So, as my internet is very sporadic, I cannot post as often as I'd like to - I'm still writing every night, but I can only post when my upstairs neighbor's internet is working. Such is life!
Thursday is the last day of the work week for Israelis, and even though we are a school run by Americans, we follow the Israeli schedule. Friday is the only real weekend for religious Israelis (Dati), but most of the day is devoted to cooking for shabbos. Many people go out on Thursday night, knowing that they don't have to be up early for work on Friday. For secular Israelis, they get Friday and Saturday as their weekend, but for the Dati, it's just Friday day. And, Shabbat in Jerusalem starts 40 minutes earlier than anywhere else in Israel. Saturday night is treated like a Sunday night everywhere else - you have to go to sleep at a normal time so you can get up and go to work on Sunday. It's a hard concept to deal with for people who aren't used to it; for me, I'm losing a day of my weekend. For me, Shabbos is the only day off.
Classes were good, we had almost the same schedule as our Sunday, and the day went by quickly.
First class was about Rachel and Leah, and we did a chevruta (paired learning) and then a shiur/discussion on what we learned. I found out that Leah and Rachel were twins - and that Leah was an incredibly great person. She overcame all her hardships in life, for which Hashem rewarded her. She was supposed to marry Esau, who was a horribly wicked person, and so Leah cried day in and day out while she prayed to G-d. For this, G-d rewarded her with marry Yakov first. Leah had to endure a marriage to a man who didn't love her as much as she loved him. Yakov loved Rachel first, but Leah gave up her entire happiness because she knew she was the builder of the Jewish people. She was rewarded with giving birth to 6 children, which was twice as many as any of the other wives. Since Yakov had 4 wives, and he was to have 12 children, each wife was supposed to have 3, but Leah had 6 because she endured the hardship of a less than perfect marriage. Also, Rachel died much earlier, so Leah not only got to spend the rest of her life with Yakov, but she is also buried next to him in the Cave at Machpelach. (This is the place in Chevron where all our founding fathers and mothers are buried - except for Rachel, she's buried on the road because she sinned.)
The second class of the day is the only class I have not taught by a Rebbitzen or Rabbi. She's a former student of She'arim, and she's very ...enthusiastic. She teaches a great class on Prayer - we're learning about the 3 different shabbat amidahs (the amidah is the silent prayer). She's great, but she's very ...loud. Like I said, she's enthusiastic.
After lunch, we had another parsha (chapter of Torah) class, another halacha (Jewish law) class on muktsa, and the last class is called "Finding Light in Darkness." This one was about the holocaust. I didn't go to this class because I decided to spend some time with a tutor so that I could learn Rashi. If you remember from my post about Sunday, Rashi isn't exactly the easiest thing to read. I didn't realize the level of classes I was in would do Rashi - but in the Rachel and Leah class we were told to read the Rashi and translate it. As I had no idea what was going on, I decided to sit down with a tutor and learn. So, I did! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and now I gained a useful skill that will help me in every class.
After class, most people decided to go out to town or the Old City. As I had gone out every night for the past three days, I decided to stay in. It was time to do laundry, and I just wanted to chill out.
Now it's Friday and I'm just doing a lot of relaxing before Shabbat. I'm going to two different people's houses for meals - She'arim set it up, so I have to be on my best behavior.
Shabbat Shalom!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Sushi in the Holy Land
Wednesday was the good day of classes - there was more learning about hating your "brother" and what hating does to you inside. She compared it to walking up the stairs with a ball and chain around your leg. Basically, holding a grudge and having anger against someone bears down on your soul and affects your day to day living. Also, it could come out at any time - she gave the example of a pressure cooker. When the pressure builds up, eventually it blows its top off.
Then she told us ways to get over anger, hatred, and ill-feelings. Very useful, because who really doesn't have anger towards somebody. She did say the best way to avoid holding hatred is to tell the person how you feel - tell the person what he/she did to make you angry. I guess it's good that I'm as honest as I am. :)
The rest of the day was great - learning more about Yocheved (mother of Moshe) and why she was so special, more about King David and the Tehilim he wrote, more about Muktza, and more Perkei Avot.
After classes, my roommate said she was going to a class, so I asked her where she was going figuring it was a shiur (lecture/discussion of Torah). She said she was going to a Jazz class. I said, "Dance? I want to go!" So we went to a dance class.
We went to town and the place is a women-only dance school. It's really great considering there are a lot of women who don't dance in front of men, and where else can they go? Anyway, so we went, and the class turned out to be hip hop, not jazz. It was a great class, and I had a lot of fun, and got to do the exercise my body has been so badly craving, but let's just say I'm a lot older than I used to be.
Hip hop isn't easy - if you do real hip hop, it's a lot of rolling on the floor, and my knees and elbows can't exactly take it for too long. Also, the teacher wanted us to end in some position with our legs in the air and head on the floor - yeah I took one look and knew there was no way that was going to happen anytime soon, so I sat up looked in the mirror and smiled.
After the good workout in class, my roomie and I went to the Ben Yehuda area and stopped by a goodbye party for one of the she'arim girls. We kept walking onto a restaurant called Gong. It's a sushi restaurant! In Israel! I didn't know they had sushi restaurants in Israel, but apparently there are quite a lot of them. After waiting for about an hour, we finally got our food, and it was really good sushi. Not like American sushi, but it was really really good.
I have to say, this being my 5th time in Israel, that it never ceases to amaze me that I can just go to practically any restaurant I want and get kosher food. It's like, I never have to think about it - I can just go, and it's Kosher. It's really really awesome. Although it does make it a bit difficult to go back to the states. I mean I do live in New York, the metro area and city with the most amount of Jews and most amount of Kosher restaurants in the entire US, so I do have it a bit easier than those who live in Arizona, lets say, but still, it's a culture shock.
Then she told us ways to get over anger, hatred, and ill-feelings. Very useful, because who really doesn't have anger towards somebody. She did say the best way to avoid holding hatred is to tell the person how you feel - tell the person what he/she did to make you angry. I guess it's good that I'm as honest as I am. :)
The rest of the day was great - learning more about Yocheved (mother of Moshe) and why she was so special, more about King David and the Tehilim he wrote, more about Muktza, and more Perkei Avot.
After classes, my roommate said she was going to a class, so I asked her where she was going figuring it was a shiur (lecture/discussion of Torah). She said she was going to a Jazz class. I said, "Dance? I want to go!" So we went to a dance class.
We went to town and the place is a women-only dance school. It's really great considering there are a lot of women who don't dance in front of men, and where else can they go? Anyway, so we went, and the class turned out to be hip hop, not jazz. It was a great class, and I had a lot of fun, and got to do the exercise my body has been so badly craving, but let's just say I'm a lot older than I used to be.
Hip hop isn't easy - if you do real hip hop, it's a lot of rolling on the floor, and my knees and elbows can't exactly take it for too long. Also, the teacher wanted us to end in some position with our legs in the air and head on the floor - yeah I took one look and knew there was no way that was going to happen anytime soon, so I sat up looked in the mirror and smiled.
After the good workout in class, my roomie and I went to the Ben Yehuda area and stopped by a goodbye party for one of the she'arim girls. We kept walking onto a restaurant called Gong. It's a sushi restaurant! In Israel! I didn't know they had sushi restaurants in Israel, but apparently there are quite a lot of them. After waiting for about an hour, we finally got our food, and it was really good sushi. Not like American sushi, but it was really really good.
I have to say, this being my 5th time in Israel, that it never ceases to amaze me that I can just go to practically any restaurant I want and get kosher food. It's like, I never have to think about it - I can just go, and it's Kosher. It's really really awesome. Although it does make it a bit difficult to go back to the states. I mean I do live in New York, the metro area and city with the most amount of Jews and most amount of Kosher restaurants in the entire US, so I do have it a bit easier than those who live in Arizona, lets say, but still, it's a culture shock.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
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)
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)
School and food shopping
Monday's classes were awesome - we learned about Interpersonal Relationships, and how having hate or ill-feelings about someone can really damage you, we learned about Women in the Torah, we learned about Tehilim, and we did some Halacha and Pirkei Avot (teachings of the fathers/Rabbis). The halacha we learned was about muktsa. Muktsa are the auxiliary things that aren't going against shabbos directly, but they are things that could lead to you doing things that are against shabbos. One of those fences Jews like to put around the actual halacha, and since the Rabbis wrote about it, we have to follow it. Either way, the class was interesting (since I don't really have any plans to be so stringent about Muktsa, I took it as a lesson, but didn't internalize it), and I feel like this is the reason that people think Jews are crazy. Well, one of, anyway. The other classes were amazing, and the teachers were energetic, dynamic, and just overall extremely intelligent and interesting people.
Since I went out for dinner Sunday, my friend Francesca and I decided to go food shopping on Monday. After classes, we went to the supermarket in Har Nof not too far from us, and we stocked up. Since our apartment is dairy, we got some fake chicken patties, cereal, yogurt, what I thought was cream cheese (it turned out to be sour cream), hard cheese, pasta, tomato sauce** tuna, pita, and some veggies to make our meals somewhat healthy. I also bought a frozen fish for myself - just in case I was feeling daring enough to really cook. We sort of forgot to buy condiments, or oil, so the only thing we could cook was pasta. We also didn't have salt, or pepper, so the pasta with the already bland tomato sauce was pretty flavorless. Edible, but not crazy tasty. Then we had some cactus-pear-apple juice to drink - g-d bless Spring and their crazy Israeli flavors.
After dinner, Francesca and I attempted to watch some pirated movies she bought in Ramallah. Oddly enough, the only pirated movie that worked on my DVD player was a movie about pirates. The others were video CDs, which my computer cannot handle, nor could I find the right program to download that would work with my 2 year old operating system.
Oh well. So we watched the pirates. "At World's End" started out pretty good, but it got kind of boring, and as it was getting late, we just decided to stop it before it got to the end battle and we'd actually want to watch it.
It was a nice lazy evening - and I'm quite looking forward to the next time I get to have on of those.
**tomato sauce in Israel is concentrated tomato paste, apparently, or at least that's the one that I bought. It's interesting.
Since I went out for dinner Sunday, my friend Francesca and I decided to go food shopping on Monday. After classes, we went to the supermarket in Har Nof not too far from us, and we stocked up. Since our apartment is dairy, we got some fake chicken patties, cereal, yogurt, what I thought was cream cheese (it turned out to be sour cream), hard cheese, pasta, tomato sauce** tuna, pita, and some veggies to make our meals somewhat healthy. I also bought a frozen fish for myself - just in case I was feeling daring enough to really cook. We sort of forgot to buy condiments, or oil, so the only thing we could cook was pasta. We also didn't have salt, or pepper, so the pasta with the already bland tomato sauce was pretty flavorless. Edible, but not crazy tasty. Then we had some cactus-pear-apple juice to drink - g-d bless Spring and their crazy Israeli flavors.
After dinner, Francesca and I attempted to watch some pirated movies she bought in Ramallah. Oddly enough, the only pirated movie that worked on my DVD player was a movie about pirates. The others were video CDs, which my computer cannot handle, nor could I find the right program to download that would work with my 2 year old operating system.
Oh well. So we watched the pirates. "At World's End" started out pretty good, but it got kind of boring, and as it was getting late, we just decided to stop it before it got to the end battle and we'd actually want to watch it.
It was a nice lazy evening - and I'm quite looking forward to the next time I get to have on of those.
**tomato sauce in Israel is concentrated tomato paste, apparently, or at least that's the one that I bought. It's interesting.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Living and Learning in skirts
I woke up, got ready, totally not excited about the long trek up the stairs to She'arim, but actually excited about classes starting. I'm not going to go into the details of each class, but I'll mention some of the good stuff, that is, if I remember it.
The first class I was in was way above my level - we were reading from the Chumash (Torah) and then reading commentary by Rashi - okay, so Rashi kind of writes in his own language and isn't exactly easy to read. Most people actually take a course just on learning how to read Rashi commentary. I have never taken such a course, so I had no idea what was going on. After the class, I switched into the less difficult level, and things were much easier for me. They were still challenging, but it the nice, sort of self-satisfying way.
Going to seminary is an interesting experience for may reasons; the class schedule, the class topic, and the actual place that is seminary. Let me explain.
She'arim is in Har Nof, if you haven't figured that out from my blog yet, and Har Nof is an extremely frummy (religious) town. When I signed up for She'arim, I was told that I should dress modestly, which I figured, since I'd be going to a yeshivah - but also, that I should really dress modestly to respect those living in Har Nof. As in, don't offend the people who live here with your exposed elbows or pants. Granted, it's winter, and I wasn't planning on exposing much of anything to the cold, but, the mere fact that I'm forced to wear a skirt was a little difficult for me to chew. I know it's fickle and shallow, but I really like the fact that I feel comfortable in pants. I don't plan on wearing only skirts every day, and I don't like the fact that I can't walk around my neighborhood in pants because I might offend someone. I don't mind wearing a skirt for the purpose of yeshivah, but when I come home, I want to wear my pants and be happy. That's the first interesting thing.
The schedule of classes is long. Classes start at 8:30, and don't end until 5:30. We get an hour for lunch at 1, and that's our only real break. It's a long day packed with tons of topics - and even the way you do learning is interesting... We'll spend an hour on one topic - I mean we could spend hours and days on one topic... The whole point is to learn as much as possible - and since there are so many rabbis and teachers who have already studied this topic, we get to study those other rabbis' thoughts and research on each topic as well. The classes are well thought out - and each teacher does a bit of speaking, and makes each class interactive.
The main thing that I like about She'arim, is that it doesn't feel at all like they're trying to get you to be more religious - they're giving you topics to learn - they're giving you information, knowledge, and intellectual stimulation. It isn't all halacha (Jewish law) classes - it's about kindness, Women in the Torah, Perkei Avot, Interpersonal Relationships - it's really a good variety of topics that keep you interested and engaged in all of the classes. And many of them give practical applications for the things we learn. It's really interesting and useful.
Sunday's classes were good, but slightly overwhelming, as it was my first day in Yeshivah EVER, but the day went by quickly and I took notes, so I can go back and re-learn what I was trying to learn in class. After class, a few of my apartment mates decided to go down to the Old City. We went to the kotel, davened Ma'ariv (night-time prayer) and walked around, looking at all the beautiful expensive apartments that rich Americans and Anglos live in. The Old City is exactly that - OLD. The Kotel (western wall) has been there for thousands of years, and although it's still standing up just fine, it looks old. I had a spiritual experience there, and we all enjoyed our time. We then went to get dinner, and found this really great cafe with great dairy sandwiches and baked goods. We each got a sandwich and a salad for 39 shekels (about $10) and then each got a hot chocolate muffin-sized cake with chocolate pudding in the middle. OH GOODNESS, it was the best tasting dessert I ever had in my life. I was a happy happy girl, and even though I was full halfway through, I finished it all. It was sooo worth it.
The first class I was in was way above my level - we were reading from the Chumash (Torah) and then reading commentary by Rashi - okay, so Rashi kind of writes in his own language and isn't exactly easy to read. Most people actually take a course just on learning how to read Rashi commentary. I have never taken such a course, so I had no idea what was going on. After the class, I switched into the less difficult level, and things were much easier for me. They were still challenging, but it the nice, sort of self-satisfying way.
Going to seminary is an interesting experience for may reasons; the class schedule, the class topic, and the actual place that is seminary. Let me explain.
She'arim is in Har Nof, if you haven't figured that out from my blog yet, and Har Nof is an extremely frummy (religious) town. When I signed up for She'arim, I was told that I should dress modestly, which I figured, since I'd be going to a yeshivah - but also, that I should really dress modestly to respect those living in Har Nof. As in, don't offend the people who live here with your exposed elbows or pants. Granted, it's winter, and I wasn't planning on exposing much of anything to the cold, but, the mere fact that I'm forced to wear a skirt was a little difficult for me to chew. I know it's fickle and shallow, but I really like the fact that I feel comfortable in pants. I don't plan on wearing only skirts every day, and I don't like the fact that I can't walk around my neighborhood in pants because I might offend someone. I don't mind wearing a skirt for the purpose of yeshivah, but when I come home, I want to wear my pants and be happy. That's the first interesting thing.
The schedule of classes is long. Classes start at 8:30, and don't end until 5:30. We get an hour for lunch at 1, and that's our only real break. It's a long day packed with tons of topics - and even the way you do learning is interesting... We'll spend an hour on one topic - I mean we could spend hours and days on one topic... The whole point is to learn as much as possible - and since there are so many rabbis and teachers who have already studied this topic, we get to study those other rabbis' thoughts and research on each topic as well. The classes are well thought out - and each teacher does a bit of speaking, and makes each class interactive.
The main thing that I like about She'arim, is that it doesn't feel at all like they're trying to get you to be more religious - they're giving you topics to learn - they're giving you information, knowledge, and intellectual stimulation. It isn't all halacha (Jewish law) classes - it's about kindness, Women in the Torah, Perkei Avot, Interpersonal Relationships - it's really a good variety of topics that keep you interested and engaged in all of the classes. And many of them give practical applications for the things we learn. It's really interesting and useful.
Sunday's classes were good, but slightly overwhelming, as it was my first day in Yeshivah EVER, but the day went by quickly and I took notes, so I can go back and re-learn what I was trying to learn in class. After class, a few of my apartment mates decided to go down to the Old City. We went to the kotel, davened Ma'ariv (night-time prayer) and walked around, looking at all the beautiful expensive apartments that rich Americans and Anglos live in. The Old City is exactly that - OLD. The Kotel (western wall) has been there for thousands of years, and although it's still standing up just fine, it looks old. I had a spiritual experience there, and we all enjoyed our time. We then went to get dinner, and found this really great cafe with great dairy sandwiches and baked goods. We each got a sandwich and a salad for 39 shekels (about $10) and then each got a hot chocolate muffin-sized cake with chocolate pudding in the middle. OH GOODNESS, it was the best tasting dessert I ever had in my life. I was a happy happy girl, and even though I was full halfway through, I finished it all. It was sooo worth it.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Yom Shabbos, and after
Shabbos in Katimon was a nice relaxing shabbos. Friday night Liz and I went to shul held in a school gym. It's called "Shir Chadash" and the whole congregation is Anglo. Katimon is a very strong Anglo community, one of the many that exist in Israel. After shul, we met Ronen at a friend's apartment in Rechevia. On the way there, we passed a school that has a little farm of ducks, chickens, and turkeys. It was fun to hear the ducks quack. :)
A few other people came to the meal, which was very delicious. Challah, salads, chicken, beef stew, turkey meatballs - all were very yummy, and I ate way too much. Then, they told us how their apartment was almost broken into, at which point, we started to get ready to leave. Apparently, their cute little dog barked to wake his "mommy" who called the police to stop the robbers. Way to go, Noodle!
Shabbos morning we woke up late, and got ready for the meal. Liz and my friend from NY, Atara, came over, and so did a few other Anglo guests with a cute little kid. This girl made a toy out of everything - the blocks, the silverware, and the coasters.
It was nice catching up with Atara, and just relaxing for the rest of shabbos.
After shabbat was over, we hung around, watching a documentary on "El Nino," and I figured out my travel plans back to Har Nof. After going back to Har Nof, dropping off all my stuff, I went back to town to meet up with my friend Sherri who's here as a staff on birthright, the Parkers again, and Liz and Ronen came down as well. The plan was, to go get some yummy waffles, which the Parkers desperately wanted to eat, but didn't want to eat alone. So we began our search. I knew there was a place off Ben Yehudah, so we went, with the line around the corner, and found out that it wasn't even kosher. On to our next stop: An ice cream place behind Ben Yehudah, that was kosher, and had waffles, crepes and all sorts of ice cream on their menu. Jon asked the clerk if we were on the right line for waffles, and I heard her response, "Ein vafflim ha erev ha zeh." Great, they don't have waffles tonight. So, we gave up on waffles for the night, and I went to get some "Big Apple Pizza." Yum.
Then it was on the way back to Har Nof to get some rest before my first day of school in the frummy part of town.
A few other people came to the meal, which was very delicious. Challah, salads, chicken, beef stew, turkey meatballs - all were very yummy, and I ate way too much. Then, they told us how their apartment was almost broken into, at which point, we started to get ready to leave. Apparently, their cute little dog barked to wake his "mommy" who called the police to stop the robbers. Way to go, Noodle!
Shabbos morning we woke up late, and got ready for the meal. Liz and my friend from NY, Atara, came over, and so did a few other Anglo guests with a cute little kid. This girl made a toy out of everything - the blocks, the silverware, and the coasters.
It was nice catching up with Atara, and just relaxing for the rest of shabbos.
After shabbat was over, we hung around, watching a documentary on "El Nino," and I figured out my travel plans back to Har Nof. After going back to Har Nof, dropping off all my stuff, I went back to town to meet up with my friend Sherri who's here as a staff on birthright, the Parkers again, and Liz and Ronen came down as well. The plan was, to go get some yummy waffles, which the Parkers desperately wanted to eat, but didn't want to eat alone. So we began our search. I knew there was a place off Ben Yehudah, so we went, with the line around the corner, and found out that it wasn't even kosher. On to our next stop: An ice cream place behind Ben Yehudah, that was kosher, and had waffles, crepes and all sorts of ice cream on their menu. Jon asked the clerk if we were on the right line for waffles, and I heard her response, "Ein vafflim ha erev ha zeh." Great, they don't have waffles tonight. So, we gave up on waffles for the night, and I went to get some "Big Apple Pizza." Yum.
Then it was on the way back to Har Nof to get some rest before my first day of school in the frummy part of town.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Walking my weight in Shwarma
Today was much busier - I painted a house, went to a monastery, walked up 200 steps, I had an awesome dinner of shawarma, and I met up with some friends at a coffee shop.
So, I wanted to do some volunteering during my time here - I figured I've come here to learn to help myself, wouldn't it be nice to help others? I contacted Livnot on Wednesday, and they told me that I can help finish painting a house for a project. It's kind of like "Habitat for Humanity" I guess, except they're fixing up a pre-existing apartment instead of building a house from scratch.
We met up at the Livnot office at 9, and I had some quality breakfast of a chocolate spread and honey sandwich, with some peach nectar to drink. I know it sounds gross, but it was good.
The house we were painting exists in Ein Kerem - a predominantly Christian village in Jerusalem. The reason mostly Christians live there is because it was the birthplace of John the Baptist. Also, there's a spot where Mary (Miriam) apparently learned of her pregnancy with Jesus (Yoshuah).
It's a pretty nifty place, and this guy's apartment had an awesome view of Jerusalem.
He also had two dogs, one of which kept following me around as I was trying to paint this little outside roofed-area. Then we fixed up the
bathroom. The other volunteer painted the ceiling (she was tall enough to reach with the ladder, I was not), while I cleaned it. We finished in about two hours, and then the Livnot guy decided to give us a tour of Ein Kerem.
We went to the Notre Dame Monastery to look at the gardens. They have a beautiful garden with flowers, funky plants like aloe, and lots of different fruit trees.
It amazed me to see that in the winter the lemon and mandarin orange trees were very much alive and still bearing fruit. The pomegranate tree was very much not. They're not winter trees. Another tree they had there was this one.
I told you it was Christian!
We left the monastery and went to the spot where Mary got her pregnancy test results back - apparently some angel told her at this very spot, where the mountain water ends up into a little stream.
I went back to Liz's place to get ready to go to Har Nof. I had to repack a little, and then I brought my stuff to the main road on the other side of Liz and Ronen's to get a taxi. 50 shekel and 20 minutes later, I'm in the dorm in Har Nof. It's a cute little apartment, with 4 rooms of 2, a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and patio. After being welcomed by the dorm counselor (RA) an instant noodle soup, water bottle, and a welcome note, I chose my room and shoved my bag underneath my bed to claim it.
Here's the fun part: The RA was going to the school, so I asked her if I could come along to see it. She told me it was a trek, but it would only take me 6-15 minutes to get to school.
Let me just explain something about Har Nof. It means "Mountain with a view." It's been cut into a mountain, and it has quite a view. Everything in Har Nof is up-hill one way, and down-hill the other.
We walk out of the building and she points to the steps. 200 steps. TWO-HUNDRED!! I walked up 200 steps to get from the apartment to the school. By the time I got to the building I was panting, tired, and achey. This is going to be a fun two weeks.
After touring the school, I went back to Liz and Ronen's. We got shawarma! It was awesome yummy shawarma that made me very full. So full, in fact, that I decided to walk down to Emek to meet friends of mine who are in Israel for the year. Quick shout out! Their Israel trip blog.
We met at this awesome ice cream place that has a whole section of delicious looking pareve (non-dairy) ice cream. But then we went to a bagel place that was also a bakery, and finally decided on going to Cafe Hillel to talk and catch up. We talked about old Binghamton times, and slightly newer events going on in our lives. It was fun, and 3 hours later, we walked back home (them to theirs, and me to my temporary one).
Now I'm excited for shabbos - or should I say Shabbat... It's the Israeli way to say it.
So, I wanted to do some volunteering during my time here - I figured I've come here to learn to help myself, wouldn't it be nice to help others? I contacted Livnot on Wednesday, and they told me that I can help finish painting a house for a project. It's kind of like "Habitat for Humanity" I guess, except they're fixing up a pre-existing apartment instead of building a house from scratch.
We met up at the Livnot office at 9, and I had some quality breakfast of a chocolate spread and honey sandwich, with some peach nectar to drink. I know it sounds gross, but it was good.
The house we were painting exists in Ein Kerem - a predominantly Christian village in Jerusalem. The reason mostly Christians live there is because it was the birthplace of John the Baptist. Also, there's a spot where Mary (Miriam) apparently learned of her pregnancy with Jesus (Yoshuah).
It's a pretty nifty place, and this guy's apartment had an awesome view of Jerusalem.
He also had two dogs, one of which kept following me around as I was trying to paint this little outside roofed-area. Then we fixed up the
bathroom. The other volunteer painted the ceiling (she was tall enough to reach with the ladder, I was not), while I cleaned it. We finished in about two hours, and then the Livnot guy decided to give us a tour of Ein Kerem.We went to the Notre Dame Monastery to look at the gardens. They have a beautiful garden with flowers, funky plants like aloe, and lots of different fruit trees.
It amazed me to see that in the winter the lemon and mandarin orange trees were very much alive and still bearing fruit. The pomegranate tree was very much not. They're not winter trees. Another tree they had there was this one.
I told you it was Christian!
We left the monastery and went to the spot where Mary got her pregnancy test results back - apparently some angel told her at this very spot, where the mountain water ends up into a little stream.
I went back to Liz's place to get ready to go to Har Nof. I had to repack a little, and then I brought my stuff to the main road on the other side of Liz and Ronen's to get a taxi. 50 shekel and 20 minutes later, I'm in the dorm in Har Nof. It's a cute little apartment, with 4 rooms of 2, a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and patio. After being welcomed by the dorm counselor (RA) an instant noodle soup, water bottle, and a welcome note, I chose my room and shoved my bag underneath my bed to claim it.
Here's the fun part: The RA was going to the school, so I asked her if I could come along to see it. She told me it was a trek, but it would only take me 6-15 minutes to get to school.
Let me just explain something about Har Nof. It means "Mountain with a view." It's been cut into a mountain, and it has quite a view. Everything in Har Nof is up-hill one way, and down-hill the other.
We walk out of the building and she points to the steps. 200 steps. TWO-HUNDRED!! I walked up 200 steps to get from the apartment to the school. By the time I got to the building I was panting, tired, and achey. This is going to be a fun two weeks.
After touring the school, I went back to Liz and Ronen's. We got shawarma! It was awesome yummy shawarma that made me very full. So full, in fact, that I decided to walk down to Emek to meet friends of mine who are in Israel for the year. Quick shout out! Their Israel trip blog.
We met at this awesome ice cream place that has a whole section of delicious looking pareve (non-dairy) ice cream. But then we went to a bagel place that was also a bakery, and finally decided on going to Cafe Hillel to talk and catch up. We talked about old Binghamton times, and slightly newer events going on in our lives. It was fun, and 3 hours later, we walked back home (them to theirs, and me to my temporary one).
Now I'm excited for shabbos - or should I say Shabbat... It's the Israeli way to say it.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
A street named Emek
My first full day in Jerusalem wasn't very exciting, I'll admit. But I'm on vacation! I'm allowed to take one day to lounge around and do nothing productive, right? Well, I did do some productive things, but I only left Liz and Ronen's apartment at 4 PM... and was back an hour and a half later.
I decided to go walk down to Emek Rafaim, which is one of the trendiest streets in Jerusalem. I can't actually say if that's accurate, but it's very trendy. There are about 50 restaurants in a mile strip of street: cafes, sandwich shops, steak houses, pizza shops, and even a McDonalds (not kosher) - so many of each kind that it's really amazing that they all stay in business. They have had American chain restaurants other than Micky D's, but sadly, they don't stay around too long. There was Pizza Hut (kosher) on Emek, and KFC (kosher) somewhere off Ben Yehudah, but they've closed sometime in the past 5 years. I do have to go down to Ben Yehudah to see if the kosher Burger King is still in business. It was so cool to order a burger there, even though it's greasy and horribly over-priced.
The other businesses on Emek are jewelry/judaica shops, sunglasses stores, little clothing boutiques, and markets for food. There's a book store, a video store and a few other random things, but the predominant business there is definitely the food industry.
I went into a few little shops, practicing my Hebrish (half Hebrew, half English) as I went along, and since everything was way too expensive, I bought myself a shnitzi and walked back to Liz's. Shnitzi's is a chicken place where they make your chicken in many different styles and give you pickles, lettuce, tomato, onions, anything you want on it, smothered in whatever yummy sauce you want on a gigonzic* roll. It was highly recommended by my good friend/food connoisseur, Alan, so I bought one. There is one in Brooklyn, but I hear it doesn't do the Israeli Shnitzi's justice. Next time I go there to get dinner, I will have to get me some burger's bar - it's essentially the same thing as Shnitzi's, but replace the chicken with the best burger you will ever have. I've been to the Burger's Bar in Brooklyn, and it does do the Israeli one justice. Am I right, Alan?
*not an actual word, but gives you the idea of how big the roll is.
I decided to go walk down to Emek Rafaim, which is one of the trendiest streets in Jerusalem. I can't actually say if that's accurate, but it's very trendy. There are about 50 restaurants in a mile strip of street: cafes, sandwich shops, steak houses, pizza shops, and even a McDonalds (not kosher) - so many of each kind that it's really amazing that they all stay in business. They have had American chain restaurants other than Micky D's, but sadly, they don't stay around too long. There was Pizza Hut (kosher) on Emek, and KFC (kosher) somewhere off Ben Yehudah, but they've closed sometime in the past 5 years. I do have to go down to Ben Yehudah to see if the kosher Burger King is still in business. It was so cool to order a burger there, even though it's greasy and horribly over-priced.
The other businesses on Emek are jewelry/judaica shops, sunglasses stores, little clothing boutiques, and markets for food. There's a book store, a video store and a few other random things, but the predominant business there is definitely the food industry.
I went into a few little shops, practicing my Hebrish (half Hebrew, half English) as I went along, and since everything was way too expensive, I bought myself a shnitzi and walked back to Liz's. Shnitzi's is a chicken place where they make your chicken in many different styles and give you pickles, lettuce, tomato, onions, anything you want on it, smothered in whatever yummy sauce you want on a gigonzic* roll. It was highly recommended by my good friend/food connoisseur, Alan, so I bought one. There is one in Brooklyn, but I hear it doesn't do the Israeli Shnitzi's justice. Next time I go there to get dinner, I will have to get me some burger's bar - it's essentially the same thing as Shnitzi's, but replace the chicken with the best burger you will ever have. I've been to the Burger's Bar in Brooklyn, and it does do the Israeli one justice. Am I right, Alan?
*not an actual word, but gives you the idea of how big the roll is.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
I'm leaving on a jet plane... sort of.
Adventure finds me; I don't even have to leave the airport.
I'm standing in line waiting to be checked in - probably on the longest line I've ever been on in my life (barring the line to "Space Mountain" in Disney World). It's just not moving. I start to make some phone calls, and I'm just talking about my flight that's supposed to leave at 8:10. Two women in front of me say, "Oh, it's been delayed til 9:30." Great. Then they tell me that the flight has been chartered out.
What does that mean? Well, it means that IsrAir doesn't actually have a plane for us. So, they chartered some other airline to fly us to Israel instead.
I finally get up to the check in desk, and the guy tells me that they have to look for a seat for me. Um, isn't that the point of booking a ticket for a certain flight? Like, you buy the ticket for the specific flight so that you have a seat on said flight. He told me that they have to unblock some seats so people can sit on the plane. "Well, our system is a little weird." Weird? Weird is not the word. Stupid, maybe. Clearly, they overbooked. So I was told to wait over by the ropes, and 10 minutes later he handed me a boarding pass that said I would be sitting in seat 12 F.
At this point I was desperately thirsty, so I go buy a bottle of water for the hefty price of $2.70. It's like movie theater prices! I take the best drink of water I've had since that time my first Israel tour had no water in the dessert on our hike.
I walk to the security checkpoint so I can pass through and go to the gate. I totally forgot that you can't take liquids through security and here I am with a $2.70 bottle of water that I JUST bought. I was not throwing this bottle of water out, no way - so I downed the whole thing in about 30 seconds. Yeah, that was fun. Then I went through the whole taking off shoes, putting all electronic things in a bin, walking through the metal detector thing, and finally make it to the other side.
I walk to the gate and see that it is indeed not IsrAir's plane that we are flying on - it's World Airways. I was just hoping "World Airways" was actually going to take us to Tel Aviv, and not to, I dunno, Switzerland. Although, Switzerland would have been fun too - you know, for the mountains and chocolate, and cheese and such.
Anyway, finally, at 9:00, we start to board. Finally.
I get on the plane, and I find that I'm seated in-between two Chassidic men. Oh yeah. Me, wearing pants, sitting in between two chasidic men. It actually wasn't as bad as it could have been. The guy sitting on the outside got up about the same times I needed to use the bathroom, so I didn't have to try and jump over him without touching him. One time he fell asleep, and the chassid sitting on the other side of me saw me in my predicament and laughed - so I asked him to tap the sleeping guy for me - he did. :)
After many cramped legs, and two decently crappy meals, I land in Israel. Like all good Israeli travelers, the first thing I do is turn on my cell phone. This rabbi was supposed to pick me and a few other people up from my flight, but didn't know that the flight had been delayed two hours. So, I tried to call him to let him know that I arrived. I couldn't get through. I tried another number - nothing but some message from Cellcom I didn't totally understand cause it's in Hebrew. Great. Half an hour later, after I get my bag and go through customs, I try again and get through. The rabbi tried calling me, realizing my account hadn't been activated, and activated it for me! He's a nice guy - crazy, but nice.
Eventually, after waiting for two other people, we leave the airport. So, this guy is crazy - he was texting, typing, sending emails, making phone calls, all while driving. He's American, but clearly well acclimated to Israeli culture. After dropping the other two people off, we make a pit stop at the Magen David Adom, which is where he works. Ten minutes later he comes back to the car, and says, "There's an accident right near where we're going! You know what that means..." And I didn't, but apparently it means that we can take out our flashing light, put it on top of the car and drive like a complete maniac. Holy wow, I have never had an experience anything like that before! Thankfully, I am at Liz's apartment, relaxed, calm, with no shock symptoms from crazy Israeli ambulance drivers.
I'm standing in line waiting to be checked in - probably on the longest line I've ever been on in my life (barring the line to "Space Mountain" in Disney World). It's just not moving. I start to make some phone calls, and I'm just talking about my flight that's supposed to leave at 8:10. Two women in front of me say, "Oh, it's been delayed til 9:30." Great. Then they tell me that the flight has been chartered out.
What does that mean? Well, it means that IsrAir doesn't actually have a plane for us. So, they chartered some other airline to fly us to Israel instead.
I finally get up to the check in desk, and the guy tells me that they have to look for a seat for me. Um, isn't that the point of booking a ticket for a certain flight? Like, you buy the ticket for the specific flight so that you have a seat on said flight. He told me that they have to unblock some seats so people can sit on the plane. "Well, our system is a little weird." Weird? Weird is not the word. Stupid, maybe. Clearly, they overbooked. So I was told to wait over by the ropes, and 10 minutes later he handed me a boarding pass that said I would be sitting in seat 12 F.
At this point I was desperately thirsty, so I go buy a bottle of water for the hefty price of $2.70. It's like movie theater prices! I take the best drink of water I've had since that time my first Israel tour had no water in the dessert on our hike.
I walk to the security checkpoint so I can pass through and go to the gate. I totally forgot that you can't take liquids through security and here I am with a $2.70 bottle of water that I JUST bought. I was not throwing this bottle of water out, no way - so I downed the whole thing in about 30 seconds. Yeah, that was fun. Then I went through the whole taking off shoes, putting all electronic things in a bin, walking through the metal detector thing, and finally make it to the other side.
I walk to the gate and see that it is indeed not IsrAir's plane that we are flying on - it's World Airways. I was just hoping "World Airways" was actually going to take us to Tel Aviv, and not to, I dunno, Switzerland. Although, Switzerland would have been fun too - you know, for the mountains and chocolate, and cheese and such.
Anyway, finally, at 9:00, we start to board. Finally.
I get on the plane, and I find that I'm seated in-between two Chassidic men. Oh yeah. Me, wearing pants, sitting in between two chasidic men. It actually wasn't as bad as it could have been. The guy sitting on the outside got up about the same times I needed to use the bathroom, so I didn't have to try and jump over him without touching him. One time he fell asleep, and the chassid sitting on the other side of me saw me in my predicament and laughed - so I asked him to tap the sleeping guy for me - he did. :)
After many cramped legs, and two decently crappy meals, I land in Israel. Like all good Israeli travelers, the first thing I do is turn on my cell phone. This rabbi was supposed to pick me and a few other people up from my flight, but didn't know that the flight had been delayed two hours. So, I tried to call him to let him know that I arrived. I couldn't get through. I tried another number - nothing but some message from Cellcom I didn't totally understand cause it's in Hebrew. Great. Half an hour later, after I get my bag and go through customs, I try again and get through. The rabbi tried calling me, realizing my account hadn't been activated, and activated it for me! He's a nice guy - crazy, but nice.
Eventually, after waiting for two other people, we leave the airport. So, this guy is crazy - he was texting, typing, sending emails, making phone calls, all while driving. He's American, but clearly well acclimated to Israeli culture. After dropping the other two people off, we make a pit stop at the Magen David Adom, which is where he works. Ten minutes later he comes back to the car, and says, "There's an accident right near where we're going! You know what that means..." And I didn't, but apparently it means that we can take out our flashing light, put it on top of the car and drive like a complete maniac. Holy wow, I have never had an experience anything like that before! Thankfully, I am at Liz's apartment, relaxed, calm, with no shock symptoms from crazy Israeli ambulance drivers.
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