Jacir Palace Inter-Continental Bethlehem

... with angry, delayed passengers milling about and the smell of McDonalds wafting through the air. The next day Bob Marley came in late because he was DJing some party in Jerusalem untill the morning hours. It was just Yoel and myself for lunch and he managed to create quite a spread in the tiny kosher "kitchen" (one burner, one pot and a rack of spices) they had in the work room. He made shakshuka, (sauted tomatoes and onions in olive oils with a ...

... allemaal nieuwsgierig om een hoekje, maar al snel gingen bij alle vrouwen de hoofddoeken af en waren we gewoon een paar erg blanke nichtjes op visitie. Nona en ik zaten vol interesse naar de keuken te kijken, waar de 'Breakfast' (avond eten, dat het vasten breekt..) werd voorbereid, dus we werden naar de keuken gestuurd. Daar werden we op een krukje geplant en kregen we een feestmaal voorgezet, terwijl het nog buiten nog licht was en we helemaal geen honger hadden! Vooral ...

... task. It is amazing to stand in the now 5 by 4 metre well after hours of drilling rocks, filling up buckets with rocks, heaving buckets of rocks to the surface and tipping about buckets of rocks.<br><br>In addition to this very physical, practical work, Daoud asked me to write a report on the summer camp and make a presentation with the photos to give to the children. I did these with pleasure and from then on was given a variety of different writing tasks such as writing the ...

... by the childrens&#8217; Arabic babble and short conversations with my slowly increasing vocabulary. I definitely find that everyday I understand a little bit more of what&#8217;s being said around me. The summercamp, in particular, was great for this. <br><br>The children would arrive on a bus at 9am and our day would start by picking them up at the roadblock and walking them back to the farm. We had games in the field from 9-10 then split off into our four groups (which emerged as ...

... Angels appeared to some shepherds near by in the fields. There are a couple of places that it&#8217;s believed that this happened. I think we went to the Latin Quarter. There was a small church and a couple of ruins and some cool caves. There were also great views of Bethlehem. And it&#8217;s pretty apparent to see new/illegal Israeli Settlements on Palestinian land. <br><br><br>Nativity Church- <br><br>This is a really big and old church that is built over the ...

... schicken Haeus**n und grossen Ga**ten v**bringen, und so ihren Traum vom Gelobten Land wahr w**den lassen. Sie besitzen die fruchtbaren Boeden fu** die Landwirtschaft und bekommen den groessten Teil d** o**tlichen Wass**vorkommen - und das ist so schon nicht viel. Erst Barack Obama hat bei sein** Strategie fu** den Nahen Osten **kannt, dass die Siedlungen nach d** J**usalem-Frage wohl das groesste Hind**nis auf dem Weg zum Frieden sind, und Israel zu einem sofortigen Stopp ...

... get over the idea that I am cheating somehow in being here. What I am cheating is getting any sense of distance or connection with the land and of course, I am cheating the earth and its atmosphere.. It is very much a double edged dilemma, however, as so much of the incredible things that happen in the world could not be possible without flying and now that I am here, I would not ask to be anywhere else.<br><br>After an hour or so drive we were dropped off at Demascus gate in East ...

... t actually strike a match or answer the phone, yet alone drive a car or press an elevator button. You certainly can't listen to the radio or watch television. In fact, in the old days, it wasn't just that you couldn't listen or watch, but that those services didn't even broadcast on those days. Yom Kippur is the most somber of holidays and, I think, to this day there is no TV service or radio broadcasts on that day in Israel. This brings me back to the security issue and why Israelis ...

... down and up so nobody has to push a button for the floor they want.  Good times.  Don't gotta lift a finger tomorrow.  Just like New York City when my Jewish neighbors knocked on my door Friday nights asking me as a non-jew to twist the light bulb of their fridge so it would be out when they open the door.  That way when they open the fridge they wouldn't be doing work cuz the light wouldn't go on.  Huh?  Yeah, I'm confused to, but I obliged cuz I'm tolerant that way. :)

... I got to that dead end then turned around. I don't like to turn around because you never know what you are going to find. :) Found my way back into the city and somehow near a site that I wanted to see. I love when that happens. I went to buy a ticket and they told me that a tour group just showed up and was going in for the 11am showing, but to come back after 11:30. Yeah, needless to say i never found that place again all day. Somehow I found my way up to Zion ...