Moving IDF Ceremony

The crowd begins to form.

Young soldiers and sailors.

Rifles and Bibles at the ready.



The IDF Band; so cool!

This afternoon, we were able to score some highly sought-after tickets to the underground tunnels of the Western Wall. This was one of the highlights of our trip so far - it was amazing to walk the entire length of the Western Wall underground. Jen wrote about our tunnel trip above.

However, when we were headed toward the tunnel tour, we happened upon the setup for an Israel Defense Force (IDF) ceremony in front of the Wall. We talked to our tour guide in the tunnel who told us that at 7:30 p.m. the ceremony would be an initiation ceremony for new recruits into the IDF infantry and into the Israeli equivalent of the Navy Seals.

After our tunnel tour, we stayed for the ceremony, which was incredibly moving (despite several speeches in Hebrew that we didn't understand at all). The crowd was huge - it was wall-to-wall people and it was impossible to see much, thankfully they broadcast the ceremony on big-screens. After the speeches, it was time for the new recruits to be formally inducted into the military. Each recruit approached one of the green tables.

When the new recruits were handed their rifles, they were also handed a Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) from the piles set up on top of more than a dozen tables. Such is the Israeli military - preparing for and carrying out war based on the Jewish principles and laws of the Bible.

After all of the new recruits were issued their rifles and Tanakhim, the IDF band (which includes several singers, backup singers, and a electric guitar player), which entertained the crowd during the rifle and Tanakh issuance ceremony, led the soldiers and the crowd in the national anthem, "Hatikvah." Seeing and hearing everyone sing the anthem was just incredible.

Post Office

Today was our first trip to the post office because we received a package from my mom! Included in the package was an assortment of wonderful things that are impossible to obtain in Israel - ice cube trays that work, a flat bed sheet, eight copies of the official songbook of the Conservative Movement (B'kol Echad), and Jen received some cute teddy bears to make our apartment more like home. Awww!

The package was shipped just a week ago, via airmail and it arrived so very quickly. If only the books would make the ship go faster and show up!

One can do many things at the post office here. Besides picking up packages, a primary reason to go to the post office is to pay bills. We received our first bill, we think it was for the telephone and Internet, so we paid it at the post office today too!

It was a fun adventure!

The Biblical Zoo

Although we knew of the existence of the Biblical Zoo since near our arrival in Jerusalem, it went on our list of "must see" places once we read an article about it in our Hebrew Ulpan book.

Having discovered that the zoo was open until the late time of 7 p.m., Matt and I hopped in a taxi this afternoon and arrived at the zoo. No one else we have talked to has been to the zoo, so we weren't quite sure what to expect.

It turns out that the zoo is a very decent size and has some lovely exhibits. They have many birds and monkeys, but they also have snakes, giraffes, elephants, lions, and rhinos.

Most of the habitats have a natural feel to them (rather than the concrete-slab look of 1980s zoo enclosures) and a few even let you get up close and personal with animals by allowing you within the enclosures (however, this is not done on the lion habitat).

All the signs were in both Hebrew and English, which was wonderful. That way we could read about all the wonderful animals. We even saw two pygmy marmosets - the smallest monkeys in the world. They were adorable!

Thank goodness we brought our camera; so many cute and interesting animals!

The Shuk

Once again we made the long trek (okay, it's really a beautiful 40 minute or so walk) to "the shuk." The shuk is an open-air market that has everything you need in life. (Matt is now pointing out that we didn't see any video or bookstores, but I say they have everything else.)

There are seemingly hundreds of stands that have wonderfully fresh and delicious fruits and vegetables. There are candy stands and spice stands. There are also stands that sell fish, meat, or baked goods. And there are also little shops that sell wine, shampoo, and household goods.

Today, Matt and I bought a little saucepan for 40 shekels ($9), a white tablecloth for 25 shekels ($6), and a bag of six pita for a mere 5 shekels ($1.20). Did I mention that everything is super cheap at the shuk? We were tempted by hundreds of other products and foods, but we were wary about carrying too many heavy items home.

Here are a few pictures of the shuk.

Riding the Bus

A soldier with a big gun is just part of the Tel Aviv bus station crowd.

Departure gates for all points out of town.

Busses leaving every 15 minutes for Jerusalem (a.k.a. ירושלים)

The big board of departures.

This morning I traveled to Tel Aviv via taxi and returned via bus. The taxi ride from Jerusalem was more than fourteen times more expensive than the bus ride home but the trip home was much more adventurous!

Once I was done with that which I had to do in Tel Aviv, I made my way in the direction my cab driver had told me was the bus station. I walked and walked and asked a few people to confirm I was headed in the right direction.

Eventually, I followed the trail of busses to find a run-down neighborhood that seemed somewhat seedy. I saw a building that looked like it could be a bus station and walking closer, I saw a sign that said "Bus Information" with an arrow so I followed it and didn't see many people on the way.

However, I ultimately ran into a threesome of junkies sitting on the concrete floor, shooting heroin (I don't know what shooting heroin looks like except from the movies, but these three were in the process of injecting needles into their veins, maybe they were insulin-dependent). Anyway, I decided that this was the wrong bus station.

Across the street from the needle-fest was a motorcycle police officer who pointed the way to the bus station once he finished his personal phone call on his cellular phone. So, I walked some more and asked people where the bus station was and realized that I was being directed in a variety of directions. I was fed up with my lack of Hebrew skills with the local so I found a bus stop and studied the map and realized that if a bus stopped at that stop, it would take me to the bus station. Seconds later, a bus pulled up and I boarded and paid.

The bus traveled a whopping two blocks and arrived at the bus station, which I (fortunately) could not see from my earlier vantage points. Once inside the incredibly busy bus station, I found a ticket booth and paid the 17.7 shequalim ($4) for a bus to Jerusalem.

The bus station is like an airline terminal with a plethora of gates. To find the bus to Jerusalem, you simply look for gate 605 and wait there for the bus to pull up and then you board. The busses run every fifteen minutes and the sign above the gate indicates the next departure time. There's even a large board listing departures for the next hour (see photos above).

The intercity busses are like the huge touring busses - the seats are comfortable and there's great air conditioning. Trains don't connect this country but busses do and there are many intercity routes. The military uses busses as a primary form of troop movement so there were many soldiers at the bus station and on the bus, too. Ultimately, I arrived at the Jerusalem bus station and took a cab to our apartment, no worse for the wear and excited to know how to use the intercity system.

By the way, the intercity busses are incredibly safe because they don't stop between the departure and destination and all passengers passed through tight screening upon arrival at the bus station (bags are even x-rayed!) So, don't worry, it's very safe. Very safe! Really! Would I do something unsafe?!?

Men and Women Sitting Together, Oh My!

Every week, at our egalitarian synagogue, at least one man pokes his head in, looks around, sees men and women sitting together, and quickly leaves. Yesterday morning, it was no different and it just infuriates me.

Shabbat morning, it was a dad with his two sons. They appeared at a side door, looked around and the dad quickly pulled his sons back (perhaps he thought they’d be struck by lightening if they saw women praying?). Certainly, these individuals are entitled to pray at whatever synagogue where they feel comfortable, where men can pray without seeing women, but their severe reaction and obvious venom to witnessing a modern, egalitarian sanctuary, just makes me mad. I want to shout, "Try it, you might enjoy a situation where men and women have equal rights," or "Welcome to the twentieth century!"

Silent Shabbat?

Friday night's service was no fun - Kabbalat Shabbat is supposed to be uplifting and moving but, alas, it was not. The rabbi is on vacation for two weeks so those leading the service, I suppose, felt like doing something different.

Two of my favorite parts of the Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming Shabbat) service on Friday night are the tried and true songs of Psalm 29 (link goes directly to MP3 music file) and Psalm 96 (so does this one but have a listen!) - they're both moving when everyone joins in and sings. It's quite an experience. The person leading Friday's service simply spoke sections of these Psalms and left out the singing. I was disappointed.

Wearing Them Down to the Bone

If you've been a reader of our blog since the very beginning, you remember all our quandaries about what to bring and what not to bring to Israel. For instance, Matt and I had gone through all our clothes, picked our favorites and stuffed four bags with as much as we could possibly cram in there.

However, we are now so sick of our clothes! We wear the same five or six things over and over and over again. Then we wash them, hang them up, and wear them again. Ah, how glorious a new shirt or pants or skirt or anything would be!

We've shared our consternation with our attire with friends here. It seems we're not the only ones who feel this way about the few belongings we brought. Everyone has the same plan: wear all our clothes down to shreds this year and then throw them all away right before the trip back home. With that in mind, I don't think we are going to look very fashionable that last month here...lol.

We have additional fashion woes. First, I only brought four fancy (for Israeli standards) outfits for Shabbat. I thought that would be enough but when we got here, I realized that we would be going to both Friday night and Saturday morning services. In the States, I usually lived so far away from our synagogue that we usually spent Friday night having a Shabbat meal with friends and/or family and then went to services only on Saturday. So, I am completely embarrassed to wear the same thing to services every other week. Ick!

One friend of ours says that his clothing all seems a size too big for him now because he's used to having a dryer that shrinks his jeans, shirts, etc. Dang, and I was hoping it was because I was losing weight!

On another note, there are no closets here in Israel (we're not sure why). So, you have to put your clothes in the single, small wardrobe found in your bedroom and then find other nooks and crannies throughout the apartment to hide your unmentionables and winter clothes. This week, one of our friends was very excited because she happened upon a stash of clothing she had placed in a cabinet in her living room. New shirts equals gold mine!

Since Matt and I are already sick of our clothes, how sick of them are we going to be by next summer?!

Still Waiting

It has now been about eleven weeks since we shipped our first boxes of books to ourselves and none of the four boxes have yet to arrive. We’re told that the war caused a delay – as the nation’s port is at Haifa, well within the range of the Hizbullah rockets that were fired upon Israel, and thus an impacted city by all accounts.

We’ve heard that new immigrants, who usually arrive in the summer, have had to go without their prized possessions that they’ve shipped from North America or other places they emigrated from. They only brought with them the things they’d need for a few weeks here, hoping for their crate of supplies to arrive soon after their arrival (as the immigrants ship their items well before they leave in order to meet their furniture, baby carriages, books, toys, etc. near their arrival time). I feel awful for the new olim (immigrants) and hope that the port is working feverishly to get the crates to the olim. Because, perhaps once that’s done, our books will be unloaded, too.

Because of our lack of books, we’ve had to do more book shopping than we’d anticipated. We’re also starting to book swap with friends – especially in the fiction arena. The English language modern fiction opportunities are rather limited but there are a handful of small used book shops around town that we frequent. These used book (or the few books that are new) are very expensive; obviously, the shipping cost is added in and the supply vs. demand principle must be in full effect.

Our Hebrew teacher tells us she’s used Amazon before but it can take up to a few months for books to arrive. I asked some rabbinical student friends if they had a copy of a particularly important book on Judaism and while they both had a copy of the book back in California, it wasn’t here. Just yesterday, I received a fantastic call from one friend who found the book in a used book shop. He wanted to know if I wanted him to buy it and I said, “Please!” At least I’ll have that book in the near future, even if my four boxes don’t arrive.

Eight Weeks

For the past eight weeks, every weekday (remember that’s Sunday through Thursday here) I’ve been studying Hebrew for at least two hours (for six of those weeks it’s been for three and a half hours) every day. It’s been intensive and I’ve learned a lot. But I’m really ready for a break and, fortunately, we get one. Anna and her husband, along with fellow students of her husband, are going to a resort near Barcelona for the week.

Nice, huh? Well, we get our own vacation of sorts out of it – a week off from Hebrew! Yay! Jen and I are planning to visit many of the sites in town that we haven’t yet seen. Yes, folks, we’re going to Jerusalem for our vacation!!!

For instance, today in Hebrew class we learned about the local zoo in order to learn the Hebrew names of various animals. We still don’t know how to say "cat," however. Nonetheless, we have homework to do and we have a lot of vocabulary to catch up on (about eight weeks’ worth!) You should see my piles of unused flash cards. They’ll hopefully get a workout in the coming week.

We start Hebrew back up a week from Sunday, just a few days before the yeshiva starts for the year. That’s pretty soon!

You Make a Left at the Dome of the Rock...

We were at the Western Wall with friends the other day and a car drove into the greater Wall area, which I presumed was mostly for pedestrians. Well, apparently the Wall has become a drive-through prayer center because a few other cars also showed up.

Actually, it turned out that there was a wedding that was going on there and they must've had special permission or maybe they didn't because this is Israel and they just did whatever they wanted to? Here's the proof (and no, I don't even have a copy of Photoshop!)...

The Locomotive Washing Machine

Our washing machine likes to go for strolls. During the spin cycle it begins to walk away from the wall, bump into the gas connection for the radiator, and sometimes walk to the center of the bathroom where it removes its drainage tube from the wall, thus pouring water across the floor.

I temporarily solved this problem by placing two buckets full of water in front of the washing machine to block its propulsion. This is quite effective but not an acceptable aesthetic solution (according to Jen).

We emailed our landlord to let her know of the problem. She informed us of a device that would stop the strolls. She didn't know what it was called or where to obtain it but she said it existed. Oh, thanks!

A few days later, she wrote to say that she'd ordered the part (a washing machine "brake") for us and it would arrive at the appliance store the next day. The appliance store is a 40-minute walk but our landlord said we should take a taxi and she'd reimburse us. So, after Hebrew tutoring, a few days after the order should have arrived, we took a taxi to the appliance store.

We had an awful time attempting to communicate with the owner - his English was bad but it was a heck of a lot better than our Hebrew so it took us a few minutes for us to understand each other - he interpreted our use of the phrase "washing machine break" to mean that we wanted him to come repair our washing machine. Oh, the silly differences between nouns and past-tense verbs!

Anyway, we eventually determined that said brake had not yet arrived but should arrive "maCHar" (i.e. "tomorrow," in Hebrew). He wrote down my cell phone number.

Less than two hours after we arrived home, he called to say the part had arrived "hiyom" (i.e. "today," in Hebrew). Shucks!

That took place last Thursday. So, yesterday I decided to go pick up the part and I decided to walk. I put on my tennis shoes (any walk over 20 minutes requires me to relinquish Birkenstocks) and grabbed my iPod and walked the 40 minutes to the appliance store, arriving just after 4 p.m. to find it, of course, closed. There's no sign on the door indicating open hours so I presume they closed at 4 because that'd be just my luck.

So, I walked home, brake-less. I'll try again sometime soon but I'm kinda' tired of short jarring taxi rides where we're stuck in traffic or at red lights most of the time. Maybe I'll try another walk; it certainly improves my tan!

However, I would happily trade our washing machine for a in-sink garbage disposal. But that's another story...

The Wind

We live on the top floor of our building - it's about four stories above street level and one heck of a climb up the stairs with groceries.

Every afternoon, the winds blow into Jerusalem from the west (from the Mediterranean Sea). They pick up quite nicely and provide quite the breeze through our apartment with our windows open. Because of the winds, we've only had to use our air conditioning once so far (on a unusually stagnant day).

The doors throughout the apartment slam shut and open throughout the day because of the winds and the lack of good locking mechanisms. We've requested an emergency shipment of doorstops from the United States.

Anyway, last Friday was an especially windy day and right after I posted our last post of the day (below), our bedroom door slammed shut with such a force that the window in the door shattered all over the floor. Thus, I spent the next half-hour picking up and sweeping up glass shards throughout the apartment.

I plan on leaving the window pane empty until just before we move out, lest we break the glass another time. There's really no need for glass there - an open hole will do just fine.

Shabbat Shalom

Ah, Friday. It's been a wonderful and relaxing morning off but as 3:30 approaches, we have to get into high gear to prepare for Shabbat. We expect eight guests tonight, for a total of ten of us tonight! Jen's been cooking all day but now it's just about time for frenzied activity until nightfall. We're also going to be going to a new synagogue tonight for services and it's about a half-hour walk away, which adds to the logistical challenges of the evening but I'm sure everything will be fantastic.

Be sure to check out Hatikvah II as there are four new posts there from today alone, in addition to the new posts below.

Here's a photo of Samuel's tomb, which we visited on our way to Jerusalem when we first arrived here...

Geoff Is Safe!

The aforementioned friend who stayed with us, Geoff, has arrived, after a harrowing journey, to his kibbutz near the desert city of Be'er Sheva. His multi-hour bus ride there was quite an ordeal and since Geoff doesn't have a blog (yet), I'll quote from his email...

The Jerusalem bus station was packed with soldiers. I waited about an hour for the bus, only to have about forty soldiers push ahead of me to get aboard. As my luggage was already loaded, waiting for the next bus was not an option, and I therefore found myself physically having to push my way into the bus, shoving Hassidim out my way right and left. I was able to secure a nice seat on the floor of the bus for the entire two hour ride.

Anyway, he's now there and working all day every day. We're definitely going to try and visit - it'll be an interesting place to see. However, I think we'll take a cab!

The Jerusalem Arts and Crafts Festival

For three weeks in August, Jerusalem hosts a huge arts and crafts festival. I had wanted to go for weeks, but Matt and I finally had time to go last Wednesday night. It was such a blast!

The festival is much, much more than just for arts and crafts. There were rows and rows of booths from artists and stores in Israel and then there were booths labeled from about 25 or so other countries including Argentina, Bolivia, China, Ethiopia, and Madagascar. All had things to sell.

Then there was the entertainment. Each night the festival hosts a band or singer at a stadium that can sit thousands of guests. Also, throughout the festival grounds, there are clowns, face-painting areas, and balloon artists. Plus, we saw three stages set up with continuous acts which included a puppet theater, juggling, acrobatics, and singing.

All of this is included in the entrance fee of just 40 shekels for adults (about $10) or 30 shekels for students (about $8).

Then there was the food court. It was so exciting! A whole food court at a festival that was kosher! We went up and down the rows of food booths to determine what to eat. Since there were both dairy and meat booths, we had to decide what to do. Luckily, I thought that we could do dairy first and then wait half an hour and come back and have meat.

For dairy, there were many choices. We could have eaten pizza, fondue, cheese-and-spice-stuffed gourmet bread, or a waffle dessert. We chose to have the waffle dessert because we had heard great thing about it and hadn't tried one before.

Basically, the waffle dessert consists of a waffle bottom (rectangular, about 6 inches by 4 inches) upon which they lather a milk chocolate spread and then top is with sprinkles or nuts depending on your choice. Both Matt and I chose sprinkles. Yummy!

I was all "sugared up" but Matt wanted more. He saw a cotton candy maker and got a huge one. (Matt never passes up cotton candy!)

About an hour later we headed back for a more conventional dinner with meat. We could have chosen corndogs, chicken skewers, hamburgers, fried chicken, Chinese food, and much more. Perhaps not surprisingly, we chose the Chinese food.

It was our first experience with Israeli "lines." We had been warned about them beforehand, so I was prepared. Basically, in Israel a line is not really a line. It's more of a how-hard-can-you-push-to-the-front-without-causing-a-fight line. With elbows out, I made it to the front with only (purposely) allowing one person in front of me because she was a soldier. However, we had gone to the festival with a couple of friends who didn't want to be as pushy so it took them another 8 minutes or so to get their Chinese food.

We had a great time, ate well, and saw some good shows. Although the festival is now over, I wish I could go back.

Memorials

I often look at the memorial plaque for a 2002 terror bombing in front of the cafe on the street between our house and the yeshiva. However, on my walk home from synagogue this morning, I noticed that I pass by a second memorial plaque for a second terror bombing on the same street. Two plaques within a fifteen minute walk is truly tragic. I pray for peace.

Photos From the Israel Museum

Our visit to the Israel Museum last Friday was a fantastic one! Below are some photos from that day. The first photo shows our neighborhood, from the vantage point of the museum. The second photo is of the dome of the Shrine of the Book, the building that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient manuscripts (in the background is the Knesset). The last photo shows part of the scale model of Jerusalem at the year 66 CE, during the time of the second temple.

Jerusalem. There Is No Such City!

Here in Israel, the Friday paper is the big one, the equivalent to the Sunday paper in the U.S. We buy a Jerusalem Post every Friday because it contains the city's entertainment listings for the upcoming week (in English, along with the rest of the paper).

In last Friday's edition was an insert from the Jerusalem Municipality informing residents of summer events in the city. On the cover of the brochure is the city's slogan, "Jerusalem. There is no such city!"

Now, I'm not a professional marketing guru but to have a slogan that denies the existence of your city doesn't seem like an exceptionally good marketing idea.

However, perhaps it's a new slogan to confuse Hizbullah...

Terrorist: "Where's Jerusalem?"

Jerusalemite: "Jerusalem? There is no such city!"

Terrorist: "OK, thanks, I'll go home."

Whew!

Oh my! The last few days have been crazy! Classes ended last Thursday, we had a temporary roommate moved in, on Friday we went to the Israel Museum and prepared for and hosted a big Shabbat dinner and went to services, and today we went to services, went to a picnic all afternoon in the park and went to a dinner at a fellow student's house and Jean just left and she's abandoning us for three weeks.

After another three weeks of classes, another group of students left. However, almost everyone left this time versus last time where some stayed for the second summer session. The end of the second summer session also meant the end of our great Hebrew class. We couldn't let that happen so we got together with another student and the three of us have hired our Hebrew teacher to teach us two hours every day. We start this personal tutoring on Sunday and I just can not wait because I know we'll be progressing so very quickly with so much individual attention!

On Friday we started the morning working hard to get ready for dinner. I went to the bakery for bread and the grocery store for a bunch of items we needed for the expected five guests we'd have. On Friday we also welcomed a short-term roommate. Our roommate is a student from our Hebrew class who was kicked out of his apartment here in Jerusalem because the owners were going to move some evacuated family members from the war in the North into the apartment. Since our classmate is leaving for a few months on a kibbutz on Sunday morning, we welcomed him to live with us for the weekend.

Friday morning we got ready for and awaited our guest and later in the morning, five of us went to the Israel Museum, which is not far from our apartment at all. Jen and I obtained annual student membership at the museum for the low, low price of 100 shequalim (about $30) each. Now, we can go to the museum anytime we want! This is especially fantastic for Saturdays because now that we have membership, we need not buy tickets on Shabbat and we can just walk right over and look at the incredible art and Judaica collections.

Friday night dinner was a lot of fun and we even picked up an eighth participant on the way home form services. A fellow student was invited to a neighbor's house for Shabbat dinner but the neighbors ended up moving between the initiation and Friday night. So, we had an additional guest - luckily we had plenty of food. Jen's cooking was fantastic and the conversation and singing was great as well.

This morning we went to services and planned a small picnic afterwards. While at services, we found two more people to add to our picnic - fortunately, we had enough food for that, too. Such is life here - it's about being ready for additional guest, which makes things so much more fun. We went to a big park nearby and had a great picnic with about ten of us. We stayed from one until about 4:30 and then we had to get back to get ready for our dinner at another friend's house.

SO, we walked across town to dinner, bringing our extensive leftovers there. It was a great time and we stayed until after 9 and were just too tired to walk back so we broke down a grabbed a cab. For three of us at about $4.50, it was well worth it!

We went back to our apartment and said goodbye to Jean, who's going back to the States for three weeks during our break until early September. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone who's leaving for good and it was sad to say goodbye to Jean; it's been an incredibly seven weeks and we'll definitely miss her and those who've become such a part of our life during that time.

At least we still have Hebrew tomorrow morning with our wonderful teacher! But, we'll also be saying goodbye to our friend and roomate as he heads to his kibbutz!

Really Bad Comedy

Since last Friday, we saw fliers throughout Jerusalem announcing a comedy show. The fliers were in English and told of a show at a restaurant we've passed before and even had a fun-looking photo of the scheduled comedian.

I was impressed enough by the fliers alone. I thought - this is professional! They have a computer, the software with which to create a nice-looking flier and include a photo, the ability to print this flier on a printer, the ability to reproduce this flier, and the organization to post said flier throughout the city. Considering this is Israel, this must be one heck of a show!

Nonetheless, we went to the ninety minute show last night and it was awful. I think I laughed three times during the hour and a half; Jen thinks she laughed five times. It was really bad! I'm glad it's over!

Our New Apartment

Oh how I love thee! Let me count the ways! Our new apartment is fantastic! Dirty, but super!

So, our landlord didn't quite finish cleaning. She got most of her stuff out of the apartment but didn't have time to wipe down the counters or sweep the floors.

It doesn't matter, because the apartment is great! (Did I say that already? :) Matt and I have been cleaning and cleaning. Scrubbing and spraying and wiping down. And we still love the apartment.

We are also kashering the kitchen so we have a lot more cleaning in that area than we otherwise would. I started by sorting through every item in the kitchen to determine whether it can be kashered or cannot be kashered. Then I stuffed all the non-kasherable stuff into two big cabinets. We were left with a small pile of dishes.

Then we made a list of kitchen and other household supplies we will need, including a saucepan with lid, a steamer, a toaster, a cutting board, a sharp knife, a vegetable peeler, two baking pans, four towels, a bathmat, a duvet, and more. So much to buy!

But once everything is clean, kashered, and put back together, we are really going to like it here. The view is absolutely amazing, the layout makes the apartment feel bigger than it really is, and there are loads of windows that allow wonderful light and air into the apartment.

What's interesting though is that Israeli apartments have no closets. So I'm finding that many things I would normally hide in a closet, like jackets, mops, boxes, extra blankets, etc., have no particular place. I have to be creative in hiding stuff :)

Anyway, back to cleaning and kashering. It's going to take us a few days more to complete the process since the glassware is still being soaked. However, most of it should be done by tomorrow afternoon (we hope).

Oh yeah, did I mention we now have a T.V.? Wonderful!

Moving

Honestly, I really tried not to buy much while we were at our first apartment. But then when it came to pack up our things, we discovered that we had about double the amount of stuff that we had arrived with. How is that possible?!

Well, we bought some sheets, some dishes, some candlesticks (remember I didn't pack mine), food, notebooks, a backpack, etc. That kind of stuff adds up quickly!

So we shlepped two suitcases each plus an over-the-shoulder bag over to our new apartment on Tuesday morning. I thought it would be relatively easy since we had taken that much with us to the airport. Unfortunately, I was most certainly mistaken. At the airport, we had easily and quickly found those little luggage trolleys. On Tuesday, much to my chagrin, we had no trolley to help us move.

During our journey to the new apartment, one of my bags continually tried to zig right when I was trying to get it to zig left. When that happened, naturally the other suitcase decided to wobble onto one wheel and nearly topple over. It didn't help that to zig right was for it to potentially roll into the busy street or scratch a parked car.

At one point, my klutziness struck. While walking down a busy street, my shoulder grazed a big, green garbage bin. Since the garbage bin was on wheels, it started to head all-too-quickly to the street. I totally felt like I had set off a line of dominos.

I quickly visualized the potential danger -- while trying to control my erratic suitcases, my shoulder grazes a garbage can, the garbage can then rolls into the street in front of a myriad of oncoming cars, the driver of the closest car slams on his breaks to miss the big garbage can, which causes the car to swerve into oncoming traffic and hit another car, the car behind the first car has no time to stop so he also slams on his breaks and hits both the car in front of him and the garbage bin. Many people are injured while I stand there looking dumbfounded with my two bags.

With my heart racing and the garbage can not yet in the street, I dropped my two bags and reached with all my might to stop the garbage bin from entering the street so that this huge mess wouldn't really happen. But I was too late. It was like a movie scene shown in slow motion. Although I had dropped my two suitcases, I had to turn to reach for the garbage bin. I made a desperate lunge, but I missed the bin by just inches. All I could do then was watch.

I hate to admit it, but I let out a sound of pure terror. I didn't want to be the cause of a huge accident.

By the biggest miracle, the garbage bin that was rolling at quite a quick pace, stopped suddenly short of the street. I have no idea what stopped it. The path looked smooth and clear. There were no sticks or rocks that would have slowed it down. I have no idea what halted its progress, but I am so very, very glad that it did.

Anyway, then we dragged the suitcases the rest of the way and lugged them up four flights of stairs -- not fun!

After being completely exhausted by our first load, I just couldn't handle doing that again. Jean was wonderful enough to loan us her three, big duffel bags and so we stuffed those with our remaining stuff, cleaned the apartment, hailed a taxi, and then got dropped off in front of our new building. Let's just say I preferred our second mode of transportation.

Then the three of us lugged the remaining stuff upstairs. It took us a few trips but we finally got it all upstairs. I am just so thankful that we have nearly a year until we have to do it all again!

I'm Quoted

I was so excited to read a recent post from Jean and to see that I was quoted there! Yay, I'm famous!

I'm So Full

Tisha B'Av ended less than a half hour ago and I am so full and my brain is back to normal! I stuffed myself with pita, hummus, grapes, plums, water, and Coca Cola. I feel so much better now than when I wrote this crazy long-winded post. Now I can get things done!

Our New Apartment

Here are some photos of our fantastic new apartment, where we'll be living until our Student Visa expires on June 5...

What a View!

Our new apartment occupies one-half of the top floor of a four-story building in West Jerusalem. The view from our apartment is amazing! We have an amazing view of the west and we look out our windows and balcony to see the Israel Museum and the Knesset (parliament). It's just an awesome view! Now, instead of just hearing the Prime Minister's motorcade, we can see it fly down the streets below us.

The first photo is the Knesset, the second is the museum, and the third is a residential area to the southwest.