353.January 13

Haifa, IsraelI awoke at 7:00 and after breakfast we left for Haifa to tour the Maritime Museum. We drove up to a Druze village, where we ate at a Druze restaurant .

It was also a hangout for area artists who had produced all the paintings and sculptures inside. I was very impressed with some of the paintings. Professor Hanson bought us lunch. Lots of pita bread and Druze lefse. It was a wonderful meal, but terribly cold in the room. We could see our breath the whole time.

We went to Hanson's daughter's husband's parent's house. I fell in love with it immediately. He was a dentist, and his dentist office was downstairs in the house. His wife painted. They were very wealthy, I estimated. A swimming pool was above the living room, and made of cement. We ate as we toured the house. All marble floors steel curved stairway with concrete supports twisting in the center underneath. It was all so beautiful. It was sad to leave and go home.

At 18:00, Jamie, Becca, Mel, John and I walked down to the awful shops around town. Everything is crap here. Cheap American import toys eps. Tiberias is not a place to shop. Only for food. We skipped dinner. The Americans are bombing Iraq soon, and the atmosphere around us was very intangible. We had a discussion time at 20:00 and prepared for our papers.

1993