Day 5 to Day 6...

Shalom, Saalam Alakom and Good morning from hot and sticky central Israel. A awoke to the sound of my friend Asmaa's girls getting ready for their morning swim, just another day here for them. In the north yesterday many cities were hit quite hard and it seems a new type of rocket is now being used in many places. Only 1 hour from Haifa all is quiet. It is amazing the contrast. My plans to do interviews at several internet cafes got thwarted yesterday due to the 3 local ones all being closed or shut down, one only recently. In a way this is an interesting commentary on the state of Internet diffusion in Israel and the Arab sector. My friend said that due to the price of access coming down more people have net access at home and work and there is not a need for internet cafes like there was 1 or 2 years ago. So instead we did some shopping and I did some browsing at local book and media stores, taking picture for my research. I also ended up going to the graduation ceremony of the college where Asmaa teaches, held outside the college and in the couryard of a local Mosque. About 120 students recieved their teacher training diplomas and the place was heaving with people. I enjoyed the expereince, people-wathcing and taking more pictures and learning a bit more about local arab culture. After the ceremony I went scarf shopping briefly with Asmaa and learned how to put on a haircovering and then the family went for shawarmas at a local restaurant. It was delicious and so far my gut has not reacted negatively to this, like it sometimes does, so I am grateful. Then Asmaa and I had a late night research planning session working on the draft of our first research article from the project on methodology. Will hang out here till some time this morning and then head back to JLM. I smell coffee turkish brewing, yeah... time for my caffeine dose!