Spending my Shekels wisely...

Tuesdays are half days in yeshivah, maybe because it's the middle of the week and they feel like giving us a break, or maybe the teachers don't feel like teaching in the afternoon. Either way, we only had classes in the morning, and after lunch people were either free to do whatever (within reason of course, this is a yeshivah), or they could go on an afternoon trip. This week they were going to Yad Sarah, which is an organization run mostly by volunteers, that lends out medical equipment to the people of Israel and travelers, if they need it. It's a really great organization which I don't think would ever work in America.
So I decided to go on the trip, which was entertaining, but not quite in the way it should have been.
The lady who was giving us the tour of Yad Sarah spoke to us like we were 5 year olds. She was American, so it's not like she was just speaking slowly cause she couldn't speak English. Either way, we got a tour of the place, they showed us where they keep the equipment, and the volunteers that are there to help maintain the equipment. We went into this room that was basically like an Ikea showroom, but with medical equipment instead of trendy, modern, easy-to-put-together furniture. It was kind of cool - they had a living room, bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen set up with all of their equipment that is meant to help people function with a temporary injury or illness. They do this for people who come in to rent equipment, but they're not sure what they need. It's really nice, and we found out that they save the government something like 200 million dollars, so this is definitely a good thing.
Then we went into a room with wheelchairs set up on tables -waiting there for us to come in and clean them. This was the chesed project of the trip. So we got on rubber gloves, funky blue mechanic smocks, and got to clean wheelchairs. It was a little juvenile, and to bring that point home, the tour guide lady told our She'arim staff person that she was impressed at how well-behaved we were. Um, yeah, cause we're in our late 20s, not early teens.
After I came back from Yad Sarah, I met up with Francesca and we went down to Mea She'arim. (yes it has our school name in the name of the town, but trust me, we're completely different.) Mea She'arim is THE most religious place in Israel. This town makes Borough Park look secular..well, maybe not secular, but you get the idea. The great thing about Mea She'arim is that because a lot of poor religious people live there, all the stores are DIRT CHEAP. It's really a beautiful thing for tourists.
Francesca and I went shopping for Judaica, books, candy (for me), skirts (for her) and pretty much anything else we felt like buying. It was fun, and we spent a good amount of money, but a lot less than we would have spent anywhere else in Jerusalem - or probably the world. I got a really nice kiddush cup for $9 American. Yeah. It's awesome.
After walking around Mea She'arim and buying cheap things, we got pretty hungry, so we headed down to the greatest restaurant in Israel ever. Burgers Bar!
Oh Burgers Bar, how I love thee. This burger is the best tasting burger you'll ever have. They serve it on a hugongo** bun (much like Shnitzi), and they have to, because the burger is big and they put a gazillion toppings on it. Yummy. I so enjoyed that burger. If I try hard enough, I can still taste it now. Mmmmm.

**another made up word I created to give an idea as to the enormous size of the bun (much like my Shnitzi post)