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?

New favorite flower

This is my new favorite flower!
They smell great and their purpleness is wonderful for the eyes. But does anybody know what it's called?

When I once get a garden I want such flowers (if they can survive in Denmark).

More from the symphony camp

Today with second clarinet, yay! Our combined clarinet sound is making BIG difference! And everybody knows that the more clarinet the better! She gave me a new trick with folded plaster on the teeth so not to damage the lower lip too much - my usual cigarette paper is ok but too thin when we're playing so much. She's a teacher at ESNCM, like 14 others in the orchestra, and then we're some other Western people "doping" the otherwise Palestinian orchestra. But classical music is Western, and not many Arabs enjoy it (though I know some Danes who also dislike it), and even fewer play it. But we're some (Western) people who really enjoy to play in a big orchestra!

Our conductor is also from outside Palestine, as far as I understand Colombian living and teaching in Switzerland. I think he's great, so tense and alive and seeing everybody in the orchestra, which makes everybody more alert on what he is trying to make us play.

Rehersing the Piano Concerto.

We played (click on the title to hear the music on youtube):
- Mozart's Overture to Don Giovanni. This was the one I looked most forward to playing, but Dvorak's Czech Suite, especially the Finale, ended up as my favorite after the weekend.
- first movement from his Piano Concerto no. 29 k.466. No clarinet part in this one, but with a talented 15-years old Palestinian girl at the piano.
- Sibelius' Valse Triste - also used as conducting exam piece for the Palestinian basoon player for her studies in France. Lots of cameras recording her and the orchestra. And then I realised that one of them was from MBC (tv-station), so we might have been on Arabic television.
- Dvorak's Czech Suite op.39, Pastorale, Sousedska, Romance, Finale (link til hver). I looked most forward to play Mozart, but it's Dvorak's Finale I'm singing now.

Symphony Orchestra camp!

This weekend I spent in Birzeit, a village in the vicinity of Ramallah, on a rehersal camp with the Edward Said National Conservatory for Music's symphony orchestra. The music school is part of the University of Birzeit, I think (but maybe I'm just mislead by the official name Edward Said Conservatory).

It's a 3 day camp friday to sunday, but Palestinian kids are off from school friday and sunday (muslim and christian holidays) so they need to be driven back to school for saturday, which gives an awkward break.

The facade of the music school - I love the decorations!

It's the first time I play in a proper symphony orchestra; It's strange to be a lonely clarinet, when I'm used to big clarinet flocks in harmony orchestra, but nice to try to be THE principal clarinet.

And I've figured out that winds are as important as strings in a symphony orchestra, or even more: the winds have all the beautiful fill-ins, give the strings' sound more colour, and they are great for solos because there's more sound in one wind instrument than in one string-. So now I'm even more proud of being a clarinetist!

Shabbat dinner with friends

One of the clarinets from the Israeli orchestra had invited us for shabbat dinner tonight. I had been rehersing in Birzeit with the ESNCM symphony orchestra (more to come on that!) so we were a bit late. But couldn't call and tell her, because Jews apparently aren't allowed to use (cell?)phones during the shabbat, starting from sundown friday, maybe because they are electric and that they hence contain sparks, which are fire, and Jews are not allowed to light fire on shabbat.

It was nice to eat and talk together all seven of us, to hear about their lives and oppinions. At the end of the meal they prayed the end-of-eating-prayer (it's called something proper, but I forgot it), which to me sounded like they were all murmuring something in Hebrew very fast for a long time. They also sang some Jewish songs in Hebrew, first with original melodies and then with alternative melodies like the Adams Family and one by Beach Boys. It was funny to hear profane and religion mixed this way, but nice that it's allowed to play in Judaism (though I don't know what the rabbis would say to it).

When we biked through the orthodox area going there, a lot of Jews dressed in traditional black coats and big hats or golden holiday robes muttered "shabeeesh!" after us, which is shabbat in Yiddish, and by that they meant we were not allowed to bike on a shabbat. Also the traficlights in the area were shut down and the roads blocked by police fences, so nobody would break the shabbat and drive a car in the area. I think it's too restrictive, but let them do it if it makes them happy.

Amenian Tavern

We met with some friends visiting Jerusalem and went to an Armenian restaurent in the Old City. It's down in a basement so it doesn't look like much from the outside (as is normal for houses in the Old City), but inside is a big "cave" filled with Armenian Christian stuff and arts and crafts.
We had a mix of Armenian dishes (of course I've forgotten the names of them, but they were very tasty) and tried the Armenian dessert saussage made of grapefruit-gel and walnuts. We all looked very suspiciously at it when it was served, but it was actually very tasty.

Afterwards we went on a night stroll in the Old City, almost empty of all the people and bazaars and tourists and junk of the daytime. I was proud of myself that I could find my way around in the maze that is the Old City, and both A and I got to answer questions from our friends about the city and islam and judaism and christianity.

The very pleasant evening took a bad ending, when A and I came back to our bikes and found them punctured by the guy living behind the door close to where we had put them, and a "gang" of 3 guys waiting for us. The man living there was very angry and yelled a lot of us and tried to get a fight, but we managed to escape with some "we're sorry"s and "we won't do it again"s. This part of Jerusalem/Israel/Palestine I don't like; that people think it's ok to damage other people's things, because they think the others did something wrong.

Maundy Thursday Choir

This evening I joined a first rehersal of a choir, which is going to sing on Maundy Thursday (skærtorsdag) in the Redeemer Church and then walk to the Mountain of Olives (to commemorate where Jesus walked and were betrayed).

The songs of course were connected to Easter and its story, but I was amazed how good the amateur singers were. I managed to sing the alto voice, but mainly because I could listen to the ladies around me.

Here's a link to one of the songs we're going to sing.

Poetry Slam

Tonight was poetry slam night at the American Cultural Center in Jerusalem. We showed up to see what it was about, and had a wonderfully crazy evening with laid back people (mainly Americans). There was free popcorn and coffee/ tea, but most importently free wine, cus everybody knows poetry is best enjoyed with a glass of wine.

The two "proper" contesters reading aloud, one in Hebrew
and the other translating to English.

There were only two contesters, so the MC/ confrencier also joined. Though he still more or less ran the show with his welcome-song, choosing-the-judges-song, and the great spontaneous-haiku-song. All very silly and very funny.

The MC singing his spontaneous-haiku song. The winning poem of this round was:
Oh no what is this
I don't know how to do it
Oh shit I did it

Oh, and the American Center has a lending library! As in we can go there and borrow books and DVDs! And sit there and read. This is one of the things I've missed in Jerusalem.

Old City with old friend

I met up today with a British friend whom I met in Cairo two years ago (time's flying!).
We wandered around the Old City looking for things to see, and just enjoying the atmosphere and a falafel sandwich, together with her group of musicians. They are going to Nablus to give folk music and dancing workshops at the newly established ESNCM branch there. I might go there during the next week while they are there and listen and maybe join. There's always fun happening around her!

Tel Aviv on a shabbat

Today we celebrated that we've been married for three months by biking to Tel Aviv (60km, 800m down) and spending theday there. We thought of going all the way on highway 1, but got stopped by a police officer, who told us we were not allowed to bike on the highway... We kinda knew that, but today was shabbat and that means not many cars on the roads (observant Jews are not allowed to drive on shabbat).

The landscape on the way to Tel Aviv almost look Danish.

So we found another route - which was actually more scenic, which was nice - and after 4 hours we were in Tel Aviv, and headed straight for the beach and the water. Oh how wonderful to swim again, and for free! The beaches there are public (as opposed to around Lake Kinneret, and the indoor pools in Jerusalem for 35-50 shekels each time). Lunch at the beach, and then one more swim, just because we could and it's wonderful.


We biked around the city and it's small. Tried to find the Botanical Gardens, but the were behind closed gates. But we found the Wolfnights Chef Burger bar, where we had a bacon-and-cheese burger! Very non-kosher; bacon is not kosher, milk products and meat together is not kosher and the place was open on a shabbat!) - but we enjoyed it very much!

Preparing the burger - note the vampire-smiley at the corner of his dish! ^^

We rested on a lawn for half an hour before going on the the Immanuel Church of Jaffa to listen to an organ concert on the Book of Job played by a Danish guy we had met in Jerusalem at the Church. It's composed in the 1970's by Egil Hovland and is so modern that it uses cacaphony more than harmony... Between the seven movements were readings from the Book of Job - in Hebrew, but I found an English Bible so I could follow the story.
It was nice to meet the Danish priest in Tel Aviv and his family, and to say hello to the people we already new.

Last trip was to the New Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv, which is big and grey and ugly, but we managed to find our platform 607 on the 6th floor and get on the bus back to Jerusalem, despite many warnings that this bus station is very confusing and non-logical. But I still think it's weird to have 6th floor on a bus station, and busses departing from there!

All in all a wonderful day!

Daylight saving time

Tonight, between the thursday the 31st of March and friday the 1st of April, Israel also switched to daylight saving time, a week later than Denmark. Why it had to be on the night of a work day is a good question - maybe because Jews are not allowed to set their watches on a shabbat (between friday and saturday)?

Street art clock from Tel Aviv