Friday

Full moon over the
streets of Jerusalem

The asian Mid-Autumn Festival is always celebrated on the jewish feast of Succoth. They fall on the same full moon. And it is amazing how bright the moon was last night. I managed to get some early sleep because the search light aimed at our house was finally switched off. No more blazing lights shining in our eyes when we tried to sleep. By 1am I was awake ... I guess I had enough sleep. Took a walk out on our terrace and saw the huge moon above. Utterly mesmerizing. It was so amazing I decided to take a walk out in the City.  It was quite chilly ... only 15 degrees. But jews were busy walking to and from the Wailing Wall and muslims were going to the Mosque ... and soldiers were everywhere. It was as busy as daytime even though it was only 3am. The only difference is moonlight instead of sunlight. Outside Damascus Gate I was fixed on the moon above. It was so bright the whole City was lit up. It was incredible.

But once morning came, work started. It's the first day of school and there was lots to do in the library ... displaying the new arrivals, preparing the sale of course textbooks, photocopying handouts ... That was all 5 hours in the morning. Relentless. Then it was a very quick lunch. It's Friday ... penance and abstinence. That means lentil broth and fish. I had a little lentil broth though I dislike it very much. Some of us don't eat the fish .. Tilapia ... because it's rarely cooked in the middle. Always raw. Fish here are all deep frozen because of kosher laws ... that makes cooking them very difficult.

Anyway it was a short lunch because I had school and had to rush 1km uphill to New Gate. Then it was rushing to write some lesson notes in 40 minutes, but was interrupted by a prof. and a student who cannot understand that the library is closed today. Insisted on searching for books. It was an awful moment. Anyway class ended at 5pm, then it as doing some of my own homework and then it's off to work with a group at 7.30pm (no dinner) till probably 9pm. Long day. But I would still like to see again the moon tonight.