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!