Diaspora

diaspora |dīˈaspərə|

noun (often the Diaspora) 
the dispersion of the Jews beyond Israel.• Jews living outside Israel.• the dispersion of any people from their original homeland: the diaspora of boat people from Asia.• the people so dispersed: the Ukrainian diaspora flocked back to Kiev.

The main diaspora began in the 8th–6th centuries bc, and even before the sack of Jerusalem in ad 70, the number of Jews dispersed by the diaspora was greater than that living in Israel. Thereafter Jews were dispersed even more widely throughout the Roman world and beyond.

The familiar becomes unfamiliar.  I've been home for 2 days but it feels strange.  I've been to so many places in about a month that being home feels like I am staying at another hotel or friend's residence.  It will take me another few days to readjust.  Yes, I do feel like a diaspora sometimes.

The flight home from London to Phoenix was uneventful except for a golf club.  Not just any golf club but an antique golf club.  Being a golfer, I've always wanted a set of antique golf clubs.  Where else can you find an antique golf club but Scotland, the home of golf.  I've told my relative Watt before that if he sees someone selling a set, to buy it for me.  A few years ago he told me that that would not be a problem.  He sees them around Edinburgh all the time.  But this time, he couldn't find any.  So he gave me his own antique putter. 

Antique Putter with hickory shaft

Putter head

Close-up of grip and shaft

The Delta agent at London Heathrow would not let me take it on the plane.  I have to check it in, he said.  But, they will hand-carry it.  So he taped the club with "Fragile" labels all over the bubble-wrap and we walk to a special baggage-handling part of the airport.  

When I arrived in Phoenix, the club was not there.  The baggage handling agent checked the system and found that it's still in Minneapolis.  Apparently, I was supposed to take it in Minneapolis and walk it through customs, but I did not.  Nevertheless, the club arrived the next day undamaged.  What a relief!  I plan to display it proudly somewhere in the living room.

Although this was a relatively short trip, I did stop in many places, which also means I took many small trips within this trip.  To summarize, here are the cities I stopped in:

London

Stratford-upon-Avon

Oxford

Munich and Dachau

Moscow

Veliky Novgorod

St. Petersburg

Edinburgh

York

Cambridge

Total number of flights:  8, and all different types of transportation.

What's next?  I have a photography trip in a couple of days in Sedona, Arizona.  I will try to share photographs of the area, for those who have never been there.  It's one of the most beautiful places in Arizona.  

During Thanksgiving I will be visiting my children in NYC.  Unless something interesting happens or I did, I will probably not write any post about the trip.

Thanks for reading my blog.  Please write any comments, feedback or your thoughts.  I'd love to hear from you.