Getting lost, eating falafel, doing yoga

So here we are in Jerusalem.  Kathleen arrived two days ago, and we have been planning and working non-stop.  Kathleen has been a trooper -- the jet lag is ferocious, but she has been present and working hard.  I have never met someone as relentless as she is with her camera.  Is there a picture to be taken?  She takes it.  I am so glad she is here with me.  

For instance, she perfectly captured our first night together in Jerusalem: falafel in East Jerusalem!

I admit that the giant vat of boiling oil right next to the very busy sidewalk frightened me a little, and I said a silent prayer of thanksgiving for OSHA laws in the US, and for whatever organization prevents sidewalk boiling oil in Canada.

Kathleen got an amazing first Jerusalem experience on Shabbat!  She had no reason not to snap photos on Shabbat since she is Catholic, so she captured some amazing images of Erev Shabbat.

We spent a long time at the Damascus gate, sharing a bench with a group of older Palestinian women who smoked cigarettes and laughed, quite possibly at our goofiness.  Their great energy gave us the oomph to make our way back to the hotel via the Damascus Gate.

East Jerusalem souk was very busy, full of people from everywhere.  We walked home along the Via Dolorosa.

Yesterday was yoga day.  Gilad Harouvi taught an Ashtanga workshop at Zman yoga, we had signed up a long time ago, but we almost didn't make it.  We almost overslept.  Kathleen almost succumbed to jet lag.  We got thoroughly lost.  We saw an elderly woman fall and hurt herself, and we had to figure out how to call Israeli 911 (101, as it turns out), and then we had to enlist an Israeli woman who was willing to talk on the phone on Shabbat to talk to the hospital, and we almost gave up when we realized there was no working ATM on Shabbat so we didn't have the money to pay for the workshop!  But we soldiered on.

Thank goodness we did, because we met the hilarious and inspiring Gilad Harouvi.  

Please note that I will soon be teaching a workshop on Yoga of the Jedis, thanks to Gilad's frequent Star Wars references.  How is mula bandha related to Luke Skywalker mastering the force on Dagobah? You will just have to wait until I get back to learn.  Trust me when I tell you that the relationship between the two just transformed my practice.

I am so grateful for the connection to Zman Yoga and its owner Merav and Gilad!  Kathleen and I are sore, happy and inspired today!  Onward to Bethlehem and more yoga!