Symbolic Snowballs

January 31, 2008
The second snow day finished off our first week of school with two days of Hebrew and 4 days off. The sun (shemesh!) came out today and I peered out my window to discover that I can see the Dead Sea and all the way to the hills of Jordan! We decided to go for a walk around the rim of campus.

Groups of kids and whole families drove out to the top of the hill to play in the snow. I’ve decided that the city of Jerusalem does not shut down because they can’t handle snow, but because they don’t find it necessary to continue on with daily life and business when there is snow. Especially since it is so rare, they might as well enjoy it when they have the chance. What a concept.

On our walk we met a group of 10-13 year old boys throwing snowballs at passing cars. The girls that crossed to walk on the other side of the street were left alone, while a friend and I who stayed on the same side got pelted with snowballs. But really, what did I expect? We threw some back in good fun and moved along. What I did not expect was to be followed by a few of these boys trying to put their arms around us and kiss us. Repetition of “No! Lo! La!” finally warded them off. My friend explained “American tourists/Israelis never interact with Arabs, and so there are no definite rules for that kind of interaction.” I will address this concept more in depth later.

We continued on our walk to pass by two older boys, I cringed as one walked toward me with a snowball in hand, anticipating being pummeled in the face. To my surprise and delight he just placed the snowball in my hands, as if it were a gift. This brightened my spirits and I decided to attribute the previous behavior simply to them being obnoxious 12 year old boys.

With every step around the rim we exclaimed “this is such a beautiful view” and stopped to take pictures. We threw some more snowballs with eager kids and adults, and were victims of a drive-by snowballing. One car that drove past had a mini snowman sitting on the top of the hood complete with a scarf while the driver had a huge grin behind the wheel. Once the fun turned into cold we headed back to the Student Village to warm up with some tea.