One of my students, Aila, a lovely young woman who volunteered last summer to work at a health clinic in Bethlehem, and is attending the seminar that I co-teach with Silke comparing assisted reproduction in Israel and Germany, tells the class there is an Israeli movie about an infertile couple showing at the Lumiere, an offbeat cinema club. It is “Kadosh” by Amos Gitai, which I have not seen. The film is a deeply moving and dramatic critique of marital relations and the place of women in the ultra-orthodox world, with superb acting and close up photography. Afterwards we sit in the café and discuss, placing in context, comparing to similar themes in the German church. Silke walks back with me, leading her bike. The streets are utterly quiet and the houses dark.
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After I return from the sheng zhen weekend, I invite the people who work at the institute and my students to an afternoon of qi gong in a park and a pot luck picnic to follow. Most of my colleagues apologize that they have previous plans, but Claudia, who heads the institute, comes with a wicker basket full of food and a bottle of champagne. The cleaning lady, who originates from Serbia, also comes but leaves early, finding the practice too slow and enervating, and she goes off on her bike to let off steam. There are also three of my students, including Aila who brings two of her friends. We practice for two hours and then have a quick picnic, because it is the night of the final cup match between Germany and the Netherlands. The students are in a hurry to get good seats at public viewings in the town center, and Claudia will be watching with her neighbors in the basement of their building, and invites me to join. Unfortunately, the Dutch team plays much better soccer and Germany loses.
