Just came back from Israel. Worked there for a week. Took the two guys from China to the dead sea and masada. We tried to climb up to the top of masada but they were really out of shape. I went ahead of them. I saw them turning back when I was 15 minutes away from the top. I turned back too. I wanted to show them the ruins on the top. There wouldn't be enough time if I continued climbing. It is hard to find common interests with them. Maybe it is the generation gap. They are 10 years younger than me. It seems they are not interested in travel unless it is paid for. They rarely go anywhere on their own.

The middle east is going crazy. It feels like Israel is sitting on boiling water. It is hard living in that kind of environment. You are constantly on edge. They have bomb shelters in the office building.

My flight back home got delayed. I had to stay two more nights in hotels, one in Tel Aviv and one in JFK. It is the third time sth went wrong with the Delta flights. I didn't plan to fly on 9/11 but it happened. Security was massive. Otherwise it was OK. It's hard to imagine it has already been 10 years. My world view has evolved a great deal during that time. Things become more clear to me. I saw on TV a BBC reporter said to someone that US forces has to stay in Iraq because the Iraqi forces are not ready to stand on their own. I just sat there and asked myself whether she was really dumb or she was playing dumb. It is clear that the US forces wanted to stay despite of objections of the Iraqi government and its people.That is one of the objectives of the war, to get a military base in Iraq. Things like that.