Half Year in Queens

photo by Shana Wernow

Since January, I have worked at Deutsch, helped out at my NYC church's Friday night youth service, visited Debbie & Josh in Ohio, cut my hair, run Bloomsday, visited my family in Seattle, and become a complete reality TV addict (Top Chef, American Idol).

"Coincidentally" in early April both my Deutsch supervisor asked me to stay and my roommate asked if I wanted to sublet through the end of summer. I asked for a raise and lower rent, respectively, and they both said yes. Providence.

I'm on an unpaid leave of absence from my WSU job to which my boss has graciously permitted me to re-start in September ("Are you sure you're coming back in September?" "Yes, I'm sure." I realize I don't have a very good track record here.)

So now that I'm in NYC for the summer, I am trying to re-create the Richlandian utopia of last summer--swimming and fresh veggies. So far the swimming part is going well. Although I am very impatient with other swimmers at my pool. God has a lot of work to do in my heart. It's as if the combo of pre-coffee and morning and slow swimmers who can't seem to congregate in the same lane but have to hog three of the four lanes for their various (slow) speeds leaving one lane for us faster people [insert foot stomp] precipitates in unusual intolerance and disdain. Hopefully unusual. I hate to think I'm like this often.

Veggie-wise: this photo is a rooftop farm down the street from my apartment. Amazing! I've also started contributing to urban composting which takes me to Union Square farmers market several times a week. AND my friend Juanita and Shana have alerted me to two other Saturday morning markets in Queens. So I have a lot to choose from. Somehow nothing is as good as having a friend whose house is a CSA drop off location but...let me be thankful. That is the only will of God for my life that I can discern for the present time.

Looking forward to many trips to the beach and dreading my utility bill after all this running the AC. I've definitely gone soft. I survived the previous eight years residence in NY with ceiling fans and cold showers. Now that I'm on the fourth floor and most recently from AC-friendly Richland, I pre-cool my room and leave it running all night. Eek!

Three unexpected things among others

Knowing I'd be here for four months, mostly wintry, I brought more clothes than I have for my 2009 travels. But it's still just a fraction of my entire wardrobe. So it amused my friend Nancy greatly that I chose to pack my (1) ice skates. I bought them back in 2006 when I frequented Kate Wollman rink in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. (I have lifetime sharpening from Paragon.) Well, I put my skates to use on Martin Luther King Jr. Monday and it was worth the cargo allotment. At City Ice Pavilion in Queens, I ran into an acquaintance of mine from church. We spent the rest of the day together skating, going to see True Grit at the Ziegfeld, finishing off the evening at Five Napkin Burger.

(2) Jar of canned peaches from Stacey. I finished them off this week with my new favorite breakfast: yogurt, granola and peaches. The washed jar sits on my shelf. Overall, I've been cooking more. In fact, my roommate asked me the other day, "Do you always pack your lunch?" To which, after I stopped laughing, told her, "No." This is new for me. But indeed, I can see why she was misled: I've grocery shopped every Saturday with a list and reusable cloth bags and the whole shebang. Lots of fun salads: black beans, goat cheese, avocado, tuna. My mother was so proud when I told her. Tonight I made a little stir-fry (ala mom) and vegetable curry couscous from Shana's Mayo Clinic cookbook.

So it's been snowing about every fourth day here. The most recent one was 'how silently, how silently' and debilitating to the city. Several of my colleagues worked from home. My 'M' train is so perfect, I arrived on time. I joined a gym around the block that has a 20 yard swimming pool. I've gone three times so far and weighed one pound less every time. Must be a fluke. But it is amazing the caloric burn swimming is. For me, it's more than running, that's cuz I run so slow. ;)

(3) Is the place mats and cloth napkins. I was thinking of hosting another dinner party this coming weekend but I haven't been organized enough. The place mats I got in Bangladesh and I've been looking forward to using them. They're made from recycled foil wrappers.

Israel

On Aug 27, we took a red-eye to Tel Aviv. I went through customs quickly and sat and waited for the rest of the group. I already loved Israel from the airport. So many emotional reunions, one friend meeting four others, a son hugging his mom. It was beautiful.

I switched buses (there were 7, I think, for the 260 of us) from Aqua to Blue. Blue Bus was guided by Moshe (the irony of being led around the Promised Land by a man named Moses). He met us at the airport and we boarded the bus to breakfast, immediately followed by sight seeing: Joppa, Ceasarea (pictured here is a reproduction of the Pontius Pilate stone, a major archaeological find evidencing the Gospels.)






The view from Mount Carmel of the Megiddo Valley.












Gave up trying to identify this plant. Want to try? A lady from my bus told me, but I forgot.







Felafel, my first of many!








This is the traditional site of the Transfiguration. This is what I meant from my previous post about Israel looking like Eastern Washington.






Breakfast! Challah!








The Sea of Galilee.

My roomie in Israel, Sue, with Mooch.











Friday morning, Jasmine and Mooch wait for Pastor Mark to speak at the Mount of Beatitudes.


Some rules about the Blessedness.










What they call the Jesus Boat, remains of a wooden boat carbon dated to the 1st Century. You can see the thick branches used to connect the longer boards. No machine-work here.






We took a little boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Pastor Bill talked about the significance of Jesus' ministry: a 33-year-old man from a tiny town. I am 33 this year. I'm from a small town (not as small as Nazareth was, but).





The Jordan River Baptism site is a major center. There are plaques all around of the same verse from Mark 1, this particular translation makes me want to learn Hawaiian Pidgin. You'll have to click to expand. "You my boy!"








Ayanna gets dunked.












Katie gets dunked.















This is particularly for Nancy. Capernaum (phonetic of Kfar "village"+Nahum) is her favorite town and I found out that based on Matthew 4:13 it's generally agreed Jesus lived in Capernaum for the start of his public ministry. Mooch at the gate of the now-tourist spot.




Hard to understand this photo but it's a shot of the ruins of what is thought to be Peter's house, the surrounding wall of a church that was built around it, and a bottom beam of the modern day church that is built suspended over these two ruins.





Beit She'an. I never have to see another excavated Roman city.

This hill is where the Philistines hung King Saul and his sons' bodies after they were killed.






This goes along with my whole soap box about the fall of 'great' civilization.







"Jerusalem, our happy home."--David Crowder Band

This is our room in Jerusalem. Full makes a huge difference over Twin.

The view from our room.








One possible location whereat was uttered: "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

The wares for sale outside the mosque nee Church of the Ascension.







A donkey on the Mount of Olives.

Walking down toward the Garden of Gethsemane (means "Olive Oil Press").










Ancient ossuaries: bones stored inside. Brings to mind phrases of "gathered to his people", "buried with his fathers", "carry my bones up from this place".

Jewish cemetery, all aligned toward the Temple.







Stained glass from the Church of the Agony, by the Garden of Gethsemane. My favorite church of the whole trip. Rather, the only one I did not dislike.









Me in unabashed tourist mode: fanny pack and strapped on camera case.











Group teaching #3, in the Garden Tomb, possible site where Jesus' body was laid after crucifixion.











My communion cup: Jasmine pointed out the South-America-shaped mark on it.


From inside what might be the garden tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.







Another olive tree.








We walked the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Suffering, which is the Roman Catholic "Stations of the Cross". I wasn't very interested since most of it isn't based in biblical account, but rather, folklore. However we did walk through the markets and I saw this model of the Ark of the Covenant.




Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a different proposed site of the Crucifixion and burial tomb on the other side of Old Jerusalem. I was eerily impressed by people venerating this rock where some believe Jesus was lain.








Our Israeli guide, Moshe.













This is cool, a part of the wall of Old Jerusalem that you can see by peering down a Plexiglas covered well of sorts. It's the same wall rebuilt by Nehemiah! Just to think these rocks were placed one on top of another by men holding a sword in one hand.





The Western/Wailing Wall. Divided by gender. You can see how the devotion split is the same here. ;)

My close encounter. See the bride on the left side?








Notes tucked into the crevices.











We went to the Holocaust Memorial. This the view from the end of it. The light at the end of the tunnel, a vision of life.









Penultimate day in Israel, we went to Bet Lehem (House of Bread) where Jesus was born. This is a photo of the church there, no Inn in sight, and I was super creeped out by the dark, dank, underground. Seems way more like death than birth to me.




Wares for sale in the Bethlehem store. I managed to leave without any stuff and instead caught the interesting discussion between our Bethlehem guide and a fellow tourist on Palestine/Israel.




Some school boys.







Our last day, we drove down to the Dead Sea. This is the lowest point on earth. Here is an acacia tree.











The shade of a hut.

Wild flora.











En Gedi! I can see why springs are so prized. En = spring. Gedi = baby Ibex (mountain goat).










The Dead Sea. Shrinking rapidly. You can see the salt dried on the beach edge. In addition to floating in it, we treated our skin with the mud from the bottom which is a natural exfolient. Very cool. I was glad all my Facebook friends set me up with low expectations as I enjoyed it.





The ascent back to Jerusalem. Could be I-82 to Prosser, right?







The full moon over Jerusalem. Goodbye, lovely city. "'May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces.' For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, 'Peace be within you.' Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek your good."

Special thanks to my NYC roommate, Pamela, for letting me use her laptop to complete this entry.