living without my chamber pot is not easy. Especially when you have to go in the middle of the night. Why did people stop using them? probably the thought of spilling.
* * *
it's so green here at the moment... coming from London, where the trees are still bare, it's quite a shock. the spring is well under way here, and everything's blossoming. Yesterday morning I went to Beyt-Zayit, with a couple of friends and their dogs, to walk the hills around. So many flowers... (rakafot, irusim, kalaniot.. dunno the English names). I collected some wild oregano and thyme, and pinecones. I love the word for pinecone in Hebrew: ITSRUBAL. and I love pine-cones. There's something so beautiful about their shape, the way the open up from the neat closed cone and become so peculiar,bloated and fragmented. There's quite a lot of pine trees around Jerusalem: they were planted in massive forestation projects, decades ago. Shrouded with Zionist pathos and ideology about revitalizing the land; I guess they mainly wanted it to look like Europe, as quickly as possible. It's now common knowledge that big pine forests are not good for the local flora, the smaller holy and oak trees. But at least they give pine nuts.. and pinecones.
* * *
walking through the streets of town centre last night, I was disappointed to see that my bunny costume was not so original. In fact, there were so many of them: bunnies, kitties etc. Admittedly, most were girls. The centre was as disgusting as it can get on holiday weekends.
I was coming back home from a gig, a band called Algiers. They played rock, tinged with a faint Arab feel, and with a Jewish religious turn. God came up quite frequently in the lyrics. They played well but i'm not so keen on rock anyway, and I felt slightly uncomfortable there on my own. The crowd was mostly religious kids; not ultra-orthodox, but the religious-nationist brand, the social base behind the settlement movement. Not my social scene. I tried not to assume anything about them, and not to be judgmential. They were crazy about the music, smoking joints, dancing and singing: like any kids, any gig. But politics comes to mind here often, too often. I couldn't help it. So what do they think about the coming pull-out from Gaza, I found myself thinking. And would it be wrong to guess that most of these kids are against it, and totally supportive of the settlements there? the thought was unpleasant.
The pull-out from Gaza, Sharon's so called 'disengagement' initiative, is the main issue on public agenda here. Especially that this week is crucial for the government survival (the budget vote). Jerusalem being a right-wing religious city, you can read everywhere slogans condeming Sharon and swearing their allegiance to the settlers of Gaza. They are becoming more and more desperate: metaphors of pogrom and holocaust abound. The tone of text is high-pitched, crazed. When it's not surreal, it's scary.
I should really start my day. I'm not sure why i'm here. It feels as home feels, and it's very natural, like a direct continuation of my visit last year. But why am here? ostensibly, to do my research. But I've come unprepared. And I'm not sure how much I'm up for it. That focussed determination on bibliographic lists is totally lacking in my spirit. Why did I come then? this is not a holiday, either. It doesn't feel like a holiday. Confused, confusing, confusing... I have a few weeks to get it together, whatever it is. A good start would be to move out of my parents house.
***
alovera plants everywhere; some with crazy red phallic flowers.
***
Been walking everywhere since I arrived. The centre of West Jerusalem is quite manageable by foot, even though it's hilly. It's fun to walk, I never walk in London. But it is tiring as well as my leg muscles are not used to it. I have to get a bike soon.
i'm moving to my friend's balcony tomorrow. It's overlooking the Israel Museum (a building I quite like).
***
In the year since I've last been here, they changed the system of numbering for mobile phones. Which basically means that all the numbers I have in my Israeli sim card are useless. This is a good enough excuse why I hardly called anybody so far - not many of my old friends know I'm in the country. It kind of suits me at the moment.
posted by mink @ 1:29 AM
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