Travels through the holy land

Ok, I promised a post about Israel. It's long, long overdue but here it is.

Israel is, in a word, amazing. When people talk about Israel these days, the conversation tends to focus around the conflicts. But when I was there, what I saw was beauty, warmth, diversity, and awe-inspiring history.

For the first three days of my trip, we stayed in Haifa, which is a city on the northern coast. From there, we were able to venture out to Akko (aka Acre) and Caesarea. We mostly saw a lot of cool old stuff and gorgeous coastline.

Akko:





Caesarea:



Haifa:



The Baha'i Gardens gave me a sense of tranquillity I have rarely felt before.


On the afternoon of the 3rd day, we returned to my friends' homebase in Jerusalem. My favourite part of Jerusalem (and one of the highlights of my entire trip) was Hezekiah's water tunnel in the City of David.


The story goes that in 8th century BC, Jerusalem was attacked by the Assyrian army. In an effort to protect the city, King Hezekiah ordered a 1750 foot tunnel system be dug through the mountain to divert the water supply. Not only an amazing feat, but a lot of fun to walk through!

Temple Mount--the holiest place on Earth for three different major religions--was pretty amazing too.

The Western wall and the Dome of the Rock.


Women placing their prayers in the Western Wall.


And from there, the view of the Mount of Olives and the rest of Jerusalem was just stunning.



The next day we headed out to the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve.



I got myself positively covered in silt when I tried (and failed) to climb up a hill.


So we went to clean and cool ourselves off in the Dead Sea (another big highlight of the trip).



That same night, if you can believe it, we headed to Tel Aviv for a dance. I'd gone dancing in Jerusalem the night before and had a great time, but the scene in Tel Aviv took me by surprise. It's a lot bigger and the level is a lot higher than I would have guessed. Not to mention, the people were very friendly.

The next day was a quiet one. We wandered through the shops and markets in Jerusalem and prepared ourselves for the Sabbath. I really enjoyed the experience. There's nothing like peace, quiet, and good food shared between good friends at the end of an eventful week.

And then it was time for me to go. I wasn't ready to at all; it felt like I needed at least another week. Don't be surprised if I go back again soon.

But for now... the next trip I have booked is Rome at the start of December. I can't wait for more adventuring.

No rest for the wicked

Whew! It's been a busy few weeks. You'd think being on holiday would have brought me a bit of respite, but no... lately my life has been all go go go.

My favourite part of my half-term break was painting murals for Kids Company. A day of physical labour can go by surprisingly quickly. I didn't want it to end.


Of course, before half term was Dubai, and I still haven't talked much about that. Dubai is full of steel and concrete; big fancy towers and shopping malls and resorts and 14 lane highways and every single brand name you can imagine. Even Canadian brands!


It's all very luxurious, I suppose, if you're into that sort of thing. I personally found it a bit sickening.

For me, Dubai had one single saving grace (apart from the sunshine): The Creek.


The Creek is the heart of Old Dubai and is where most of the traditional souks (markets) are concentrated. I had a brilliant time browsing and haggling my way through the labyrinths. It reminded me of India (though it smelled much more delicious), and I wound up getting some rather impressive deals.


It's also where I finally found some local food (shockingly difficult to acquire in Dubai!) and for a great price. This shawarma is about a fifth of the size of the ones they sell in Ottawa, but it was just the right amount of food and packed loads of flavour. The accompanying avocado juice was about the most amazing blended drink I've ever tasted. The total for both came to 11 dirhams (£1.84). I'm emphasising prices because they're so different from the rest of Dubai. My other lunches cost me between 60 and 110 dirhams (£10-18) and weren't nearly as nice.


Most people who live there will tell you there are too many Indians, but I think the high concentration of Indian expats was a big part of what made it appeal to me. Sights like these stirred up my memories of dusty, chaotic, magical India and made it seem like a real place where real people live and work, rather than a Wall-E wasteland.



I'll admit, I wasn't immune to the appeal of some of the nicer touristy spots...


And the dune bashing safari was a riot, if overpriced...


But if I were to return to Dubai, I'd definitely stay near the Creek and spend most, if not all, of my time there.

Next up: March 11-13 in Paris.

Chasing the blues away

I'm cheating here, because it's past midnight and therefore no longer September 8th... but since I haven't gone to bed yet, I feel entitled to say that I moved to London precisely one year ago. A lot has happened and changed in that time, but one thing is the same as this time last year: the stress of not having a job.

Finding work at the beginning of the school year is a challenge. Schools are still sorting out what they need in terms of long-term positions and daily supply roles are few. I have hope that because I have more experience now, I'll have an easier time landing something long-term. But in the meantime, it is rather stressful. Add to that a few other personal issues, including the fact that I have outgrown my shoebox of a room, and you get a Bryn who is not sleeping properly, not eating properly, experiencing headaches and physical tension, and suffering from miniature panic attacks. Not fun.

I'm doing my best to counteract this by getting out, meeting people, and doing things. Last night, for example, I went out to two dance venues (one WCS, one lindy hop). Had a great time and felt significantly better afterward. Fantastic, so long as I don't think about the money I spent.

My friend Desirée has been great about getting me out, too. I've already met two of her friends (both really interesting people) on two separate occasions this week. On Sunday, we tried to go to a free outdoor theatre thing on the south bank, but it turned out to be children's theatre... and pretty weird children's theatre, at that.


I think they were singing a Lady Gaga song at this point. Anyway, we didn't last long and hightailed it to a pub, where we got to make fun of the terrible trumpet player. Perhaps I should pursue a performance career here if it's that easy to get gigs.

Also on my radar is capoeira. I've been meaning to get back into it for ages but have been kind of afraid. My capoeira sessions at Carleton University were really intense. I was in good shape at the time and still had difficulty walking for days afterward. In any case, I've decided I'm finally going to lay my fears to rest and return to capoeira tomorrow. I'm quite excited, but once again, I will have to ignore the money being spent. Though it is not much, it adds up quickly when you have a budget of roughly £0 (or actually, negative hundreds of pounds).

But you see, last year, I let my lack of disposable income stand in the way of me doing fun active things. Contrary to most people's experiences, I actually put on a whole bunch of weight after moving to Europe. Not to mention the general feeling of malaise that goes along with dropping your activity level. No. I will not let it happen again, no matter the costs.

Of course, being active doesn't always have to cost money. I'm also doing the two hundred sit-ups challenge. I naturally have pretty good core strength and the programme isn't actually that difficult for me, but it is useful for making me do regular core workouts. I just finished 184 crunches and it feels good. I will eventually do the 100 push-ups programme too... but that one intimidates me. I cannot do push-ups. At all. Hopefully a few weeks of capoeira will help prime my upper body strength, though, and make it more manageable.

As for more free things that get me doing stuff, this coming weekend is The Thames Festival (one of the big highlights of last year for me). It's totally awesome and doesn't cost a thing! So far nobody has expressed any interest in joining me, so if you're out there and interested, please let me know! Festivals are always much better with company. Here's last year's blog post about it and here are some more pictures (mainly from the fire garden, as it was my favourite part).

South Bank

Free running/parkour

Fire garden




Now that I have a better camera and I'm working on my photography skills (more on that soon), I'm hoping this year's photos will be even better!

Whirlwind tour

Two days ago was the one year anniversary of this blog, and I had meant to write my 100th post that day... but I got caught up in the craziness that was Summer Hummer -- a major West Coast Swing event outside of Boston. More on that later.

My last couple of weeks in Ottawa were fun and busy. Plenty of teaching and socialising and side gigging ensued. But now that I'm looking back on it, even though it's only been a few days since I left, it feels so long ago.

Fresher in my mind is the trip down to Boston. Imagine the look of shock on the customs officer's face when he realised a stuffed animal was driving our car.


Ok, maybe not. He did ask us if we knew anything about the terrorists in Ottawa, except he worded it as: "What's happening in Ottawa?" Um... well there's the parliament, which seems to be perpetually on vacation. There are some shopping malls and museums and bike paths. Oh, there's swing dancing! You should go there and check it out. But no, we don't know anything about the terrorists.

Summer Hummer was fun. Relaxing, as far as dance weekends go, since it was workshop and pool party and competition intensive and I only really danced around 3 hours a day. Sunday was the best part of the weekend. I ate real food (trust me, this was a big deal), took an awesome private lesson from my favourite WCS follow (Melissa Rutz), and danced my face off at the after party.

Monday, I spent countless hours in airports and on airplanes. Tuesday morning, I arrived home, took care of a couple important business matters (bank and grocery store), and promptly fell asleep. I slept for 14 hours, woke up for 6, and then slept for 6 more. I now have a killer headache. But I'm home! And now the challenge of finding work begins.

"Home"

I'm back. Two glorious weeks in the bubble that is Long Bay Camp... a world without internet, money, or other modern distractions. Just nature, people, and art. Lots of art. I did so much art, I was bursting at my creative seams.

It's nice to be back in the real world among friends, dancing, proper beds, and social media, but I have to be honest... I miss London a lot. In a way I just couldn't while I was at camp.

Ottawa is a sort of middle ground; not a megacity, not the middle of nowhere. I think that's what I've always liked about it, but now it feels like it's not enough of one either one. I want either a dock on a lake or a thriving metropolis. Not this tame, manicured, small-yet-clumsily-travelled-without-car, quiet little city (in the country of expensive food!). I used to believe (not very long ago) that Ottawa would always be my home, no matter where in the world I lived. How quickly that has changed. It's a tough realisation.

Ottawa does still hold two big pieces of my heart, though: dancing and friends. I plan to take advantage of both, as much as possible, so long as I am here. And make a bigger effort to introduce more of both in my daily life when I get home.

I leave you with some of my memories from camp...

Two of my favourite campers.

A captured moment.

One of my best friends visits me.

Day trip to Westport.

Multicoloured fire.

Synchronized jumping competition.

The staff team's genius plan to lose until the last second in the swimming race.

Synchronized swimming.

On set for our musical, The Venus Fly Trap.

More Venus Fly Trap.

A promo shot.

Dance party in the barn.

Panorama shot outside the barn (how I love my new camera).

And with that... So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye.

My life is rough, I tell ya

As we speak, I am lounging on a deck chair, listening to the roar of the Pacific Ocean. I never want to leave.

Yesterday, we took a boat out to the sandbar, which is essentially a beach in the middle of the ocean. People set up chairs, tents, and even barbeques... right in the water.


Today, we headed out to Coconut (Gilligan's) Island.


Famous for its place in the opening credits of Gilligan's Island, it is now a research facility owned by the University of Hawaii. We got to learn all about its history and a little about their current research. I met some sharks, conspicuous sea cucumbers, feather duster worms, a baracuda, and a very friendly puffer fish who followed us around.


This afternoon, we headed over to Honolulu to go parasailing.


This isn't us, but it could have been. I'm regretting not bringing my camera up for the ride. I was going to, but then chickened out... worrying that I might drop it in the ocean. But the ride is fairly gentle and I could have held on to it, no problem. Oh well. I'll know for next time!

Tomorrow, we're getting up at the crack of dawn to drive to the other side of the island for our dolphin/sea turtle adventure. Can't wait!

Have I mentioned that I never want to leave?