A Picture is worth a 1000 words: Jerusalem

The Shuuk is the local market in Jerusalem. Shown above, the market consists of dozens of narrow passageways that are completely filled with vendors. Walking around as a tourist, what is mostly perceived is chaos. Its easy to get lost in a hallway while searching for falafel or confuse the fish vendor you just walked past with the one you walked past twenty minutes prior when attempting to escape the clutches of the Shuuk's energy. As a tourist, the vendors blend together in your mind's eye. It is also very easy to see the vendors as pandering tourists, trying to convince those new to the Shuuk that their pitas and hummus are the most desirable, just to earn a quick buck. As a tourist, it is hard to see past the initial shock. The swarms of people, the swirls of smells commingling in your nostrils, the shouts of vendors promoting their product all clutter your mind and you end up wandering, simply hoping to soak in as many of the sensations and emotions that flood your experiences within the Shuuk's boundaries.

As a resident of Jerusalem, this scene has become commonplace and therefore, much less overwhelming. The Shuuk is your flower shop, your bakery, your butchery, your coffee shop. The Shuuk is your grocery store. You have built personal correspondence with a number of shop owners and they give you good prices in exchange for your loyalty to their businesses. You have created a route in your mind that allows you to get into and out of the market with the most ease. You have a greater understanding of the personality of the Shuuk and know the best ways to navigate it. The chaos is not hectic to you. It is welcome. It is the Shuuk. Without it, your understanding of the market would be greatly altered. You have learned to sway with the ebbs and flows of the crowds and work in tandem with its rhythms. It has lost its initial excitement, but it has never lost its charm. It never will. You are now a part of it instead of an observer.

I chose this picture because it is a relatively normal picture of the Shuuk, a popular place for tourists to visit, but having visited and spent great amounts of time in Jerusalem I have been able to gain a better understanding of the place. It is far from a tourist destination, but people treat it as such. I think one of the most interesting aspects of the Shuuk is that it is simply a necessity of the city, but since it is far from typical markets in the States people like to experience it. That being said, I don't believe Americans would be as excited if their local markets functioned in the same manner. All in all, tourists should definitely continue to explore the Shuuk, but they should also attempt to understand the culture occurring all around them when they are visiting.