Half day off

Sunset at Jaffa beach

Another tiring weekend packed with work. Sunday morning I was supposed to celebrate 2 Masses but luckily several profs and students found out and told me not to do the 7am one because they will substitute me. That way I was more free in the morning to celebrate the 9am Armenian Mass at the 3rd Station. Immediately after that, I had to accompany 2 students to our Jaffa house as they have never been there before. I had to bring them around to know our 2 church communities there, watch the liturgies celebrated and introduce them to our apostolates. In a way it was a half day off for me. It was a nice break though it was more of a job. A different job from the daily routine.

Entrance of the
Carmel Market

We also had some time to walk around Carmel Market just on the outskirts of Tel Aviv city. There's lots of interesting things there like food, flowers, souvenirs, clothes ... all much cheaper than Jerusalem. The market is a lot more cosmopolitan, with people from many different countries. In Jerusalem the market there is frequented by ultra-orthodox jews.  It's a lot different from the Jerusalem atmosphere. Here we don't see troops of police and soldiers at every street corner. No one was stopped and searched. There was no tension in the air. People were relaxed. It's a good change from Jerusalem. But it was tiring for me. And I had to wake up at 3am this morning for class.

Back in Jerusalem, the police presence is very heightened. The weather is lovely though ... warmed up during the day with no wind, only sunshine. But the nights still go down to 2 degrees. I still get my asthma attacks ... but now it's when I walk long distances. I get terribly out of breath and the airways begin to spasm. I realized that every 300 meters uphill I have to stop and rest otherwise the spasms will get worse. That goes for climbing stairs as well. Anyway let's see if it'll rain on Thursday as predicted. That might give me the excuse not to go to work and reduce my chances for asthma.