It’s summertime, which means several different things:

•  Variation in my normal routine  
• Travel 
• Karate courses    
• Actually writing blogposts 

I already missed blogging on a few of the adventures from June and the beginning of July, but considering my penchant for not blogging at all, I’m just going to let those ones go by, lest I get overwhelmed in my zeal and fail spectacularly.

Albuquerque Karate Course

My July travel adventures began with a road trip to Albuquerque, NM for a week-long Shotokai Karate course. The course was fantastic, and I felt like I improved even beyond my hopes for the course. 

In the last session of practice, we were doing a very intense exercise, and I accidentally punched someone in the mouth. Fortunately, he moved enough that the punch didn’t fully land. But there was a bunch of blood and a long wait (8 hours) for him to see if it needed stitches (it didn’t). I felt really, really terrible about the whole thing. I guess I had somehow thought that I could practice a martial art without actually experiencing the martial aspect of it. 

Anyway, after a long conversation with the course director, I’m feeling much, much better. The gist of what I learned is that the guilt I felt from hurting someone is actually a good thing, and that I should never get rid of it. Without it, I would turn into a monster: someone who hurts others without even considering their humanity or their pain. Even though I am practicing a martial art, I shouldn’t take pleasure from causing pain to others. I also need to learn to find that higher level of control so something like this doesn’t happen again. In the end, this was a big learning experience for me.

My knuckles--5 days out. I should have taken pictures right after.

They are mostly healed up by now. There is still some slight discoloration visible around the scabs. 

My knuckles are not indicative of how much blood came out of my sparring partner's mouth. He was much worse off than I was. :(

Palestine

 After course on Friday evening, I began my overseas trip, beginning with flights to Tel Aviv. Revelation: taking a red-eye flight immediately after an exhausting karate course was a brilliant idea! Also, melatonin pills are my friends on long flights. I generally don’t sleep well on flights, but out of my 19 flight hours, I slept for around 14, meaning that I didn’t feel like collapsing the moment I arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday morning.

I spent the rest of Sunday with my Palestinian friends in Beit Sahour, a little town next to Bethlehem. Upon arriving in Bethlehem, I took a taxi from the checkpoint to meet my friends. I had an interesting conversation with my taxi driver. He has a degree in engineering, but since they built the wall separating Bethlehem from Jerusalem, he is unable to use his degree because he can’t get into Jerusalem anymore. Most of the economy in Bethlehem is based around tourism, and engineers are not really needed in this area. So he drives a taxi. I really felt for him, but was impressed by his optimistic outlook on life.

 

After arriving in Beit Sahour, I spent a lovely afternoon with my friends, ate a delicious dinner, and then got a great night’s sleep. Monday morning, I got up and had fun playing games with the kids—half the time I had no clue what was going on, because they are Palestinian games, and none of them actually speaks English. So I just did whatever they did, and it all worked out. We played a variation of musical chairs, called “halaka, halaka, stop!” I thought it was interesting watching how they decided who passed on to the next round. Usually it would be according to whoever sat down in the chairs soon enough. But sometimes they would decide that as the guest, I should advance (even when I didn’t get a chair), or that one of the kids should advance, particularly if they hadn’t advanced very far for the last few rounds. It was sweet and very fun.

I enjoyed lots of wonderful Palestinian dishes, which true to form, I failed to photograph. I will attempt to rectify this in the future.

Tsur Hadassah

After leaving Bethlehem, I walked to a bus stop near the checkpoint to catch a bus to Tsur Hadassah, a little village outside of Jerusalem. As I was approaching the bus stop, I saw someone vigorously waving at me. I was surprised, and as I got closer, I recognized H, one of the people I was going to visit! We hitchhiked to Tsur Hadassah together, where we had a lovely dinner of couscous with tomato sauce, chicken, carrots, and sweet potatoes. 

I got to meet Y and H's children, and I'm happy to report that I've struck up a friendship with their oldest, T, who is exceptionally smiley and active. We've read bedtime stories each night, and T even requested a goodnight kiss. I take my auntly duties very seriously, so I'm glad that we hit it off, even though I'm not technically her aunt. ;)

Tuesday was adventurous. I got to help Y build part of a garden planter for tomatoes and other plants on their balcony. Then we went on a hike. It was a beautiful hike, albeit a bit warm. 

We hiked up to some ruins in the area. They are crusader era, and more extensive than I expected.

The view the top

On the way back down, we passed by the spring that once fed the old fortress. There were fig trees growing near it, and we enjoyed the snack! Here is a fig that had ripened to the point of splitting open. I love the contrast of the red against the green.

For dinner we made homemade spaghetti with apple ravioli for dessert. Here is some of the process. (See? I'm improving. I'm documenting food.)

The dough we used. I had already pressed out the raviolis. This was leftover, and we made it into fettuccini.

Boiling the ravioli.

Some of the finished product. They looked better once I got the hang of it.

I felt a little bad--I was so exhausted from jet lag that I faded pretty quickly after about 5:30. So it was pretty lame being around me. But after a good night's rest, I was refreshed and ready to go again!

I think I should write a bit about my free days in Verona as well, the days when I was not busy singing. I had around 5 days to do whatever I liked. So I'll share some of the adventures and pictures from those. A lot of these were things that I saw each day as I walked back and forth from the Old City, so there might not be a lot of explanation. 

The main gate of ancient Verona. Historically, all of the merchants would enter here to sell their wares. 

 One of the churches we visited in Verona. 

 The holy relics of the church. 

 I loved the balconies on the buildings. Someday I would like a balcony overflowing with ivy and flowers. 

 My first dinner in Verona: a duck and truffle dish. Also my first time having truffle, which is very popular in Italy. It was very delicious. 

One of the arches on the walk home. 

Walking through the Castel Vecchio (the old castle) on the way home from the Old City. 

Crossing the Castel Vecchio bridge. We walked this all the time, nearly every time we went from our residence to the Old City. 

 The other side of the Castel Vecchio.

My second dinner. Lasagna. Delicious. 

Our first opera (Nabucco) in the Verona Arena. Very cool to be sitting on the same seats that Roman citizens sat on 2005 years ago. The set was fantastic. And they had so many people—some of the performers even went up on the seating behind the stage for effect. It was very impressive. Unfortunately, by then it was dark, and I was unable to capture a good image of it. 

I took a day trip to Florence. This was inside the San Lorenzo church.  

In the vaults underneath San Lorenzo. I just thought that she was so beautiful. 

 Me by the Florence duomo. 

Such a library. Who wouldn't want to spend a day in here?

 Santa Croce cathedral. I loved this place, particularly because there are many important figures who are either buried here, or who have monuments here. 

A beautiful painting in Santa Croce. 

 Rossini! One of the great opera composers. 

A couple of incredibly lifelike statues:

Machiavelli.

Michelangelo. Probably the most brilliant sculptor to ever live. 

Looking down the church. The rafters on the ceiling were painted or inlaid with different colors of wood. Unfortunately, the lighting was such that I couldn't get a decent picture. But I tried. 

Galileo. A very brave man, and by my book, worthy of any honor. 

A closer shot of the altar. 

 Sant Anastasia, where we gave our first concert.

More food. This is important to document. This is gnocchi with tomatoes. It is the first gnocchi that I have ever really enjoyed. Italian tomatoes are unbelievable. I love them, and got tomato dishes as often as I could. 

Orecchiette with tomatoes, basil, and olive oil. There was some sort of grain sprinkled over it as well. Also very fresh and delicious. 

Our second opera, Aida. Again, magnificent set. The singing was also superb. 

I hiked up with my roommate to the Castel San Pietro, which looks out over Verona. It was gorgeous. The weather was perfect—about 80–85, and slightly rainy. It was a reprieve for us, because the week before it had been 100–105 each day. 

Looking away from the city at Castel San Pietro.

The stairway leading up to San Pietro. 

I loved this house. It was beautiful, and the gate in front was really unique. I'm afraid the picture doesn't really capture it. 

 Headed home at dusk. 

I went up to San Pietro again with Sarah later on. It was much warmer that day. 

We also went to Lake Garda. Very beautiful, and a perfect ending to our time in Italy. 

The river running into the lake.

After sunset, back in Verona. We came back for dinner with my roommate from the opera program. It was her last evening. So we had a pretty special evening. We walked through all of our favorite places, went to our favorite restaurant, and had gelato. 

On the Castel Vecchio bridge

A couple of last photos from Lake Garda. The sunset was beautiful. 

In the time it took to get my camera out, the sun was already disappearing behind the clouds. But it looked like fire, and it was gorgeous.