We're back

Long travel day. Amazing that I could keep sleeping all the time in the plane, in the first bus, in the second bus, in the third bus, and in the last shared taxi (we got lost).

It's a bit weird to be back, home in a foreign land. Now I'm going to try out how it is living in Bethlehem.

Welcome chicken!

"Welcome chicken!" was the very enthusiastic greeting from one of the sellers at the Bethlehem market today.
"My name is not chicken!" I replied, pseudo-offended and with hands at my sides. A laughed loudly, then the seller laughed when somebody laughingly translated for him what I had said.
When all the laughter had cooled off we got free tea from him. And bought a chicken.

We had heard "Hello falafel!" some minutes before from another seller, but there I only got to mumble "I'm not called falafel" to A while we walked on.

Marked place can be fun.

Three pictures from an eventful day

It's passover, and for seven days Jews are not allowed to eat anything fermented. Including beer, which is why Yesh (the supermarked, e' as the Hebrew letters looks like to me) have put a plastic cover over it. And over the bread, the bakery, the crackers, the cornflakes, the meat coated with bread crumbs, and some other things I couldn't identify. Thanks to the Arabs for still baking and selling bread!

This might soon be our new neighbour in Bethlehem (we hope!). The name sounds wrong in my ears, even though I haven't watched the silly tv-show on Danish tv.

Techno-party at Jaffa Gate, entrance to the Old City, where we saw orthodox Jews with long curls, golden holiday robes and big hats dancing side by side with youngsters and old people with white hair. It's Passover (and Easter) and the city is full of life, which is nice, but there're so many people!

Oh that jazz!

Relaxing jazz concert in Bethlehem as conclusion to the Jasmine Festival that the ESNCM had arranged. I almost fell asleep to the jazz, but it was a very refreshing and energetic jazz, so I was wonderfully relaxed and reloaded afterwards. The singer was amazing, she had a wonderful jazz-voice, and the 4 guys on drums, double-bass, guitar, and clarinet did a very good job.

Afterwards we joined the band and some of my orchestra mates (and ESNCM teachers) at Casa Nova restaurent, and had very delicious Italian ham and cheese - it tasted of something, contrary to the cheese and sliced meat we've found in the supermarked.

During the evening while we were talking to the Norwegian timpanist (from ESNCM orchestra) and his wife, first two Danes came over and said hello (I had attended a course with one of them in Århus two years ago) and then some Norwegians. Indeed a small town of Bethlehem.

Biking home from Bethlehem was a bit challenging, because the big iron gate at the checkpoint was closed. Luckily the soldiers opened it for a car going into Bethlehem, and then let us through after seing our visas - and informed us that the gate normally is closed at midnight.

Last concert!

Our last concert with the ESNCM symphony orchestra was in Hebron on the newly build Children's Center. It is so new that the people in the city hardly know it (and of course our driver didn't have an address for it and had to ask for directions), and the area around it is also only half build. Despite the playground with basket field in front it looks more like a congress center where grown-ups hold meeting about children, that a place for children.

The view from my spot in the orchestra. We're rehersing, probably tuning the strings here. The piano here is an upright and hence not so full of sound, so they had to take of the front. And our conductor spend a lot of time tuning it.

We played for a full hall of Arabs, and apparently we played the very first classical concert ever in Hebron. I wonder how many were there for the music and how many were there to say hello to each other and be seen. They behaved like they would during an Arabic concert; walking around and talking to each other and on the phone, or walking in and out of the hall. It was a bit disturbing, I'm used to a well-behaved audience sitting still and listening, but I enjoyed playing the music so much that I didn't care what the audience thought, and they were free to leave if they didn't like it. But they did like it, especially that we had the Palestinian girl on piano and that the Palestinian basoon player conducted Valse Triste, and the applause after Dvorak's Finale was resounding.

It was a bit sad when it was over, that was it for now. Many of us ran around with a piece of paper and asked for contact information for each other, and we had a group picture taken. I joined the teachers in Bethlehem at Casa Nova Restaurent for a drink and after-party, and that was a good way to gear down from an intense but wonderful week.

I wish the orchestra would meet regularily so I could continue to play in it, but I realise how difficult it is to gather students from Jerusalem and Bethlehem and Ramallah in the same place. If the rehersal is three hours and transport is one hour each way plus waiting at checkpoints, then it's a full day project each time.

Second concert

Second concert evening was in Ramallah, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hope (which we couldn't find an address for from home, and our driver from Jerusalem had problems too finding it - so it's not just me!). It's a beautiful church with mosaics - and I have a weakness for mosaics, probably because they look best with light from outside. Our rehersal was early, because there was a one and a half hour mass just before the concert, and everybody (here) knows that friday afternoon is the time where people have time to go to church (they are working on sundays, being the first day of the week).

The concert went well, though I was a bit tired from yesterday. The program was the same, but tonight the basoonplayer conducted the Valse Triste as part of her conducting exam in France (it was recorded on video).

First Concert!

Today was the first concert of three with the ESNCM symphony orchestra. We started with a late lunch at a restaurent close by (and then people had time to be late without missing the rehersal) before we went to YMCA in East Jerusalem.

Full hall and our conductor introducing the Piano and the Piano concerto.

We tried out the hall and our conductor had some last comments and corrections to how we should play the music. The hall filled with people, and we played a great concert! Our conductor introduced the pieces more to the Arabic audience than I assume he would to a European. We started with Mozart's Overture to Don Giovanni, then the Piano Concerto no.29 with our 15-year old Palestinian soloist, then Valse Triste preceded by the story from the opera of the old woman dreaming and waltzing in her dreams with her husband, and then suddenly she wakes up and remembers he has been dead for long time. Before the Dvorak suite, he introduced all the instrument(group)s of the orchestra with each instrument (group) playing a short frase so the audience could hear the sound. I was nervous for my solo in the third movement (Sousedska), but after it went well in the presentation all my nervousness was gone.

The concert finished with the fast and festive Finale, and I was high on music the rest of the evening. What a wonderful feeling!

Harman Science Library

I went to the Hebrew University in Givat Ram (not Mount Scopus where A studies) to try to find the Science Library. And I did! Got help from a fellow biker (!) to find campus, and the guards at the gate just wanted a chat before letting me in, they didn't even want to check my bag as they do at Mount Scopus.

I found the science part and another guy helped me find the prober building with the library. I first entered the reading/ working hall, but then found the stairs down to the library proper - and vóila stood in front of books about calculus, magnetism, biochemestry, and astronomy! I found the textbook "Universe", which I had come for, and checked out the other shelves with astro books. =) Great to know the library is there, though it costs money for non-students to lend books.

(Thanks to Harman Library's homepage for the picture.)

Maybe a new place to live?

We are tired of this place, and for several reasons; kitchen standards and money problems are the main two.

I almost fell into a scam site, wanting deposit before we got to see the place and then claiming to pay it back if we didn't want it. Luckily A googled the "company" crownlineproberty and the first hits were scam warnings. Sigh. Why are people so cruel?

It's expensive to live in Jerusalem, today we're going to look at another place, but it is also just a room in a shared apartment and for the same price as here. Maybe Bethlehem is an option?