Arrival...

I guess I should probably think up some brilliant inaugural title, or wax eloquent with a big introduction to my first blog entry. Perhaps you will read something in to the title "Arrival...," but it's merely pragmatic in indicating the beginning of my stay in Jerusalem and my guest engagement with the Jerusalem Symphony. I'm sure I will use a lot of run-on sentences, fautly punctuation, and often downright poor grammar. I will not ask you to forgive these faults, but rather encourage you to realize the relative unimportance of such things in this format.

The adventure started with the trek from Bard (where I had to rehearse Zemlinksy for two days before coming here). I had debated whether or not to drive my rental car to Newark airport or ride the train. I ultimately opted for the train not only beause I didn't want to drive back to Bard after a 12 hour flight, but most importantly because I arrive back to Newark on Friday evening, which is the absolute worst time to be driving in an upstate direction. This plan ran smoothly until my train arrived an hour late, thank God that my mother had prayed a blessing on me and I made the connecting train to the airport by one minute.

The flight itself was uneventful, the extra security before boarding (the departure gate for Tel Aviv is secured area where they searched every bag and "wanded" everyone) went fairly quickly. The Ben Gurion airport terminal in Tel Aviv is only a few years old and very nice. Passport control was efficient and less of a hassle than most European countries, and much less than the stern, pasty, stodgy agents in the U.K.

I walked through customs without a glance, entered the public area of the terminal and walked up to the gentleman holding the sign with my name on it. He seemed very surprised that I was Timothy Myers, I had to reassure him that I am indeed myself. He was also a little confused because somehow they thought that I not only have a wife, but also that she would be accompanying me. As we walked to the car it came out that he was also expecting someone older, as he kept commenting on how young I was to be "the maestro."

Anyway, his name is Haim, and he'll be my driver for the week. He has four kids the youngest 3 1/2 and the oldest is in the army (an obligatory period for all youngsters here). He pointed out a lot of things on the drive and gave me a brief rundown of the hotel area.

My hotel (the El Dan) is caddy-corner from the King David (the most luxurious hotel here, that was bombed several years ago) and a 7-8 minute walk from the Jaffa Gate.


I walked over there this afternoon and immediately got lost in the old city. It seems that a lot of the things that look like "streets" on the map are often more what we would consider a large sidewalk. Fortunately just as I was starting to wonder how the heck to get back I reemerged right where I had started; I still have no idea how that happened.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, other than trying to find an open restaurant before Shabbat is over (sundown on Saturday).

Hoping for some good rest before my first rehearsal tomorrow!