The rooftops of the Old City are covered in satellite dishes like so many immovable sunflowers, but families were deprived of their television rituals last night because, satellite dishes filled with snow cannot capture the signals. Snow in Jerusalem. It’s always an occasion here.
The country’s children are excited and awestricken, and some of the adults become oversized children. Even if you don’t like the snow, you can rejoice that its slow melting penetrates deep into the ground, unlike the first rains that formed rivulets over the too-dry soil. Among the foreigners, there are some who are very familiar with snow, but even these don’t turn their backs on the scenery, even more beautiful than it is improbable. Then there are those who can’t turn their backs on it because, not only are they seeing snow in Jerusalem, they are seeing snow for the very first time.
At Saint Saviour’s Seminary, two Brazilians, Wagner and Paulo, admire their first snowflakes; the low ambient temperature doesn’t chill their enthusiasm. Outside the Old City, traffic circulation becomes chaos. Towards 7:00 p.m., when there were two centimeters of snow on the street, the number of accidents – minor fender-benders – was impressive. It took one employee of the Custody three hours to drive the five kilometers (a little over three miles) home. Later in the evening, cars were abandoned at roadside… When everyone awoke in the morning, the sun had reclaimed almost all her rights, but the below zero temperatures during the night preserved the snow, to the joy of photographers.
MAB
The country’s children are excited and awestricken, and some of the adults become oversized children. Even if you don’t like the snow, you can rejoice that its slow melting penetrates deep into the ground, unlike the first rains that formed rivulets over the too-dry soil. Among the foreigners, there are some who are very familiar with snow, but even these don’t turn their backs on the scenery, even more beautiful than it is improbable. Then there are those who can’t turn their backs on it because, not only are they seeing snow in Jerusalem, they are seeing snow for the very first time.
At Saint Saviour’s Seminary, two Brazilians, Wagner and Paulo, admire their first snowflakes; the low ambient temperature doesn’t chill their enthusiasm. Outside the Old City, traffic circulation becomes chaos. Towards 7:00 p.m., when there were two centimeters of snow on the street, the number of accidents – minor fender-benders – was impressive. It took one employee of the Custody three hours to drive the five kilometers (a little over three miles) home. Later in the evening, cars were abandoned at roadside… When everyone awoke in the morning, the sun had reclaimed almost all her rights, but the below zero temperatures during the night preserved the snow, to the joy of photographers.
MAB