In which Zach, his family, and a fellow choir family journey “across the river” to the mysterious and oft-violent land of Palestine/Israel. As immortalized in the Lebanese singer Fairouz’s song “The Flower of the Cities,” Jerusalem is a beautiful but fragile treasure of history and mystery that has flowered for millenia – and hopefully more to come.

continue reading.....

In which Zach welcomes his parents to The Jordan and spends the first week of travels with them in the eastern and southern deserts, exploring castles, Petra, Wadi Rum, and Wadi Dhana, meeting many new friendly people and drinking more tea than anyone thought possible

continue reading.....

I just finished up my most recent web project, changing and redesigning Whitman Academy’s webpage to be easier to modify, with more features and “Web 2.0 compliant.” I don’t like using that buzzword because I feel as if it’s way overused, but if you had compared the old site to the new, you’d understand it […]

continue reading.....

As the sun sank over the rooftops of Jordan last night, the usual sunset prayer was louder and longer than ever, signaling to Muslims around the city and world that the month of Ramadan had ended. The signal, just like every year, was the final sliver of moon vanishing into the new moon of the […]

continue reading.....

After what Dozan wa Awtar billed as the first combination of Iftaar, plus singing concert, plus quiz game night (probably not hard to be first at that combination, actually) at Books@Cafe, I just returned home from a packed rooftop audience. It was a good night, even though the venue was a little bit cramped (with […]

continue reading.....

Cycling Jordan has suspended its Friday morning ride activities for the duration of Ramadan, and has instead been changed to Friday-evening “Iftaar” rides, timed to finish just as the sun sets and the daily fast can be broken by observant Muslims. I decided to join my friends and colleagues for yesterday evening’s ride, which was […]

continue reading.....