Leading myself

A night time walk on Shabbat. Check out the almond tree
blooming on the left.

                It is easy, when you are far from home, to follow the crowd. Here in Israel, it is very easy for me to dress like the Orthodox Jews in my neighborhood – long skirt and long sleeves, it is easy for me to join the girls in my program in their activities, it is easy for me to act like a religious Jew, to follow my leaders. It is more difficult to go my own way, to lead myself, to be myself. But once you break free, leading yourself can be a much more productive use of time.

I love street art.

                The glamour of being in a foreign land has worn off. I am still enthralled by the streets of the Old City, but I am no longer desiring to wax poetic on them. As I sit in a sizable bakery in the Jewish Quarter people watching and writing, I find myself uninspired. I am still amazed whenever I walk past an orange tree, but I no longer wish to stop and comment upon it. This is the time in this adventure that I must look first to lead myself, and second to become inspired again.

There is so much interesting art in
this city if you know where to
look. I'm never sure if stuff like this
sanctioned by the municipality
or if it's really just street art. 

                This past weekend, I spent all of Saturday by myself and spent most of the day at the Israel Museum. It is an amazing place, I feel like I could spend an entire year there and never see everything. It is almost a city to itself. I started at the “Model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period” I may have spent two hours just there. It is a fascinating scale replica of the city which has been updated based on archeological finds, though according to the audio tour, there are still quite a few parts of the model that are not up to date. From there, I went to the “Shrine of the Book”; the beautiful chamber that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls. Of course I couldn't read any of what was on the parchment in front of me, but it was something special to be in front of those pages. I finished my day in the Archaeology Wing. I did not, however finish the Archaeology Wing in my day. This wing of the museum is a tour through the history of the land of Canaan/Israel from the first known burial site on earth to modern day. I could probably spend several days just in this wing, and I’m planning to try to go back before I leave.

This casting is apparently the first human burial ever found.
They know that it was an actual burial because of the deer
antler seen to the right and below his head.

                On Saturdays, public transportation in Jerusalem does not run until after Shabbat, this week, that meant around 7:00PM. The Museum closes at 5:00PM on Saturday. I found myself with a choice. I could walk, wait, or take a cab. My walk that night took me across the city to the German Colony where I had a very interesting solo dinner at “The Waffle Factory.” (Good pizza, the waffle was WAYYYYY too sweet).

A drinking horn from a dig site in Israel. I don't remember where.

                I think that this has been my best weekend so far. I was alone, I was doing my own thing, I was not dependent on anyone else and no one was dependent on me. I walked more in one day that I think I have ever done before. I took control of my life and it felt good. I feel like I have begun learning about myself in a whole new way. I am learning how to take control and lead myself, even if I don’t know where I’m going. Over the past month and a half, I have been learning about my history, now I am learning about me.

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