Shalom v'l'hitraot, Jerusalem! שלום ולהתראות י

 

Shalom v'l'hitraot means goodbye and see you soon. We'll be flying home to New Jersey tomorrow, so this is our last post from Israel. It is hard to believe that our time here is nearly over. Although we lived in Jerusalem for just four months, we were thinking about and planning this trip for nearly a year before we left.

During this last week, we've continued to have a great time in Jerusalem. In between celebrating birthdays and packing for our flight home, we've managed to get out and have some fun over the past few days, mostly going on our favorite walks through the neighborhood, and spending lots of time at the playground. Earlier in the week, Eric's former student, Melissa, who is visiting Israel for two weeks, came to visit us. We hung out on our porch before going out for falafel. The boys, as well as Eric and I, really had fun seeing Melissa again!

We're now wrapping up our final shabbat in Jerusalem. As I've mentioned before, even though we don't celebrate shabbat in a religious sense, if you live in this city, you can't help but slow down and pay attention a little more as the week comes to a close and places of business shut down for 24 hours. Most Friday mornings, including this past one, Eric and I split up in the morning to get our weekend groceries: he and Alexander go to the bigger supermarket to get a chicken and whatever else we might need for dinner. Benjamin and I go up the street to Tomer Bread to get challah and dessert (and coffee for me!). Benjamin and I had a great last walk up and down Gaza Street to Tomer yesterday; the street is cool and shady in the morning, and filled with people carrying flowers and bread and groceries for the weekend. I carry Benjamin on my chest, facing outward, and it's fun to have people stop us on the sidewalk, or in the bakery, and coo at him, calling him "Hamud," which means handsome in Hebrew. On our walk back home I tried to take in all the palm and cypress trees growing tall in the gardens of the apartment buildings, and said goodbye to the traffic and the pedestrians, the bookstore and ice cream shop, the market with the best fresh fruit, the used clothing shop, the beautiful new flower shop, the cafes and convenience store, the falafel shop and Pizza Bella. By the time we made it home, Benjamin was asleep, so we both took it easy in the living room while waiting for Eric and Alexander to get back from their morning adventure.

 

Later on, we took our last trip up to one of our favorite spots, the Israel Museum, where we saw a preview of the next show, "Color Gone Wild," and then had lunch in a shady spot near the sculpture garden.

 

And last night, we shared our shabbat meal with our new friends, Alon and Dahlia. Alon is a painter  and teacher Eric met during his research, and Dahlia is a photographer. Their son, Sheked, is just a few weeks older than Alexander. I took a picture of our table on the porch before our meal, but unfortunately, in the bustle of eating, watching kids and putting them to bed, I didn't get a picture of Alon and Dahlia...

 

... but I did get a shot of Alexander and Sheked sneaking into the cabinet while we weren't looking to pull out a bunch of CDs, staples, a stapler, and other assorted items that they weren't supposed to be playing with! I think Alexander was showing off the restricted cabinets to his new friend!

 

And here we are, in front of our home away from home. It's going to be hard to leave this place. I'll miss the wind blowing through the big windows and doors, the shadows of leaves and vines that seem always to be playing on the stone and tile floors, the beautiful gardens, and wonderful location of this truly one-of-a-kind house in Jerusalem.

Lastly, here are a couple videos of the boys, playing with the trees and vines that grow near the house.

 

We're grateful for the amazing four months we had in Israel. There is a lot more I want to say about our experiences here, but since we're leaving tomorrow, I'll stop the entry here. Perhaps I'll keep up the blog -- or start another one -- when we return home. We'll see! We'll miss Israel, but we're looking forward to seeing friends and family back home. Goodbye, Jerusalem. We hope to see you again soon!

Happy Birthday, Alexander!

 

Today, our little boy turned two. We are amazed. It's hard to put words to how it feels to watch a child start growing up, so I'll just post a few highlights from our day. We started the morning with bubbles, stickers, and balloons.

Then we then took a trip back to the Jerusalem Zoo, where Alexander rode on a train, saw a bunch of his favorite animals, and ate a bag of every Israeli child's favorite treat: Bamba! (Bamba is like Cheetos, but peanut butter flavored. Kids go crazy for it!)

 

 

And of course, we wrapped up the day with cake and presents.

 

 

 

Alexander wasn't the only one we celebrated. Benjamin turned 8 months old today! Time flies...

 

 

The Monastery of the Cross

 

Here are a few pictures from our morning at the Monastery of the Cross, which is about a five-minute walk from our house. We thought since we see the outside of the building almost every day, we should go in and check it out. Once inside, we found ourselves walking through a series of peaceful courtyards, stairways, balconies and gardens. Aside from the parrots whose chatter filled the entryway (and which Alexander and Benjamin were enthralled by), the monastery was very quiet, as there were only 4 other people touring the site with us. While this sprawling complex has been rebuilt many times, the original structure was built in the 11th century. Some believe that the Monastery of the Cross was built on the site where the tree used to make Jesus's cross once grew.

 

Tree Hugger







I used to think you couldn't get decent exposure to the natural world in the city; these days, I am rethinking that idea. Today Eric went on his last school visit, and the boys and I hung out in our yard, then went down to the playground. While Benjamin napped, Alexander spent most of his time in the "park" area of the playground, rather than on the playground equipment itself. Watching him race around the park, I couldn't help but notice how much he's grown these past several months. Four months ago, he took his first ride down a slide in this playground; now he races up the stepladder, down the slide, and around the park with confidence, agility, and speed. He knows every inch of the playground, and each time we visit, he makes ritual stops at all his favorite places: the tree with the tutim (berries), the rocks he likes to clamber up on, the tree he likes to "climb," the water fountain, the fence facing the busy street where he can see every kind of vehicle imaginable, the swings and jungle gym. In the past few months, Alexander has begun to know the particular landscape of this park, and even though it's in the city, and right next to a busy intersection, he's exposed to a surprising amount of nature there. In the playground he hunts for snails, looks for woodpeckers, eats almonds and berries, collects pine cones and stones, and sees many different varieties of trees, shrubs, and flowers. Sometimes if you look up through the pine boughs, you can see swallows darting across the sky. One day, we saw the moon. And nearly every day, we swing on the swings. We're all going to miss this little playground we found just down the way from our house.  Here are some pictures I took during our visit there this morning.

 

 

Here, Alexander is "hugging" a "baby etz."Etz means "tree" in Hebrew. This tiny cypress is growing in our backyard. Alexander loves this little tree, probably because it's about his size. Sometimes he's a little rough with it, but he also likes to hug it. Seriously: it was his idea to start giving the tree some love. We did not set this up!

 

Here he is looking for tutim. Unfortunately, most of the fruit had been eaten or was out of reach today. But you get a good sense of the size of the park in this picture.

 

Here he is checking out the mayim (water) coming out of the park's drip irrigation system, which is an Israeli invention.

 

Heading downhill, picking up speed...

 

Hugging the flowers. Again, he did this on his own, I swear!

 

"Climbing" a tree.

 

Getting his balance on a rock...

 



 

And checking out the view (of trucks, cars, taxis, motorcycles, buses, and scooters whizzing by)!

 

 

The perfect seat.

And a ride on the swing with Abba (Dad), who met us at the playground after his meeting. You might be able to see the stroller in the background, where Benjamin took a good long nap while Alexander and I played.

 



And back at home, here's Benjamin: well-rested after his morning nap, and almost crawling!



The Four of Us (plus some photos from the neighborhood)



 

It's rare that we get a picture of the four of us, so even though this one is a little blurry, I wanted to post it. It was taken by Eric's cousin Ruthie, who lives in Netanya, which is on the coast north of Tel Aviv. We went to visit Ruthie this past weekend, to return some things she had loaned us, and to say goodbye to Ruthie and our friend Michelle (another Fulbright scholar)! We are leaving Israel in just over ten days, so as we say goodbye to the family and friends who have supported us here, we are feeling a little sad about leaving this beautiful place. We are particularly grateful to Ruthie and her family. They hosted us for wonderful Passover and shabbat dinners, loaned us some baby gear, and made us feel like we had family when we were far from home. Alexander absolutely loved visiting Ruthie's house: whether he was splashing in her kiddie pool, playing with her kids' huge collection of Duplo trains, watering the garden, eating Ruthie's delicious brisket, or sharing his cookies with her dog, he pretty much had non-stop fun every time we went to Ruthie's. We all did. Thank you, Ruthie! 

  

And on a completely unrelated note, just for fun I thought I'd post some pictures we've been collecting of some of the more impressive houses and buildings we've seen around our local Jerusalem neighborhoods of Rehavia and the German Colony. While these buildings aren't exactly "typical" of most residences in Jerusalem (the vast majority or homes are in apartment buildings, which are generally 3-6 stories high, but can be much higher), they give you a sense of what some of the older or ritzier buildings look like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Visit to a 6000-Year-Old Garden

This morning, we visited Sataf, which is an ancient agricultural site in the Jerusalem Hills. Sataf, which was first settled by the Israelites about 6,000 years ago, is located on a steep hillside that contains two natural springs. The area was first terraced for agriculture about 4,500 years ago, and ever since, the gardens have flourished or deteriorated, depending on who was in power and who was cultivating the land. In the past century, the area served as an Arab village, then a moshav (a cooperative agricultural community), before the site was abandoned, the terraces collapsed and the irrigation pools filled with dirt and debris. The site was used for military training until the 80s, when several groups began restoring Sataf: digging out the irrigation pools and channels, rebuilding the walls and terraces, unearthing old olive and wine presses.

Today, volunteers not only continue to restore Sataf, they also actively farm the land. During our visit, we walked through vineyards, orchards with olive, almond, fig and pomegranate trees, and gardens full of lettuce, onions, peppers and squash. The trees kept the exposed hillside cool and pleasant, and during our visit we met a lot of friendly people (including other families with young children). Alexander particularly enjoyed walking up and down the stone steps, as well as checking out the impressive water storage pools. While signs clearly prohibit swimming at the pools, we saw several groups of mountain bikers stop to jump into the water to cool off before heading back onto the trails. I thought the water looked a little sketchy for swimming, but I guess if you're hot enough, any kind of swimming will do!