Chapter Twelve - Goodbye, Jerusalem

When shabbat had ended the pace of life suddenly doubled. The remainder of the evening was strangely hectic.

First was the Israel programmes fair and bone marrow drive, neither of which I was interested in. I didn't intend to come back to Israel, so I didn't really care to hear about all the programmes I could sign up for to get there. Plus, a lot of it was a repetition of what that Canadian medic had already said at Magen David Adom.

Then came the bone marrow drive. They didn't actually extract bone marrow from anyone, they just tested for bone marrow types. Someone asked how many different types there are, but I didn't catch the answer. I would have been interested in that. Anyway, being as jaded as I was, I didn't even bother to be tested. I kind of regret that, but there is now a single, international bone marrow database, so if I really feel the urge I can get tested here and it'll be the same.

While people were being tested, I scrambled to find out what the heck we were doing afterwards. No one seemed to be clear on when and where we were supposed to meet. So I went back to the room for a few minutes to write some notes for this journal, and then I went to find Steve.

I finally found out the plans. We were going back to the Ben Yehuda open market to eat dinner, and then we were going to a club to party on our last night in the city. Oh goody, more noise and smoke, I thought.

I had already done all the shopping I was going to do, so all I had to do was eat. I went with Marie and Leah [lee-ah] to a nearby restaurant where they served shawarma. Shocking, eh? So I had shawarma on a laffa, instead of a pita. The main difference is that a pita is pretty small but a laffa is huge. I sat down and waited for Marie and Leah to order.

When Leah sat down, she said that the cashier had been hitting on her, and that he thought she was my sister, and that Marie and I were lovers. I have no idea how Leah had the time to have such an in-depth conversation with a stranger while getting her food at the same time. Some people just have that amazing talent of getting information out of strangers.

Leah had felafel on a pita, and she warned us that she was a messy eater. She wasn't kidding. She also tends to drone on about topics even if she just ends up saying the same thing over and over. "Look at this, I'm making a mess. Could you hand me a napkin, Marie? This is criminal. Look, I'm dripping all over myself. I'm such a messy eater. Look. Ugh, this is terrible. Marie, I need another napkin. Look at this mess I'm making, it's awful. I shouldn't be allowed out in public, this is so criminal. I'm making a mess all over the place here. Look at this. Can I have another napkin? What are you laughing at, Bryan? Whaaat? Look at this, I'm so messy. I need another napkin. What's so funny, Bryan? Tell me!"

That went on for about ten minutes, until I was finally able to breathe again and finish my shawarma. Then we wandered around for a while since it wasn't yet time to meet the group. Leah remembered that she had to buy a souvenir for her mother, and she had requested a nondescript gold necklace chain (why she couldn't get such a thing in Toronto, I do not know), so we went into a jewellery store. Haggling is expected there, but what ensued was most amusing. The price of the chain Leah selected was 240 shekels, which is ridiculously high. Leah offered 70 shekels, which is ridiculously low. After telling the jeweller that the chain was for her mother about a hundred times, she finally argued him down to 110 (about $31.50). She kept saying, "It's for my mother, please, it's for my mother!" but she couldn't get him to shave the extra ten shekels off. It was pretty hard to watch.

When finally the transaction was closed, we headed back to the meeting area. Leah asked me to hold the chain, since she didn't have any pockets with zippers. I was hoping that another party van would drive up and we would get to dance again, but it didn't happen. We got on the bus.

Leah sat next to me on the bus, and when the bus sound system started playing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" I sang along. I have to sing along when I hear a song I know well, because I don't know that many songs. Anyway, she was impressed at my singing voice. For reasons I couldn't guess, she called it operatic. That song is actually difficult for me because it's at the top of my range. I kept having to shift down an octave. She didn't seem to mind.

All the singing made me happy, so I was in a good mood when we arrived at the club. Leave it to Jerusalem to spoil it. I am just not a fan of clubs. Especially ones where you have to undergo a body search to get in. Seriously. It's another reminder that you're not in Kansas anymore.

I followed Leah into the main area of the club and stayed there for about half a minute until I could not take the noise anymore, so I came out to the bar area, which was slightly more bearable. Call me crazy, but I don't like being in a place where when I yell, I can't actually be certain that I've made any sound at all. It's terrifying, being totally stripped of a means of communication like that.

The bus was scheduled to make a run to the hotel at 1:00. It was about 11:30. Sigh.

I hung around out in the bar area for the full hour and a half, getting a total of two eight-shekel orange juices. At some point Marie joined me and regaled me with stories of her and her delinquent friends in the cadets. They were actually pretty amusing, and most of them ended up with the police being involved.

After a while even the bar area became to noisy and smoky, so I left Marie and went outside to wait for the bus. It was about 12:45. After a few minutes some other people who wanted to be on the 1:00 bus came out, and we patronized the hot dog stand outside. Don't ever buy a hot dog in Jerusalem. Stick with the shawarma. They're good at that. The hot dog was terrible.

While I was eating my hot dog Josh started randomly dancing with Leah. He has this weird habit of just going up to girls and dancing with them even when there's no music playing, and I've already mentioned Leah's penchant for unaccompanied dancing, so they got along well. When I finished my hot dog I danced the foxtrot with Leah, since that's the only dance I know, and then I asked Josh to teach me swing dancing. That was cool. So now I know two whole dances. Neither of them particularly well, though.

The bus finally arrived and we got on. We went back to the hotel and slept our last night in Jerusalem after saying goodbye to Sela, who had to leave. Don't worry, I apologized for embarrassing him at the goodbye meeting.

I was quite ready to be heading home. Nevertheless, we still had a long day ahead of us. Our first stop was the Har Herzl Military Cemetery, where we said our final goodbyes to the soldiers. I noticed that Shira and a soldier named Shai went off some distance from others to say their goodbyes. Little did I realize, they had formed quite a relationship.

After all the hugging, we took our leave of the soldiers and headed into the cemetery. I have absolutely no idea what happened to the soldiers after that, and it worried me because it seemed like we were just leaving them by the side of the road with nowhere to go. After that pushup contest I was not at all confident in their ability to take care of themselves. But I guess they must have done so, since Shai showed up . . . but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I was not really a fan of the cemetery. A military cemetery is a place where they bury people who have no business being dead. We heard a number of sad stories of people killed in Israel's various wars, including excerpts from a children's book written by the mother of a slain soldier, explaining to kids why it's necessary for people to go off and die in war. It saddened me, to think of children being taught that such a thing is okay.

On our way through the cemetery we passed a group of Japanese people singing Hebrew songs, which is an interesting spectacle in itself. Apparently it was a group of strongly pro-Israel Japanese. We didn't hear much more about their politics. We also saw the graves of various celebrities, which I suppose was interesting.

The pro-Israel Japanese. [photo courtesy of Steve Glowinsky]

The stone on the right reads "Yitzhak Rabin". The left reads "Leah Rabin". [photo courtesy of Steve Glowinsky]

I'm sure you can guess what the first letter of this person's name is. [photo courtesy of Steve Glowinsky]

The infamous Herzl, after whom the cemetery is named. I have absolutely no idea what his significance is. [photo courtesy of Steve Glowinsky]

When we got to Herzl's grave we stopped and rested under a large dome, where I'm sure we heard his story. I do not remember it at all. Then we left the cemetery.

I think I mentioned before that most of the trees you see in Israel are planted, not naturally-occurring. It's pretty impressive to think about, actually, considering how many trees you actually see there. We were scheduled to do our part in the forestation effort. Planting trees, hooray!

We arrived at the tree-planting place and found little saplings waiting for us. They were so cute. We also found little tree-planting flags (which were to double as shovels) with posts made of--get this--wood. Most of us commented on the irony.

Trees and flags. [photo courtesy of Steve Glowinsky]

We climbed a hill and planted our trees on the slope. With the hot sun and incredibly dry earth, I didn't think much of their chances, but apparently the organizers of the tree-planting knew what they were doing, so I had to trust them. When we finished I hung out under the shade of a nearby much larger tree. I noticed that most of the branches of the tree seemed to be dead and totally dried out. They snapped really easily. This did not bode well. Well, I'm never going back there to check on my tree, so I guess it doesn't matter.

When everyone had finished planting their tree, we got back on the bus and headed to Tel Aviv for the final leg of our adventure.

Chapter Thirteen