Cool weather

Damascus Gate night market

Wednesday and all is well ... no major incitements and the heat was more bearable. Last night was much cooler than usual. For once this summer I didn't need to use the portable aircon. A cool breeze kept blowing all night and it felt more like autumn. The night markets at Damascus Gate and Musrara neighborhood were crowded with people ... something that was not possible 2 weeks back when the riots and demonstrations caused the area to be closed. Life is coming back again ... let's just pray that nothing bad occurs to ruin our summer nights. We want to be able to go out and buy fruit and eat ice cream and enjoy the breeze ... please don't spoil our summer.

Meantime children and youths are making the most of these last 2 weeks before school begins. Summer camps are winding up and most kids are free and want to go shopping and mall-hopping with schoolmates. For the israeli students it's school for only a month before the great feasts begin: Rosh HaShana (New Year) on September 21-22, Yom Kippur (Sept. 30), Sukkot (Tabernacles) on Oct. 5-6, Simchat Torah on Oct. 13. It's a very long series of feasts and school and most public institutions will be closed. The muslims on the other hand have their feast of Arafah (beginning of the Mecca pilgrimage) on Aug. 30-31; and Eid el Adha (Sacrifice of Ishmael) on Sept. 1. So both religions are having their major feasts soon and school will close just as soon as they open.

As for me it's the same everyday ... school or no school. Holiday is still a vague unattainable dream.