The Little Things

in some ways it seems like my trip was filled with a bunch of random experiences that were tied together only by the fact that i happened to be experiencing them all.  it seemed like every couple of days i was in a new place with new people and i was moving at a crazy fast pace so i could hardly keep up with myself.  yet there were these moments, someone where, something there, that stand out in my mind as the formative memories of the trip.

tel-arad on the hill in the background

i had the chance to briefly visit my favorite historical place in israel, arad.  if you look a little bit into the history and archaeology of the site, you will find that what has been discovered there makes it one of the most (if not the most) significant site for the development and understanding of ancient israelite religion.  the first time i visited there i was completely fascinated and just loved it, so i was so excited to go back and to meet some people who live in the city.  so we met E.  what was so fun about meeting him was that he did his phd in the same thing that i’m currently doing mine so when we walked into his house i was like, oh, look i have those books, and those books and those books…….we had so much in common, including our love for the middle east and our love for the ancient languages of the region – a rare and well, let’s just say it, borderline insane combination.  i met him and felt like, wow, there is someone else in the world like me – that is so cool and so, so scary!! he told some fun stories about his experiences that i’d love to tell in a more private setting than my blog, but hanging out with him for just a short time was one of those moments that felt like a “click” in my brain.  and we didn’t actually make to the top of tel arad because of the limited time of our visit (i was sad about that) but yet the time there was totally worth it.

visiting the dome of the rock

in jerusalem we visited the dome of the rock mosque.  the dome of the rock was completed in 691 and it is the oldest islamic structure in the world – wow!  it is considered the third holiest site in islam (after mecca and medina).  it is so revered because of the rock in the middle of the mosque where it is believed that muhammad ascended to heaven.  the first time i visited i was allowed to go inside and it is absolutely amazing but several years ago both the dome of the rock and al-aqsa mosque were closed to non-muslims.  it is very sad because they are breathtaking inside and out.  but we visited the site of the mosques and were able to take pictures outside during the brief non-muslim visiting hours and even during that time i was struck not just by the beauty of the mosque but by the holiness of it.  even though i am not muslim, if you know me, you know i believe in god and am doing my best of follow him.  and i found that god was unmistakable in this place.  maybe some people can go there are be amazed only by the architecture and gold but i couldn’t help but sense something much bigger right in the beauty of the place.  really an unforgettable moment.

i think i pointed out before that some times during the trip were a bit tense because of the intifadah.  one of the places i really enjoy visiting in jerusalem is the muslim quarter, it is one of my favorite parts of the old city.  so i was walking around the outside of the city wall with two of my friends and we noticed a huge (!) crowd outside damascus gate and we wondered, should we just go away given the tensions or should we check it out.  well, if you know me, the answer is obviously check it out!!  so we wandered over and it was a protest – a women’s protest.  how unusual in place like this to see a women’s protest.  and of course it was a protest on behalf of the women and children being killed in gaza.  they were singing, chanting, holding up dolls and posters and being interviewed by lots of media officials.  it was so striking and shocking and amazing.  the gate area was heavily guarded by the israeli police so we just took a seat  off to the side and N took some very discrete pictures so as not to draw attention to us and we observed the rare scene.  i felt like it was an honor to observe the womens’ outcry on behalf of those who could not cry out for themselves and even to silently stand in solidarity with the women and children of gaza.  it was an overwhelmingly emotional scene for me.

the little things that meant the most keep rushing back to me.  i think of some more and write about them later.

New Friends, New Perspectives

i have just returned from spending almost two weeks in the middle east. i traveled with five of my friends from the boston area and we visited some of my friends who live in jordan, then did some additional traveling in the region.  we left just a couple of days after the latest intifadah between israel and palestine started.  it was particularly interesting to spend time in jordan, israel and the west bank while such unrest was going on.  there was a dynamic about the situation that was both sad and interesting.  people i talked to in the states were so concerned for my safety because of all that the media reported but things there were perfectly safe, even normal.  i briefly watched what al jazira reported but mostly just observed myself. 

i was in jordan for new year’s and normally there are lots of parties but all of them were cancelled in solidarity with gaza.  there was a heavy feeling on people’s hearts throughout jordan as they were very concerned with the situation to the west, but overall, unless you talked to actual people you would never know the intifadah was happening.  life just goes on.  i made some great new friends in jordan.  Z, M and R are all Palestinian and their insights about the intifadah were very helpful, especially given that i make an effort not to watch the news (especially the ulta-biased western news).  my new friends helped me and my other friends see things from a new, different and helpful perspective.

the wall being built around the west bank

after a few days we traveled to the west bank and israel.  we first visited bethlehem and saw one of the most disturbing things on the trip.  israel is building a 30 foot high wall around the west bank.  it would take far too long for me to explain all about it and i won’t even pretend that i understand all of the issues but the wall looks like the wall around a prison (and i have visited prisons to see those).  the wall is almost completed and once it is, the palestinian residents of the west bank will be held captive inside the wall by israel.  there are a lot of issues and, again, i don’t want to pretend that understand them all but i was really disturbed by this.

the brightest part of this segment of the trip was also in bethlehem.  it was a man named sami.  sami leads an organization/movement that is committed to the principles of nonviolence.  They

seeks to develop spiritual, pragmatic, and strategic approaches that will empower the Palestinian community to resist all forms of oppression, and engage this same community in making the Holy Land become a global model and pillar of understanding, respect, justice, equality, and peaceful coexistence.

wow! you can read about sami on his blog at http://samiawad.wordpress.com/.  it’s definitely worth the read. i could have spent a week just listening to him talk.  he is so fascinating.  sami sees and understands the reality of the situation between israel and palestine in ways i will never understand and he is filled with hope that there is a solution.  he recently wrote on his blog

Violence will never lead to any peaceful solution to any conflict. All violence must stop and all negotiations must stop as well. The only success for achieving real results is found in the re-establishment of the grassroots nonviolence resistance movement in Palestine. This will not be easy and will not be welcomed by the enemies of peace, but we believe is the only way.

that’s just the beginning of the trip.  there’s a lot more.  give me a few days to recover from the jet lag and and the cold i got from someone.

One Horse Open Sleigh

i am sad to report that there are no reindeer in jackson.  but nontheless, i went on my sleigh ride yesterday outside of jackson, wyoming.  it was at the national elk reserve.  the sleigh holds 18 people (though i think that you would be really squished with  18 people) but our group was only my family of 8 and a couple from denver.  it was pulled by a pair of horses called lady and the tramp.  as it has been every day except the day before yesterday, it was snowing and a toasty 2 or 3 degrees.  the ride was about an hour and with a wind chill of 10-15 degrees, well, let’s just say 18 people might have been nice for the body warmth.  i was actually surprised that they provided a few blankets but, with all of the snow and wind, there was no point.  it was cold and there was nothing you could do about it but deal.

when my brother and i went in to buy the tickets one of the drivers said that the cows were getting a little close to the path that the sleigh takes.  i said (out loud), there are cows?  everyone behind the counter looked at me like i had three heads.  then they quickly realized that i was not from around here (and apparently stupid) and said (very condescendingly), the females are called cows and the males are called bulls.  oh right, everyone knows that!  not those kind of cows, but cows.  well, the path that the sleight takes does not go near the cows, it only goes near the elk because they are the ones with the big antlers and apparently everyone wants to see those, plus the baby ones are with the mamas and they don’t like company because they are still skitish. 

i learned something on our little sleigh ride.  elk (and who knows perhaps other deer like animals too) shed their antlers every fall.  apparently they just fall off.  i don’t understand it but they said it happens.  and then they start growing back at the rate of an inch a day! and by the middle of winter they are huge again so that by spring when hunting season starts they are prime for the taking and then in the fall, they shed them again.  who would have thought?  then it’s a tradition for people to go out and collect the shed antlers (yuk), but apparently it’s a big thing around here for people to go out and collect them and at the elk reserve they collect thousands of pounds of them and sell them.  the boy scounts go out and collect them as a fundraiser and they raise thousands of dollars for themselves and the rest of the money goes to the reserve.  what a strange tradition.  but i stand corrected about the whole animals dying for the antler decoration thing – but i hold my position on the weird and creepiness of it.

anyway, the elk have just started migrating to the reserve for the winter.  but in late january or early february there will be thousands of them.  the sleigh pulls up about 20 feet away from them and they have been doing this for so long that the elk are not the least bit frightened of the sleigh.  it was actually kind of cool.  then we drove around to the other side of jackson to look at a flock of big horned sheep that have also migrated to the reserve.  they are a lot more skitish, but still pretty cool.  all in all, another very interesting adventure.

Antlers, Antlers and More Antlers

today i went on an excursion to jackson hole, wyoming.  it’s on the other side of the teton pass from victor.  the elevation of the teton pass is 8,431 feet and victor is 6,207.  it’s a real hike up there, a 10% grade!  it was an amazingly beautiful drive, especially since we have had snow every day except day (and another storm expected to come in tonight).  the mountains are lined with pine trees, that are covered with snow.  it’s like something you would see on a postcard.  jackson is only about 35 miles from victor, but it’s a heck of a climb over the mountain to get there and then you drop back down to 6,234.  it was a crisp 12 degrees today with a windchill of -9 as we strolled the streets of jackson, dressed in as many layers as we could keep our elbows and knees bending in.

arch of antlers

jackson is a cute, though odd, small town.  it really looks like one of those little towns you would run into up in the mountains, like a ski resort town.  yes, i know you’re saying, that’s because it is one.  well, combine that ski resort feel with the hunter/outdoorsman feel and that’s jackson.  i’ve never seen so many antlers in my entire life.  the whole city is practically built of antlers.  just about every business has or sells chandeliers made of antlers.  you can just buy antlers to take come and make something out of.  there are candleholders made of antlers.  anything you can imagine, they have made it with antlers.  and then there’s the park in the center of the city with four giant arches on the corners made entirely of antlers.  do you realize how manyof some kind of animal had to die to keep this industry alive?  it’s just wrong, not to mention creepy.  there are thousands of them!  and then, don’t even get me started on the stuffed this and that.  on facebook in have a jackelope (seriously creepy), a racoon wearing a broncos helmet, some other creepy thing that is supposed to be big foot and another picture of an array of creature up for sale that you can dispay in your very own home.  i wouldn’t have believed it, had i not seen it with my own eyes.  it’s like snow bunny meets taxedermist. 

but all that said, i had a great time with my mom, brother and cousins.  my cousin “a” always makes me laugh and i have a great time with him.  i’m super excited to spend christmas with him.  tomorrow we already have plans.  my brother got us tickets for a sleigh ride.  i’m hopeful for reindeer, but we’ll see.  at the very least it should be a good time, as my other cousins will come along, so the whole fam with be there.

Land of Potatoes

i went on my first excursion from victor yesterday and discovered, first of all, that victor, idaho is as small as i believed it would be.  i’m happy to report that there is a gas station, post office, convenience store (not a grocery store), one fast food place (subway), and one blinking light at the center of “town.”  if you blink, you’ll miss the whole thing. 

it has been snowing since i got here, not a lot of snow, but i think there is probably at least 6 inches on the ground, it’s hard to tell since i’ve never been here before.  i imagine there is probably more, my cousins have been snow blowing every morning and the plows have been busy. anyway, after my grand tour of victor, we headed out for idaho falls, which as it turns out, with the road conditions and such, is more like a 90 minute drive.  between victor and idaho falls there is…..a gas station.  yep that’s about it, that and wide open spaces.  according to my cousin, those wide open spaces are probably filled with potato fields in the spring – and this goes on for miles and miles and miles.  and since everything is covered in snow, it’s actually kind of pretty right now.  but the drive feels like forever. 

my cousin and brother took my mom and i to idaho falls.  they have to go there to buy groceries as well as for the walmart trip.  seriously, this is a long, stinking way to buy groceries!  i learned today that there is a small grocery store in a closer town but a box of cereal is $5 there – i guess if those were my options i might drive 90 minutes too.  ok, so obviously i just wouldn’t live here, but that’s a whole different point.  anyway, they seem to dread going to the “big city” so i was expecting, well boston, los angeles, i don’t know.  whatever it was, i was just a little surprised that it seemed like such a small town when we arrived.  it seems the population is about 55,000 and i guess i was expecting a quarter million or something, you know a fairly good size city!  but in their defense, they had a lovely walmart, and even a pier 1, nice mall with a macy’s, barnes and noble, oh, oh and a starbucks!  see, i don’t need much to make me happy, just a starbucks. 

so i visited my first super walmart to go grocery shopping and tried to think of anything and everything i could possible want for the next 7 days because this is it – my only chance to get to a store.  once we head back over the pine creek pass, i’m out of luck until i find myself back in the comfort of my own, vegetarian friendly state (but don’t even get me started on that issue). 

later this week, we will probably head back to jackson hole, wyoming (where i flew in) to see what interesting things they have there.  apparently there is a park filled with antlers (i can’t figure out why, but nonetheless, we will go see it).