By Adar
Like gophers peeking out of their holes, The Locals have started to sense the end of winter. With the official beginning of the new semester this week (I know, those at GW are just now finishing midterms), there've been several changes with the behavior of my Israeli counterparts. First off, there are a lot more of them. During finals month, apparently everyone was either holed up in their rooms or at their parents' houses. Now, the quad is filled, and the halls are crowded. It actually feels like the 17,000 people who supposedly attend Haifa University actually do. And second, all sorts of festivities have started. Every Wednesday starting this week, there is a well-known band that comes to perform on our quad at noon, and the area is packed not only with students and faculty, but with local vendors and artists who are selling clothes, jewelry, music, and paintings. It's quite the atmosphere.
Not only students off to a fresh start, but the whole of Haifa is buzzing. Tonight there was the fourth annual Masada Street Fair, an evening carnival of sorts, with musicians on four different stages and lots of food and crafts being sold. People were flooding in, dancing and walking around in costume. I'm quite a fan of street fairs -- there are quite a few good ones in San Francisco and DC -- but this was definitely a unique experience. It didn't have the hectic frenzy that I've experienced at other street fairs, where people bustle through attempting to reach end goals. Instead, everyone was lounging around and the amount of smiles I saw was quite heartwarming. And the music was so diverse! One stage was primarily electronic music, with heavy Europop influences I think. Another was solely devoted to University of Haifa students who formed bands or performed with the music department. And my personal favorite stage had a set with trance music played live with a didgeridoo and drum set. Meanwhile, there was a small group of young men who were fire throwers and had some very impressive tricks. A capoeira group played Brazilian music and performed their beautiful martial art (sidenote: Capoeira is oddly popular in Haifa, I've seen probably three or four different devoted groups perform all over the place). And a Chinese Dragon made out of colorful plastic bags floated by back and forth along the fair, supported by a team of eager volunteers.
Over the past two weeks, I've definitely noticed the atmosphere change from "winter" to "spring" even though the weather really hasn't changed almost at all. But Purim marks the beginning of Spring, and so Haifains will gladly take that cue. I look forward with great pleasure to experiencing three different seasons in Israel -- both in the visible changes in the landscape and in the way the people here experience the changing year.