remembrance day

as mentioned earlier, last night and today is יומ השואה, day of holocaust. last night, there was a service at the yad veshem, the holocaust museum in jerusalem. today, i got to witness the siren. at 10 am, a siren blares across the entire country for two minutes. in these two minutes, crowds of people, buses, cars stop in their tracks to stand and observe the deaths of their ancestors in the holocaust. i don't know how to describe the experience. it was... a bit overwhelming. there is a palpable feeling in the air of remorse for the dead. the city isn't as buzzing as it usually is. i just felt an entire nation's feeling of despair and the effect of the diaspora on my shoulders.

in lighter news, kimmy and i went to beit ticho to see some nice paperwork art. the exhibit was small but the works on display were really amazing. i'm starting to gain a new appreciation for paper related art. there was even sound installations of paper. interesting. the whole place is such a nice reprieve from jerusalem. cute cafe, nice garden and an awesome little library of art history, artists, poetry, and literature. kimmy and i have a date to go there often and lounge around eating desserts and drinking tea while reading. afterwards, she took me to jerusalem's printmaking workshop. what a cool studio! there was a gallery up of woodcut prints and they were really nice.

on a completely different note of deliciousness. there are four king of sandwiches in israel: falafel, shwarma, fuul, and sabich. and now i can say that i've tried all of them. in order of desirability: falafel, fuul, shwarma, sabich. falafel for me is going to be the quintessential israeli food. fuul is an amazing pita pocket of beans, egg, and veggies. shwarma... it's okay; i don't get the hype. but if you like meat, go for it. sabich was interesting. not sure if i'll get it again. maybe i'll try one at moshiko's.

i haven't been to see a lot of art while my stay in israel. so this week i will remedy that by going to israel museum, museum on the seam, seeing the chagall windows at hadassah hospital and just general church hopping in mount of olives. then i will shut myself in the darkroom for hours to crank out some photos.