Some Pictures from Israel

Shabbat Shalom everyone,
It's Friday night in Jerusalem and everything is pretty quiet for the Jewish sabbath (shabbat).
I finally figured out how to post some pictures, so here are a few to start with.




I took this photo on the way from Ben Gurion Airport to Jerusalem. Can you tell that I'm excited to be here?








My first glimpse of the areas around Jerusalem. This area is quite hilly, and Jerusalem actually sits about 800m above sea level.













A view of the walls of the old city approaching Jaffa Gate. These walls date from 16th century and were built (or rebuilt) by the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. I find it interesting to see the cars on the modern highway zipping by next to the old city.








Here's a shot of me with my grandmother (who I hadn't seen for 5 years) .













A little "brotherly love" between two of my seven cousins who live here in Israel. Benaya (left), is 19 and just had a complete lung transplant. He is doing amazingly well now - I saw him running up and down stairs and carrying heavy groceries for his mom. What an incredible kid! Elya-Menachem (10 years old) is named after my dad. Since they don't speak much (or any) English, I related to them in my pre-school level Hebrew and set Elya up playing Brickbreaker on my Blackberry. Cool gadgets can cross any language barrier, can't they?