Begin towards the end...

After class was much more interesting than the classes themselves, so I'll talk about everything that happened afterwards.
As Tuesday is a short day at She'arim, we had a trip planned to go to the Begin Museum. It's a very moving museum about the life and leadership of Menachem Begin. What I thought was most interesting, was the way they presented the information. It was extremely high tech, as all good Israeli things are, and the audio information kits were motion-sensored, so that when we were in a room, the appropriate audio turned on. Each room was a different story of Begin's life, told from the point of view of Begin. There were little vignettes acted out, and some plain narration with different images flashing on the screen, and everything was extremely well done. It was very moving to hear Begin's hard life coming to Israel, his secret life once he got here, his strong belief in the way to a better Israel, and the way he lived his life to the very end. I think the coolest thing about the museum was the "Jerusalem Elevator" which is an elevator, but also an exhibit itself. It was the audio of Begin addressing the public about all the casualties of the '77 war. Inside the elevator were huge panoramic pictures of Jerusalem where Begin gave the speech, and when the doors to the elevator opened, it led us to the view of the specific spot where Begin gave his speech. It was really well thought out, and all in all a very gratifying experience.

After the museum, I met Francesca in Mea She'arim to go to the most famous book store in Mea She'arim - Manny's. They have a huge selection of Jewish books in Hebrew, English, for kids - all sorts of amazing books with decent prices. I bought a small mincha/ma'ariv/birkat hamazon bentcher (afternoon/evening/and grace after meals prayers) and a workbook on how to read Jewish texts - i.e. the Torah.

We had planned to go to the Shuk, which is a wonderful place filled with cheap food, random cheap shops, and lots of screaming Israelis. It's a great place to bargain for already ridiculously cheap stuff and to taste lots of different food as you walk by. This is not like your average food market - this is hardcore shopping - especially if you go there on a Thursday night or Friday morning - whoooweee, it's crazy. So we went there, I was planning on getting a specific picture that Francesca had brought home a few days before, but sadly, they didn't have it in the size I wanted. He told me he'd have it tomorrow, so I will have to go back. After the shuk, we went to Marzipan to get some rugelach.

Let me explain Marzipan - ggggaaahhhhhmmmmmmyummmy. Basically, the best rugelach you will ever taste in your life - they're gooey, crunchy, chocolatey, and sweet in all the right places. In my opinion, the most perfect rugelach ever created.
We bought 20 of them each (for only a sheckel for each rugelach), and happily went further into town for a planned dinner of shwarma.

We got some shwarma in a pita, and really, really enjoyed it. The one thing about She'arim is that all the food is dairy - the only food we're allowed to have in the dorms is dairy, so I crave meat every once in a while - or in this case, every three days. The shwarma was good - I wouldn't say it was the best I've ever had, but it satisfied a craving.

The last stop on our outing was Michal Negrin. She's an Israeli designer who makes beautiful Jewelry. It's very, very feminine, and very popular. She has a store on Ben Yehudah, so we went to look around. I wasn't planing on buying anything because I'm trying to not spend any more money, but I found some really nice, but inexpensive earrings that I liked, so I helped support the Israeli economy (and my jewelry collection) by buying them. Francesca got a pair of earrings for her mom, and another pair for herself.

It was a very satisfying day in every aspect, as I hope my last few days in Israel will be.