BBQ, Shuk, Tel Aviv

Shalom, chaverim (hi friends!)

I would like to start today's post by taking a moment to thank all of you for reading. I have a little visit counter at the bottom of the blog that shows how many times this blog has been looked at, and I am beyond astounded at how high that number is. So thank you.

It's been a few days since I've blogged which means one exciting thing: I'M BUSY. The first couple of days here it was great to have nothing to do so I could guiltlessly catch up on sleep. The next few days were dedicated to exploring. But then...what to do? School is still around the corner, but we haven't started yet. Luckily, I'm finally feeling busy, with lots of plans meeting new classmates here, there, and everywhere.

Typically on the 4th of July I like to celebrate by grilling with the familia and watching fireworks. This year, being in Jerusalem, neither of those things happened. However, HUC helped coordinate a BBQ in the park across the street from my apartment (called the liberty bell park--more on that later, once I do some etymology-related research) which was awesome. It was somewhere between an epic potluck and a multicultural picnic. Something incredible that I am learning about being in Jerusalem is the close relationship and proximity between many different cultures and groups of people. As we future rabbinical/cantorial/Jewish education students gathered together to have a little slice of home on improvised hot dog buns with shady knock-off doritos, a large Muslim family (maybe families?) gathered in the park for a picnic with some fun and games.

As the evening progressed, something very cool happened: suddenly, Jay was racing (and arm wrestling) with our new friends, and we were conversing with one of the older girls who studies English in school. It was an experience unique to Jerusalem (at least, so far in my life) and I'm glad I got to be a part of it. While it's been strange realizing that everyone in my apartment building is Jewish, and while I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing Orthodox Jewish men with intense peyes (the sideburn curls shown here) and iPhones, I'm finding a deep appreciation for the diversity around me.

Jay and the guy he was arm-wrestling.

On the 5th, I did a lot of cool things (clearly). As it turns out, the strange situation I found myself in at The Ohio State University wherein I couldn't walk anywhere without running into somebody I know has followed me to J'lem. One evening, I was walking with some new friends to find a cool (and wallet friendly--come on, we're students) restaurant and I ran into an old friend, Emily. WAY back in the day, I was an assistant teacher in Emily's religious school classes at Rockdale Temple. She was in town for her brother-in-law's wedding, and staying at the hotel around the corner from my apartment! We made plans to meet for coffee, and seeing her was amazing. We talked about college, and starting at HUC (in fact, she initially thought I was in town for Birthright!) and all of the amazing things to look forward to about being in Israel for the year and for all of the great things to come during rabbinical school. I got to hear about where she's working now and it was so refreshing to see a familiar face and get to swap stories.

The outside part of Mahane Yehuda

A covered section of Mahene Yehuda

After catching up with Emily, I met some of my new classmates for an adventure to the market. Confession: I know it's cliche to take pictures of fruits and veggies, but they are SO GORGEOUS here. Clearly the novelty of in-season produces has not worn off on me just yet. We strolled around for a few hours inspecting 1/2 shek onions and kilos of cherries for 10 shek. (Sidenote: in Israel the currency is the NIS, or "New Israeli Shekel"--we just call them sheks. also the symbol (instead of $) is ₪ which is kind of fun). For lunch we got shawarma. If you haven't had shawarma, you should hop on a plane and come visit me and I'll take you because holy guac and chips that stuff is amazing. Clearly I should have named this blog ellelikesisraelifood.blogspot.com or similar. Also at the shuk--an Aroma. Aroma is oftentimes regarded as the Starbucks of Israel, but let me tell you something. Aroma has frozen lemonana. This is my weakness.

Gorgeous dried fruits (kiwis, strawberries, etc) in the shuk

Typical. An icthus next to a sign that says FishenChips.

These are raw almonds! They're related to peaches, apparently.

After an (exhausting) afternoon at the shuk, I rested for a bit and then it was time to socialize. We journeyed back to the Germany Colony for a fun evening--we even tried a semi-pricey restaurant called Olive which was pretty dee-lish. Luckily they have another location right downstairs from my apartment. Yum.

In Jerusalem a lot of signs are trilingual; typically Hebrew, Arabic, and English are pictured. Here, though, is a sign with an Ethiopic language (my best guess? Amharic) in the shuk.

Today, though, was maybe the most exciting day of the last few, although obviously everyday is exciting here. This morning, Rachel and Lenette and I traveled to Tel Aviv for the day! And it was AWESOME. Here's the deal: Jerusalem is filled with history and religions and is awesome, and Tel Aviv is filled with history and a million other things and is ALSO awesome. Our trip to Tel Aviv was inspired by Rachel; she studied abroad there for 5 months, so she knew about some cool places to go check out. We (and by we I mean Rachel) did an excellent job navigating the transportation issue. We got to Tel Aviv ahead of schedule, so we walked around Shuk HaCarmel, which was a similar setup to the shuk in J'lem, but had more clothing options (including Dora the Explora hats) and it was much smaller than the market here.

Israeli flag in the shuk in Tel Aviv

Incredible grapes. Tel Aviv.

After browsing through the shuk, we hopped over to the Palmach museum. Before going to the museum, I felt that I had a pretty good grasp on the events that took place before the official declaration of the State of Israel, as well as a strong personal connection to Zionism and the people who worked so hard to lay a foundation for this amazing place. However, this museum made me realize that there was even so much more to the story to know. The way the museum is set up is unlike any other museum I've ever been to.

Palmach Museum

Essentially, the basement (underground on purpose because the Palmach was an underground group) is set up like a timeline. You begin in 1941, and each room takes you one year closer to the war of independence. This museum had intense footage of the fighting that took place, and it was a highly interactive exhibition of history. Perhaps the most striking bit was the real photographs of the group of Palmach members that the exhibit followed. Because the museum is set up where you follow the lives of a group of fighters throughout the 1940s, you feel a close personal connection to the history. It was an amazing museum, and having seen it this early on in my year in Israel I feel a new appreciation for the streets I walk on and the establishment of the state itself. I've been to Independence Hall a couple of times here as well, and between memories of that and the Palmach museum today I'm feeling a sort of adopted patriotism (maybe because of the lack of 4th of July fireworks, maybe because of ancestral ties to Zionism) to this country.

Plants are stubborn here. I see them growing in unexpected places, like in this wall outside the Palmach museum.

After some meaningful time spent at the museum, we hopped in a cab (and practiced our Hebrew--nothing like Israelis laughing at you to help teach you a lesson) and headed for a delicious restaurant Rachel knew called Benedict. It was delicious and the portions were ridiculous. After lunch we had an interesting ride back to J'lem (don't worry Mom and Dad, we made it back safely). A fun detail I will include about our trip was that our sheirut (the group taxi that we took) had a lovely 80s inspired pink and grey upholstery. In Hebrew the word for party is "m'seeba" and the word for bus is "autoboos" so I decided we should call it a "m'seeboos"--don't act like you're not impressed by my wit.

Breakfast at Benedict: Israeli Breakfast with a fritatta-style omelette, israeli salad, and iced coffee. Also, there were freshly baked rolls that came with nutella and apple butter. Did you need a napkin? Because you're drooling.

After getting back to the apartment, it was time to meet and welcome my roommate Becka! I'm so glad she's finally here. Luckily I pretty much know my way around the important areas (school, food, shopping, bank, etc) so we'll probably do a little tour tomorrow to help her get acquainted with the neighborhood. Yay!

An angle I rarely see of the Old City