Winged Bull-man

Na'amah has been flying all over the world. She inspires me to take flight myself, both figuratively and literally. I'm already thinking about when I might be able to go visit her in Tel Aviv.

Most recently, she stopped in Chicago for a day and night on her way home (to her parents' in Philadelphia) from the Bay Area. It was a wonderful, wonderful visit. We walked to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, where they have a new exhibit on Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). It was hard to look at (a bit cluttered) but there was some amazing stuff. A good mix of little things: receipts written in cuneiform (I can't believe the little triangles mean anything!), clay record tablets with matching clay envelopes, standard weights in standard shapes and sizes (cylinders, ducks), fish and woman figurines. Also some bigger things, like an ancient replica of the Code of Hammurabi, which was really cool to see; it turns out not to be a legal code per se, but more of a series of stories about cases Hammurabi heard and the decisions he made. There were lots of carved stone wall panels, too, which were so big and really neat to walk around and through, imagining what it would be like to live amongst them. And then there were the HUGE things, like this guy. Sixteen feet high, 40 tons. They found him in pieces somewhere and put him back together for the museum. Standing next to him and looking up was like being in a fantasy land. There was a bull's head that was even bigger.

We did some other stuff too, like go to yet another Chicago restaurant with tasty food and horrible service (and smokers! so alien to my San Franciscan ways). Anyway it is fantastic to see faces that I've known for more than two months. Can't wait for my mom's visit next weekend.