. Arugula with yoghurt and walnuts, some form of lentils with tomato, mixed grill of lamb and chicken brochettes and... french fries!

Ah, but it is a hard life out here.

Friday

Today is the local day of rest, although I was in the office for a little while catching up on things.

Now off to a late lunch and maybe to Jaffa on Saturday for a party. Will post more when I am back at work on Sunday.

More pictures

I’ve created a Flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/netmiker

Where I will post more photos than are found here…

Bon appetit!

Mindfulness

One of the things that I love most about traveling, especially to really foreign places, (i.e where the language and customs are very different from back home) is that you really do live in the moment. Your senses and awareness are running at fever pitch just crossing the street. There is no time where you are just mindlessly living. It can be tiring, but at the same time it is really exhilarating.

Home life

I am staying in a very nice little hotel. Quite comfortable and, as you can see from the pictures, it has a little kitchenette. Bigger than the one in my New York apartment actually, but without the toaster oven I don’t think that I will be making banana bread any time soon. The hotel is in the Christian area of town, so there are bars and restaurants around. The place in the hotel is quite nice, and I go there for breakfast each day. It is actually located on the roof of the hotel and has a pretty nice view. It is nice to sit up there in the morning and look out over Ramallah, pinching myself to remind me that I am actually here.

A confession. We are now at day 3 and so far I have only eaten hummus at breakfast, no other Palestinian cuisine. Occupational hazard of working (and dining) with jaded ex-pats who have been here too long to appreciate the majesty of a really good shawarma. Ah well, tomorrow the weekend begins (I get Fridays and Saturdays off) and I plan to see some more of the city and find myself some really good local cuisine
Pic to the left is of a fast-food hamburger joint we went to yesterday. Actually not that bad, but still, when in Rome one really should not be eating McNuggets, right?

Call to Prayer

Although I managed to doze off for most of the flight here from New York, I did wake up at 4am last night and could not get back to sleep. If my internal clock is still on New York time that was about 9pm, which although not my usual bed-time, is certainly no cause for an inability to journey to dreamland. So either my clock is somewhere over the mid-Atlantic (hopefully on a beach in the sunny Azores) or nerves about my first day in the office were keeping me from my slumber (I prefer the former explanation). Actually, it is most likely due to the expanse of bed I had to occupy by myself.

Regardless of the cause, one of the benefits of being up at 4am is that I was awake for the morning call to prayer. I can still remember the first time I heard it, standing on a balcony in a ritzy Istanbul neighborhood on the European side of the Bosporus, watching the sun rise over Asia. There is something about a beautiful religious aesthetic experience that renews my faith in the essential brotherhood (and sisterhood) of mankind. Be it an architecturally perfect shrine (Meiji Jingu in Tokyo is my favorite example), a great statue of Buddha or the Ode to Joy. All of these are expressions of a love of life, fellow humans and some form of higher being, and they all resonate in some primal place deep down inside which perhaps goes to show that we aren’t that different after all…

Kind of soppy, I know. I promise to post some pictures soon, along with a review of the local fare so far.

Arrived

I'm here, already working hard. Will post more detailed info with pictures when I get a chance. In the meantime it is sunny and warmer than New York...

Welcome

Hi.
This is my blog. As you can see, the posting is a bit thin on the ground right now. Once I get over to Ramallah I am sure that I will have much more to say and many more interesting pics to post.
In the meantime, bookmark me, drop me a line by email, and let me know how you are doing, ok?
Cheers!

NY Apartment

I love this apartment. I really do. 450+ square feet, 12 foot ceilings, hardwood floors. It is cheap, quiet and light. Only a block from Central Park, also just one block from the 1,2,3,B and C subway lines.
I feel really attached to this place. I've only been here for a year or so, but I feel a very nice connection to it. Must be all that good energy that the former tenant (Ms. Rosalie Lawrence) left behind. Thanks Rosalie. Or all the work that Rachel and I put into making it purdy.
Do me a favor and remind me never to give it up, ok?

Office living

Here is a picture of me in my former New York office. You can just see one of the chairs in my small lounge area (two comfy chairs and a small glass table) off to the side. Blackberry in the foreground happily charging away, readying itself for use. Nice view of Park Avenue from the 26th floor. Sweet.