Shwarma

It might seam gross to cook meat on a spit all day while fat dribbles down over it, then cut hunks off with a blade attached to what is essentially a drill, stuff it inside of a Pita and cover it with cabbage, pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, hummus, tahina, and spicy sauce...but it's the most amazing thing.  I am a burger girl and while I haven't found anything here that measures up burger wise, a good shwarma will do the trick every time.

The Noble Sanctuary/Al-Haram Al-Sharif

Max and I were VERY fortunate to be able to visit Al-Haram Al-Sharif, or as many non-muslims call it, the Temple Mount.  The entire complex contains Al-Aqsa mosque, the Dome of the Rock, El-Marwani Mosque and other madrasas, libraries, and museuems.  Iconicaly associated with Islam because of the golden dome, the compound has a past that makes it holy to Christians and Jews as well.  Both the first and second temples were built in this space and the Holy of Holies is said to be directly at the center of the Dome of the Rock.  This central space is called "The Well of Souls" by Muslims.   In fact, that picture of us in front of a rock?  It is the "foundation stone" as the Jews know it in the Well of Souls and directly where the Holy of Holies is said to have been.  Can you see why things are complicated here?     

The pictures above are of the Dome of the Rock and the pictures below are of Al Aqsa Mosque.  They are not open to the public, but, like I said, we were VERY fortunate to be able to tour the inside of all of these beautiful buildings.  The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the holiest sight for Muslims outside of Saudi Arabia (Mecca and Medina) and it is mentioned in the Koran.  It is the sight of Muhammad's night journey into the heavens.       

Lastly, we were able to see the enormous Al-Marwani mosque, formerly thought to be the place where Soloman housed his horses. 

A Few of My Favorite Things: Internet Edition

The internet and my Mac are pretty much indispensable parts of my life abroad. If I had to choose between bringing more than one change of clothing or my Mac somewhere, I'd bring my Mac. That pretty much goes for any kind of either/or scenario with me.

What makes me so attached to my computer?  Well, many things, but the bulk of it is the AMAZING learning and entertainment resources that have saved my sanity and given me access to learning on a scale I couldn't have imagined before coming here.  Some of my favorite internet resources, in no particular order, are as follows:

Lynda.com

Lynda.com is a collection of software training videos.  Ok, that sounds boring, but it's amazing.  For a whopping 25 bucks a month I have unlimited access to hundreds, probably thousands of hours of training videos on programs like the Adobe Design Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc - these are the courses I'm making my way through right now), movie editing software, web design software, and much more.  You could get the education of an entire bachelors degree and have REAL skills to put on your resume in weeks, even days.  So, it's awesome. ...they should offer library subscriptions...huh....that's a good idea actually.   

This American Life Podcast

What could be nicer?  Each week they bring you a theme and three stories that illustrate that theme.  Stories that are funny, sad, thoughtful, fiction, non-fiction and all of them diverse slices of the American life.  This week's theme was "Contents Unknown" which started off with a story about storage locker bidding when people can't make their payments.  People buy the locker, not knowing fully what's inside, and hope there is treasure behind the dusty piles of junk.  If you have an ipod or a computer and one hour each week I highly recommend this podcast.   

The Moth Podcast

I actually found out about The Moth from This American Life - the Moth's theme is "true stories told live without notes".  There are a few Moth stages around America (mostly the east coast) where people come to tell and hear stories told live.  Some are funny, amazing, sad, heartbreaking, drop dead hilarious - and all true, told without notes.  Great, great, great podcast.  

How Stuff Works: Stuff You Missed in History Class Podcast

How did I live without this!?!  Two fabulously nerdy hosts (and I mean that in the best way) tackle different subjects in history and well,  tell you about them.  They research and report.   It's that simple.  They usually include fascinating and juicy tidbits you didn't know before -1/2 a percent of the world's population today are directs descendants of Ghengis Khan for example. Talk about a fertile myrtle  A few that I listened to in the past week were:  "Harry Houdini: Master Mystifier", "How Kent State Worked", "How the Dancing Plague of 1815 Worked", "Alexander Hamilton vs. Aaron Burr", and "Who Was the Real Count Dracula".  They last from 2 minutes to 30.  If you have a learning addiction, this is your feed.  Fabulous.

Rick Steves European Video Podcast

Oh Rick Steves, how I love you.  I actually started a Christmas letter to Rick Steves, but I haven't sent it yet.  Perhaps by the end of February I'll have found a way to say all of the nice things I'd like to say to him.  Not the least of which is "thank you for your awesome podcast" -which you can also find on youtube if podcasts aren't your thing.  These podcasts are 3 to 4 minute snippets from his PBS travel show.  If you ever need a little 5 minute break from reality, you can travel to the Alps and discover amazing Gimmelwald, or stroll the promenades of Nice with Rick. It's the perfect little virtual travel break to get you excited about seeing more of the world or give you reprieve from your corner of it for a time. If Max and I have 5 minutes before the bus comes, I usually make him watch one with me.

I would also HIGHLY recommend you check out his series about Iran (both the lectures and the hour tv special) and his multi-part lecture series "Travel as Political Act".  These two programs in particular are why I'm writing him a thank you letter.  At the core of everything he does lies the conviction that learning about other people and cultures breaks down negative and useless boundaries and builds bridges within our universal humanity -that ignorance and fear is best combated by knowledge travel.      

Preview for Iran Program.  The last 30 seconds in particular are heart stopping to me.  Travel as diplomacy!

So in part, this is what I do all day.  All of these things (with the exception of Lynda.com) are free.  You can download them from their respective websites, or find them in the podcast directory of itunes.

The websites and podcasts for the following establishments also deserve a nod for the amount of content they have made accessible via the internet, though I don't use them as much as I should:

The Library of Congress
The National Archives
The British Library 
The New York Library

Huh, that's not what I heard on the radio the other day...

 If you are starting to believe the cries that America is in its worst moral shape in history, you should read this article titled Crime, Drugs, Welfare and other Good News. Here is an excerpt:



"In a number of key categories, the amount of ground gained or regained since the early 1990’s is truly stunning. Crime, especially, has plummeted. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the rates of both violent crime and property crime fell significantly between 1993 and 2005, reaching their lowest levels since 1973 (the first year for which such data are available). More recent figures from the FBI, which measures crime differently from the NCVS, show an unfortunate uptick in violent crime in the last two years—particularly in cities like Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Even so, however, the overall rate remains far below that of the mid-1990’s.

Teenage drug use, which moved relentlessly upward throughout the 1990’s, declined thereafter by an impressive 23 percent, and for a number of specific drugs it has fallen still lower. Thus, the use of ecstasy and LSD has dropped by over 50 percent, of methamphetamine by almost as much, and of steroids by over 20 percent.

Then there is welfare. Since the high-water mark of 1994, the national welfare caseload has declined by over 60 percent. Virtually every state in the union has reduced its caseload by at least a third, and some have achieved reductions of over 90 percent. Not only have the numbers of people on welfare plunged, but, in the wake of the 1996 welfare-reform bill, overall poverty, child poverty, black child poverty, and child hunger have all decreased, while employment figures for single mothers have risen.

Abortion, too, is down. After reaching a high of over 1.6 million in 1990, the number of abortions performed annually in the U.S. has dropped to fewer than 1.3 million, a level not seen since the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized the practice. The divorce rate, meanwhile, is now at its lowest level since 1970.

Educational scores are up. Earlier this year, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported that the nation’s fourth- and eighth-graders continue to improve steadily in math, and that fourth-grade reading achievement is similarly on the rise. Other findings show both fourth- and twelfth-graders scoring significantly higher in the field of U.S. history. Black and Hispanic students are also making broad gains, though significant gaps with whites persist. The high-school dropout rate, under 10 percent, is at a 30-year low, and the mean SAT score was 8 points higher in 2005 than in 1993, the year Bennett published his Index.

More generally, we are seeing important progress in critical areas of youth behavior. Since 1991 (a peak year), the birth rate for teenagers aged fifteen to nineteen has decreased by 35 percent. The number of high-school students who have reported ever having sexual intercourse has declined by more than 10 percent. Teen use of alcohol has also fallen sharply since 1996—anywhere from 10 to 35 percent, depending on the grade in school—and binge drinking has dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded. The same is true of teens reporting that they smoke cigarettes daily.

John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, has summarized these across-the-board findings in one succinct sentence: “We have a broad set of behaviors by young people that are going in a healthy direction."



It seems to me that we ought be wary of people who continually ignore positive trends like these just so they have something to rage against.  I'm just sayin'.    

Don't Worry Mom

Isn't this the best, most beautiful coat?  Well, it's my new coat for the time being.

I made the mistake of telling one of my wonderful motherly students last week that I came to Jerusalem without a coat, just a few jackets.  (If you've been to the Middle East you already know where this is going.)

As a preface, the first week of class it was raining and this woman INSISTED that I get a ride home with her instead of taking the bus.  She really would not take no for an answer.  I was very concerned with "professionalism" and so I said yes, but planned to turn her down in the future.  But the truth is I like the ride home instead of taking the bus AND to boot she really wouldn't let me out of it if I put of a fight anyway.  The generosity of Muslims is amazing, if un-turn-downable.  As a Christian I feel like I have a lot to learn about charity from some of my Muslim friends.  So I just accept the ride home at this point and everyone is happy. 

So I was riding home with her today and as she dropped me off she reached into the backseat and brought up a white shopping bag.

"I think this will look nice on you" she says, handing me the bag containing a COAT.

Seriously.  I argued for a while that I didn't really need it and that I really appreciated her thoughtfulness, but I just couldn't take it.  But as always, Hakum won and I have a new coat.  I made her promise that when the weather got better she would let me return it, but I think even that might take some serious persuasion. And it's not just something she had lying around, I'm sure it's the nicest, most expensive coat in her closet.  Geez.   

This moment echoes many we had in Amman last summer and that we have had in Jerusalem.  In the West we have become so obsessed with the idea that Islam breeds fanaticism (which I reject entirely as any religion can be and has been exploited to encourage fanaticism) but we don't identify Islam with its many virtues, charity and hospitality being among the greatest in my estimation.


And don't worry, I'm not afraid to flunk her if she doesn't do well in class even though she is really nice to me :)

What I've Been Making

I'm really excited about this series of journals I'm working on.  The second one has a picture of the Western Wall and if I do a third it will have an illustration of The Holy Sepulcher.  For you nerds out there, I sewed them on linen tapes and bound them with a traditional flat back case binding.  I used hand marbled paper I got in Siena, Italy last year for the fly pages and hand sewed head bands on top and bottom with the bead on the spine (not pictured).  I'm taking an Adobe Illustrater classes online again (lynda.com - you are the best thing since my Max) and the illustrations are original.    I'm thinking about making some sort of clamshell box or slip case to house them when I decide how many volumes I want.   

The second is a leather binding with a diamond shape spine pattern.  I'm not sure what I'll use it for...but I have visions of myself camping out in the old city and drawing so maybe I'll use it as a sketch book or a place to put finished paintings of the old city.  You know, when I actually get back to painting... 

On the Bus

This is my friend Ala' from my English class.  She was paired with someone she doesn't like very much last week and you should have seen how sassy she was with him!  This picture is slightly more related than last week's "On the Bus" but only in that I usually take the bus to get to my class...

Anyway, this happened about a month ago actually, but it's worth telling.  I usually ride Arab bus #74 to work each week and it takes me exactly where I need to go to and from work.  But a few weeks ago I got on the 74 and instead of going toward Beit Hanina it took a turn in the opposite direction and got onto the freeway going towards a town called Pizgat Ze'ev.

I tried not to panic because surely the bus would turn back around shortly, but when it finally came back to shufat road (where my work is) it had passed by my work and as far as I knew was headed to Ramallah.  I, without my passport let alone time to spare, began to get a little nervous.  To add to my nervous-ness a few men from the back started yelling at the bus driver.  From what I could tell they wanted to know why we had taken a different route as well and they were very displeased.  At one point the bus driver pulled over to the side of the road rather abruptly, yelled something fierce sounding, and motioned for them to get off the bus.  The arguing continued and as they were stepping off the bus the driver had one last thing to say (probably about someone's mother) and the last man off the bus turned and lunged towards the driver.  His friends held him back and dragged him away and the driver quickly shut the door in his face before merging back with traffic.

People didn't really seemed bothered by this incident, but I was still a ways away from my work (...as far as I could tell).  At one point everyone emptied off the bus except for a very nice woman and her little boy.  I had previously been hiding midway back on the bus next to the window, but at this point I made my way to the front.  With the help of the nice mother the three of us figured out that I needed to be back a few miles.

"Just stick with me - I'll get you where you need to go"  the bus driver said as he flipped a ridiculous U-turn passing several construction signs that probably said "Do not turn around here."

And sure enough I was dropped off at the front door of my work in just a few minutes.  Turns out there was a GIANT accident blocking my normal route to work.

Not hearing overhead messages on the bus that might save me oodles of stress is really increasing my motivation to learn Arabic.