A week gone by, back to tourist season

Has it really been a week? Again? I am pretty sure I have been saying that all summer long. And with the end approaching, I feel that time is going by even faster (that is except for when I try to sleep in the stifling heat). I have just under three weeks remaining in this country. I am finally being a tourist again in Jerusalem. Tonight I went into all the touristy-artist shops in the city center. However, I was able to tell them in Hebrew I was just looking and walked around a little more confidently than in days past. I find it a fascinating experience to go around as a tourist and as a resident. I know where I am going, and I see familiar faces, that being the resident part. However, I am going to places that really only tourists go and viewing sites from that perspective.
I have also begun the process of trying to figure out what I am going to do once in Colorado again. What will I do when it is time to daven Shacharit or mincha or ma'ariv? Will I pull out my bencher in a restaurant or at the breakfast table? Will I maintain my level of kashrut? Can I? Do I want to? Where will I satiate my need for Jewish studies? Do I continue to wear skirts, and why? Shomer Shabbat and what does that mean? These are really only a few of the questions that I find myself facing on a daily basis.
I am back to visiting the old city quite often. There is just something in that place which is truly remarkable. Perhaps it is the energy of the people who visit which make it tantalizing. Perhaps it is the history. Ani lo yoda'at. I went to the kotel on Tisha B'Av. It was jam-packed with mourners. An entire people mourning the loss of their people for ages. The day is so sorrowful, it is contagious. I stayed in during the day because it was just too hot to go out, and it wouldn't have been smart to do so while on a full fast. Monday night at the kotel was one of the most intense times I've been there. Thousands of women (I didn't pay attention to the men) in collective prayer and sorrow. We were standing at the very place that 1937 yrs ago fell to the Romans. We touched our history. I could vividly imagine the bloodshed. The rocks had not been disturbed for nearly 2000 years and there I was, looking at them, touching them. I cannot express how surreal the experience was.
There is little else like the old city for me.

And then we fast forward to today. One of my IDF (Israeli Defense Force) friends was talking about explosives in tunnels, below Gaza. He spoke of bombing the tunnels which are used to transport goods into Gaza. By goods, I really mean weapons and intelligence. I sat there and wondered what the next day was going to bring. What will happen to Tisha B'Av in the distant future? The idea of an enemy has not yet disappeared.

The intense heat adds to the tension. Actually, that is why many wars in this region occur in the summer time. The heat is just too much. Jerusalem is experiencing yet another heat wave. Around 100F and coupled with 100% humidity. I am sweating from places that I didn't know had sweat glands. The air is thick with pollution and dirt that never seems to dissipate. No air conditioning, no fans, no relief. I thought about riding the bus for the evening--just because it is air conditioned, but then I remembered that they give me motion sickness. Didn't seem like an appropriate trade off. So here I sit and sweat. Even the evenings aren't nearly pleasant any more. We are hoping for the spell to break in the next day or so. Then again, they've been saying that for two days.

That's about all from here. I still haven't decided what I am going to do on my last week. My dad once said, a long time ago actually, no decision is a decision. I have a feeling that is going to pan itself out fairly accurately this time around.
Wish you all well, and I will see you in three weeks.