25th September
West Jerusalem.
I finally managed to arrange an Arabic lesson, so met with the teacher in a hotel in East Jerusalem at midday today. It went well, although her method is to teach Arabic to English speakers using Arabic transliterated into English letters, which I’m not used to. As soon as I become familiar with this it will help me to speak more quickly, but initially it’s confusing because all the words I’ve learned so far have been in the Arabic alphabet. We have arranged another lesson for Saturday so it’s good that now I’m up and running with regular lessons again. Coincidentally, one of the administration staff has arranged informal group Arabic lessons for some of the new staff so it looks like I may be suddenly getting quite a lot of Arabic tuition – the more the merrier, I suppose.
Although today is my day off, I spent all afternoon in the conservatory because I had a little administration to carry out, and also had to deliver a couple of parcels that I brought back from Bethlehem yesterday. The post service here seems to be more trouble than it’s worth so whenever things need taken between the branches we use staff members to carry them personally.
I had also arranged to do an interview over the phone for a local radio station about my concert when I’m back, so did that from the piece and quiet of my teaching room while I was there.
I’m writing this post from the internet cafe that I have started coming to most regularly, which is in West Jerusalem. For the price of a coffee you can sit for as long as you like and use the free wireless, as the cafe is large enough that there are always free tables. Around me sit the young and trendy of Israel, accompanied by their laptops - I suspect that I appear to fit in a little better than I might like to imagine.
