somethings i miss more than i thought i would
i'm feeling a little better.
of course trying to pull together a portfolio when you're lagged is virtually impossible. I'm cranky and I don't take criticism over my syntax very well. I admit this, it hasn't changed much in my thirty years of life.
But yeah. Israel & Jordan.
Well its been a manic 10 days. really high and low. I took a truckload of pictures on the black & white so I'm going to have to get them sent off asap to see if I got anything half decent.
I won't bore everyone with a play-by-play of the trip but the highlights were funny, and tragic.
Some examples:
As we got into Terminal 5 at Heathrow we heard on the news about the Israeli military strike on the ship off the Gaza coast. Consequently security was at an all time high and worse than that, the following day 90% of the stores in the Old Town of Jerusalem were closed on account of boycott protest. It's weird walking through the souk and it's virtually quiet.
The Western Wall. WOW. I forgot how powerful it is. And how crowded. And how it SUCKS that the women only get 25% of external wall space. eh? how is that fair??? But I got to touch it and it's just... wow...
I forgot my wedding ring. Being young(ish) and in the country on my own meant that I was constantly pestered for being "beautiful lady come and look at my store..etc, etc". And it got irritating. Although in Jordan the men are cute it was getting tiring by the end. And while being chaperoned was fun it was just constricting.
Although in the souk we did get into a bit of haggling with a family of Bedouins and while my mom was occupied I got off with one to the extent I got a free pashmina out of it. He was cute too, and his cousin was cuter.
The desert is eerily calm at night. It's also dark. But the moonlight lights up everything. Enwrapped in a sleeping bag in a camp in the middle of nowhere in Jordan I was sleeping on a sand-dune and I could see for miles in the moonlight. I walked to the bush toilet at 2am without a flashlight. Just had to be careful to avoid sleeping-bagged forms who were also outside due to the temperature and the ability to stargaze.
Heat. Fuck me! The hottest it got was in Petra in southern Jordan when the temp hit 42. that's over 100 degrees fahrenheit. I was not happy that day. Petra itself is ok but not up to much in my opinion. Although the heat did take its luster off a bit.
Early in the morning and about 5-ish onwards in the afternoon was the nicest time. and we spent our last meal at the oldest Kibbutz in Israel on Wednesday night everyone chatting, toasting, making speeches and marveling at how kosher vegetarian food can be so good.
I was clearly the youngest of the group of 12 by a considerable margin. But I didn't care as it assigned me the role of pet/mascot for the rest and it's a role I play with pleasure.
Some people might have started to twig I wasn't bio-born female but they didn't pass on their suspicions to the majority so all was well on that front.
There are a dozen other memories that I could write here but you get the gist.
I got to see so much, some good, other stuff not so. Some fun and some a pure battle that made me glad to be alive by the time I'd finished it.
It was tricky concerning drillin and cleaning my face but it's just a case of planning and regulation.
And as a result I'm seriously looking into taking a few weeks off from work on unpaid leave and spending time on kibbutz. I loved it. It was fun.
of course trying to pull together a portfolio when you're lagged is virtually impossible. I'm cranky and I don't take criticism over my syntax very well. I admit this, it hasn't changed much in my thirty years of life.
But yeah. Israel & Jordan.
Well its been a manic 10 days. really high and low. I took a truckload of pictures on the black & white so I'm going to have to get them sent off asap to see if I got anything half decent.
I won't bore everyone with a play-by-play of the trip but the highlights were funny, and tragic.
Some examples:
As we got into Terminal 5 at Heathrow we heard on the news about the Israeli military strike on the ship off the Gaza coast. Consequently security was at an all time high and worse than that, the following day 90% of the stores in the Old Town of Jerusalem were closed on account of boycott protest. It's weird walking through the souk and it's virtually quiet.
The Western Wall. WOW. I forgot how powerful it is. And how crowded. And how it SUCKS that the women only get 25% of external wall space. eh? how is that fair??? But I got to touch it and it's just... wow...
I forgot my wedding ring. Being young(ish) and in the country on my own meant that I was constantly pestered for being "beautiful lady come and look at my store..etc, etc". And it got irritating. Although in Jordan the men are cute it was getting tiring by the end. And while being chaperoned was fun it was just constricting.
Although in the souk we did get into a bit of haggling with a family of Bedouins and while my mom was occupied I got off with one to the extent I got a free pashmina out of it. He was cute too, and his cousin was cuter.
The desert is eerily calm at night. It's also dark. But the moonlight lights up everything. Enwrapped in a sleeping bag in a camp in the middle of nowhere in Jordan I was sleeping on a sand-dune and I could see for miles in the moonlight. I walked to the bush toilet at 2am without a flashlight. Just had to be careful to avoid sleeping-bagged forms who were also outside due to the temperature and the ability to stargaze.
Heat. Fuck me! The hottest it got was in Petra in southern Jordan when the temp hit 42. that's over 100 degrees fahrenheit. I was not happy that day. Petra itself is ok but not up to much in my opinion. Although the heat did take its luster off a bit.
Early in the morning and about 5-ish onwards in the afternoon was the nicest time. and we spent our last meal at the oldest Kibbutz in Israel on Wednesday night everyone chatting, toasting, making speeches and marveling at how kosher vegetarian food can be so good.
I was clearly the youngest of the group of 12 by a considerable margin. But I didn't care as it assigned me the role of pet/mascot for the rest and it's a role I play with pleasure.
Some people might have started to twig I wasn't bio-born female but they didn't pass on their suspicions to the majority so all was well on that front.
There are a dozen other memories that I could write here but you get the gist.
I got to see so much, some good, other stuff not so. Some fun and some a pure battle that made me glad to be alive by the time I'd finished it.
It was tricky concerning drillin and cleaning my face but it's just a case of planning and regulation.
And as a result I'm seriously looking into taking a few weeks off from work on unpaid leave and spending time on kibbutz. I loved it. It was fun.