I'm Your Life

 Beautiful, isn't it! Can you see the sandy hills and mountains in the distance? Usually it is pretty hazy, so I wasn't even aware they existed.

Views from my window in the Kfar Studentim (Student Village). For all you who I skyped with, I would generally sit in the courtyard to the right of the picture. 

The best view in the world. The one from my living room! The shiny gold dome is the Dome of the Rock. You can't really see it in detail, but to the left of it are the Eastern walls of the Old City. Further left (East) is the Mount of Olives. 

This is my room, which I have begun to decorate slowly with things that I have collected. Paper cranes made out of scrap paper, a cut up bottle (below) made into a light catcher. Cards, pictures, maps, tickets, quotes. It is evolving! 

More of my room. I am also drying herbs in it, which is cool. There are quite a few herbs that grow along the paths in the Kfar. The plant in this picture is mint. 

The c

The Old City and Jerusalem at 5:30AM. 

My building is the one on the left. 

More Kfar. 

One of the two gates to get in the Kfar. Everything is protected, everything is fenced in. I'm not sure if it makes me feel safe or claustrophobic. Lately, more of the latter. 

Outside my building. Seems to be a popular place to read. 

One of the thousands of cats that live in the Student Village. They are the equivalent of squirrels. 

This cat decided to be my friend. I was not very happy about that. 

Jerusalem. Police. 

Unopened stores in the shuk. 

The main road in the shuk. Trucks being unloaded. This is pretty empty. 

The bakery that I go to! The owner recognized me today!!!! They have great pita and cheap, yummy pastries, which are addicting. 

Another bakery. It smelled amazing this morning. I wandered around the shuk stuffing my face with challah. 

 I felt this was important to include as it is a reminder. This IS my life! And, boy, it rocks.

The train tracks. Where I was sitting trying to wake up before venturing into the shuk. You can't really see, but the man walking across the tracks was definitely Ethiopian. On the left side were some Haredi Jewish boys in their black hats, suits and tzit tzit. Along the right side were more casual Israelis wandering into the shuk.

I apologize for not having more pictures of the shuk when it was alive! I have been having moral dilemmas about taking pictures of these things. 1) It makes me feel like a tourist. 2) I know that when people take pictures of aspects of my daily life as though they are a novelty, I get annoyed. I want to be respectful!