Mon, JULY 3 – Shwarma’d Out

I ate shwarma for lunch and dinner today. It’s actually all I’ve been eating for the last week or so. I realize that the food in the area consists of falafel, shwarma and hummus. That’s it! Oh, of course there are the endless toppings that can be added to make each and every shwarma a little different. You have different types of olives, salads and pickled goodies to choose from. I can almost say that I’m a bit tired of the shwarma, but not completely. The people here take great pride in their abilities to make the best shwarma around. Of course everyone will tell you theirs is the best, but I believe I’ve found the crème de la crème of all shwarma and falafel shops in Nazareth.

“El Shark” is a tiny shop on the main street that runs through the city of “the Naz.” Of course we’ve dubbed the town with a nickname already. You can imagine all the things that can be done with “the Naz” as a catch phrase….Naz Hands! So, El Shark is run by two Arab Israeli men. The sandwiches are cheap and oh so lovely. We did pass a “Falafel – 99 – shwarma” restaurant on our way to the “mall” today. I think I may try it tomorrow just because I commend the owners for keeping the “99” in their name and not falling into the “Millennium” trap.

Believe me when I say that Nazareth is stuck in the year 2000. Our hotel brochure still features the Millennium celebrations as its best attraction. The gift shops still carry “Millennium 2000” post cards! Everywhere you go, the number 2000 is posted. It’s become a running joke, like many things we see in the city. We’re working on a t-shirt that will say “I survived the Naz – 2000 (06)” It’s actually quite charming. The country was really hoping for a huge revenue boost during the Millennium celebrations but the second intifada happened and the tourism business went belly up.

There are actually many characteristics about Nazareth that are very charming. We have our own Ice Craem shop. Nope, I didn’t misspell Ice Craem. That’s what the sign reads and I love it. We have our local soccer hooligans who drive up and down the main street with German flags posted on them. The men here all wear scary tight jeans and tight shirts. We’ve dubbed them the “tight-pansers” or “T-P” if you will. There are several local shops right across from where we are staying. We have little bakeries and fresh produce shops. We even have a butcher shop that sells the best lamb brains in town. Today, we found a mall that sells things like shampoo, deodorant and gum balls with the Israeli flag on them. We were most happy when we made this discovery.

So you can say that I’m slowly adjusting to life here, as short as the trip may be. Our first day at the NGO was also quite nice. We were able to begin work on the NGO’s newsletter. We’re redesigning it and writing many of the articles that will be featured. My roommate Nicole and I will be working the same project. The bosses have made us feel very welcome and have actually given us free reign over the newsletter. I was hoping that they might let me put in some junk about Nicole and Paris and somehow tie it into the civil rights violations of the state of Israel against Arab students. I’m sure they’ll be cool with it. I’m also going to somehow get my photo into the newsletter. I think they’ll be happier with Paris Hilton gossipJ