Back in Action

It's 2008 already; I haven't updated around here in over a month. That's OK, since this blog is mostly to keep family up-to-date with my goings-on in Oxford, and I spent the last month WITH my family.

A few days after winter break began, I flew out to Israel to visit my with brother and sister and their respective spouses in Jerusalem. It was difficult for me to go, as I was just beginning to enjoy vacation in Oxford -- friends, drinks, sillyness, no stress. The first week there was a challenge, too, mostly because I was hung up on Oxford. Plus, not being as comfortable with the language as I would have liked, I didn't explore freely on my own the way I usually do in a new city. While I wandered occasionally and did some of the main tourist things (such as the Wailing Wall and the Old City of Jerusalem and the Jewish shuk, the open market), I also spent some days in bed or in my brother's flat, reading, sleeping, and watching DVDs.

The next week was a bit better, mostly because I was becoming acclimated. And I was seeing lots of gorgeous soldiers. (I'm against war, but all for the physical beauty of such a great number of the Israeli people.) I made my own way to a few museums and some times just wandered the area near my sister's house, the downtown sort of place. My sister (Chava), my sister-in-law (Shira), some of Shira's family and I took a bit of a day trip to Amuka to visit the tomb of a rabbi. I found myself miserable on that day more than I can remember -- three hours in a stuffy car each way, hungry, craving Oxford, going to some place where people prayed to find their future spouses ...

The good parts of that trip are 1) I met a bull and gave him water when he was thirsty and 2) most days seemed much better in comparison. All the same, I still wasn't happy and eventually changed my ticket to come back to England a week early, at which point I felt a great sense of relief and I was able to enjoy myself more. This was followed by a greater understanding of conversational Hebrew, visits to museums, meeting a wonderful Israeli guy, my mother's arrival, another day trip up north (to Haifa), as well as one south (to Hebron). I hope to detail more of these in the coming week or two, as quite a few things struck me about the people and the culture and how I relate to the land that is supposed to be that of my forefathers.

But for now, I'm resting up from a long, long trip.

(By the way, I've put new photos on Flickr -- see the links on the left -- including a new category: black and white shots.)