Here are some little odd observations I’ve made in the last couple weeks while traveling around:

1. The Orthodox Jew on rollerblades skating frantically to finish errands before shabbat started.

2. Ringtones on an Israeli bus are interesting. You will hear pop songs, Israeli songs, Arabic music, sound effects, but oddly enough I have yet to hear any real rap.

3. The Moslem effort to show the world that only Moslems should be on the Temple Mount has had the effect of destroying what was once a crammed packed business area around the Lions Gate. It’s probably the most quiet and pretty much deserted gate now. 90% of those businesses were Moslem owned.

4. The older lady playing the accordin on the street to get the extra coinage. My mom played according and owned the same one from the 1950’s til the day she died. I gave the lady a shekel.

5.  The Mall at the Jaffa/Yaffo Gate just seems ridiculous the more I think about it. It is nice but so out of place. No one goes there hardly during the day.

6. The change in Moslem women. You see them often wearing the fancy heels etc. and twice on this trip I’ve seen them enter a pub with a guy which I admit just shocked me.

7. Orthodox Jews begging – especially at the Wall – just really ticks me off. They get so much government money and exemptions…. get a job.

8. I’m really going to miss the food when I go home.

9. My friends and I are just as lousy pool players as we were 10 years ago. You’d think we’d improve by now.

10. The h2o ‘live on the web’ ceremony I encountered at the Yaffo/Jaffa gate which was part pagan (drum ritual and call of ancestors), part Jewish, part hippie, part lets chant and bring some good karma to the world. It fell apart in the first 2 minutes when the sirens went off during their opening call to the ’spirits’, ‘gods’ and ‘ancestors’ for peace and harmony. 30 seconds later a bunch of druggies who probably could’ve used a shower 6 months ago came bouncing through singing to the top of their lungs. I really couldn’t figure out what h20 were about but it was hard to take them seriously after that. I got it on video though.