Shabbat

Lots to say!

Tel Aviv
Pre-Shabbat
Shabbat
Shabbat Dinner
Temple
Tea Party
Shavua Tov
Know Your Talmud

So much has happened in the past few days that I hardly know where to start! I've had so many new experiences and met so many amazing people.

Tel Aviv

Thursday I went to Tel Aviv to hang out with my fellow program-mates!

Tel Aviv is less... nasty than I remember it being.  It's still super hot, but it's less humid and less dirty than I recall. I think it's because in the past I've mostly hung around in South Tel Aviv and this time I got to see some North Tel Aviv which is very different. You shouldn't really judge Boston based on Southie, either ;).

We went to Gordon Beach! (Photo courtesy of Sam)

The Mediterranean... Gorgeous. Cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough you can stay in it forever. 

And Jews everywhere! Out on the rocks that block off the swimming area there are Israeli flags and I would just get randomly overcome with emotion, haha. Jewish beach town. In the historic homeland of our peeps. THAT IS EPIC.

Kiyomi and me at the beach!

It was great to have time with the other fellows. I miss them, they are so fun. I chilled with them in their apartment that night and they are so sweet and supportive! Sam even tucked me in, hahahaha.  Love.

I saw this shirt in a window and I liked it.  Also, you can see my bra, which is totally acceptable in Tel Aviv.  Everyone walks around like they're just from the beach and about to go back, the most casual place on the face of this Earth.

Pre Shabbat

Still, it was lovely to get back to Jerusalem on Friday. Fresh, clean, comparatively cool mountain air <3.  Jerusalem on a Friday is CRAZY! The traffic is insane, and there are lines in all the stores.  Everyone is rushing around getting ready for Shabbat (which I will explain in a minute). At the last minute, Shai, a program-mate and new friend, asked if I would host a thing on Saturday (which I'll also explain in a minute) since he didn't have chairs yet.  So I was running around like everybody else, buying groceries and flowers and all of that.

I need to learn numbers REALLY FAST.  For some reason they're so hard for me to understand.  So when people tell me prices I generally give them a bill larger than I believe the price to be and hope they're honest in giving me change (so far they've been honest and usually amused).  Like this:

Ariane: Hi! How much are the sunflowers?

Flower Guy: Hi. They're blah blah blah.

Ariane: They're...?

Flower Guy: Blah blah blah.

Ariane: Um... okay.

Flower Guy: That's 100 shekels.

Ariane: Isn't that what you said?

Flower Guy: No! They're flowers! Now you're handing me 50...

Ariane: Uh huh?

Flower Guy: *shakes head and gives a lot of change* You're beautiful.

Ariane: Thanks! Shabbat Shalom!

I think that every guy here tells every girl she is beautiful, which is actually kind of nice. I wonder how often those interactions escalate. Does the flower guy get lots of phone numbers?

Also I feel stupid a lot here.  I have to remind myself that I'm not stupid, I'm just a foreigner, which is not actually the same thing, despite some popular sentiments.  Like this happened:

AwesomeIsraeliDudeInMyKitchen: Do you have any cheese?

Ariane: Yeah! But... it kind of tastes funny.

AIDIMK: o_O is it expired?

Ariane: No! I just got it! But it tastes weird! *gives it to him*

AIDIMK: I'll tell you why it tastes funny. It's 9% fat. You have to get at least 30% fat for it to taste normal. *eats it anyway*

I was at a party and someone asked for an explanation of Existentialism and I was able to give it and I felt better about myself.

So then I went home and it was time for pre-Shabbat cleaning! Thank God my roommate has her shit together. I thought pre-Shabbat cleaning would mean... sweeping, dusting, doing the dishes... you know.  But we CLEANED.  I got out a bucket and I mopped and squeegied the entire floor! That was a nice looking floor when I was done with it, if I do say so myself.  Then I showered and I got all gussied up!

Shabbat

Okay, so for my gentile readers, Shabbat is the Jewish Sabbath. It takes place from about Friday Sunset through Saturday evening. Different kinds of Jews observe Shabbat differently.  Some don't observe it at all (like myself, most of the time, and most American Jews I know), and some observe some aspects of it, and some are very dedicated to it.

In the Torah and Talmud, we have instructions on how we're supposed to observe Shabbat.  It symbolizes the day God rested in the creation story in Genesis, so everything is supposed to rest on Shabbat. No causing a spark (no starting a fire, no turning electricity on or off, no vehicles, etc), no working (no writing, no planting/watering, etc), and sometimes it can be taken much further.  For example, many Orthodox Jews pre-cut toilet paper because you're not meant to "tear" anything on Shabbat.

There are some positive commandments too, though!  We are commanded to enjoy Shabbat! We're commanded to eat three meals. And it's a double mitzvah (good deed/law) to have sex on Shabbat... with your spouse.

Anyway, in Tel Aviv, Shabbat is observed by some and not by others, and there are still many things open and lots of secular people.

Jerusalem, on the other hand, is probably the most observant place in the world when it comes to Shabbat. Busses all over Israel stop running, no public transportation.  In Jerusalem, almost every single business is closed, there are actually fines on businesses that remain open.  There's hardly any traffic, you can just walk down the middle of empty major streets.  I wish I could post pictures from Shabbat, but of course I couldn't take pictures ;).

I decided since it was my first Shabbat in Jerusalem that I was going to really keep it, try to go the whole nine yards.  I think I went about... 8 yards.

Anyway, in Jerusalem, 38 minutes before Shabbat, a special siren goes off reminding everyone to get ready and power down. It's a very distinct siren from the air raid siren, so no one gets confused.  My roomie is awesome, and she got out two sets of candles so we could both light them.  Lighting the candles starts Shabbat, and it's a beautiful ritual. It felt amazing to look out our windows at the Jerusalem hills and light the Shabbat candles <3.

Shabbat Dinner

The thing about Shabbat in Jerusalem is, it can be absolutely gorgeous, but it can also be lonely, if you don't have a place to be. Everything is closed, and like any holiday, you're reminded that you should be with people who love you.  Luckily for me, I had places to be :). You might remember the Cohen from my first blog entry, well I think it all turned out really well because now we're friends! And I think we'll be good friends, he's awesome.  I'll call him actual name, Yisrael, from now on on the blog!

Anyway, I posted on FB looking for Shabbat plans and Yisrael invited me to come along with him to his friends house. It was a long walk from Rehavia, but it was a gorgeous walk. I will never stop waxing poetic about Jerusalem at sunset.  There's a gorgeous breeze, and everything is so still, and the colors... it's really ethereal. 

When I got to Yisrael's building, I couldn't remember which apartment was his, so I ended up knocking on a lot of doors until this semi-old man answered.

Ariane: Uh... Shabbat Shalom.  Ulai.... Atah.... Yudeah.... eiffo.... Yisrael Cohen?? (TERRIBLE HEBREW)

Man: Oh goodness, just speak to me in English.

Ariane: Oh! Whew! Do you know where Yisrael Cohen lives?

Man: You mean my neighbor across the hall? Yes. Have fun! I was young too, once!

So Yisrael and I went to his friends' place in Baka, which is a neighborhood in Southern Jerusalem. As much as it felt like a huge kindness to me, it's pretty normal here in Israel to go to random people's houses for Shabbat dinner. There's actually a website that matches people with hosts just for Shabbat dinner... I think I'm going to try it this year!  It's a great way to meet people and see how different families observe Shabbat.  There was great conversation and great food and it was a lot of fun. I think I made some new friends!

I did make my first faux pas (that I know of) of many this year, I'm sure.  Before the meal, you wash your hands, but I forgot that you're not supposed to talk between washing and saying the prayer over the bread.  So everyone just smiles at each other and gestures and kind of grunts until the leader is washed and ready to recite.  But their dog, Aryah, was sniffing me, so I said "I can't pet you right now Arya, I just washed my hands," which was ironic because what I REALLY couldn't do was speak, but I did that anyway.  No one seemed offended :)

I walked back after, and I was actually feeling a little homesick for the first time. Just missing my friends and family, and that feeling of security that comes with being surrounded by support.  And when I got home, I contemplated breaking Shabbat to turn on my phone and call home, but I stumbled upon the letter my brother wrote me before I left, and it really comforted me and I persevered :).

Temple

Saturday morning I headed off to shul (temple) with Shai and his girlfriend Sahar. I've never actually been to shul on a Saturday morning, only ever Friday evenings.  They're actually almost exactly the same except Saturday also includes Torah reading.  We went to a beautiful reform shul in Baka, the rabbi of which was friends with the founder of Dorot, my fellowship!

It was a really nice service. I didn't know a lot of the prayers, but people were really chill and I didn't feel out of place.  Plus Shai and Sahar helped me.  There was a bat mitzvah, and she was adorable! She did a great job, and her family was so proud, crowded around her.  Afterward, everyone in the congregation threw candy at her, and the rabbi shielded her with his tallit (prayer shawl) and it was so cute and heartwarming.  Her mom gave a little speech about her, and I couldn't understand most of it but the love was obvious.

It made me extra nostalgic because it was the same chapter that I did for my "bat mitzvah" on Taglit 2 years ago!  Cyclical time, man. Here we are again, in August, talking about Justice and persistence. 

Another reading was done by this young guy who did a nice job, and whose family seemed equally proud, but he seemed too old to be a Bar Mitzvah. After he read, we all sang a prayer of thanksgiving, and then Shai leaned over and told me we'd just thanked God for saving his life since he just returned from Gaza. The shul lost two of their young congregants in Gaza this summer.

The rabbi laughed and said, "You served us in Gaza, and now you've served us today in Shul. Hopefully today was more pleasant!" and everybody laughed, but...

Man.  I'm not sure I'm going to get used to seeing 18-year-old kids bearing the brunt of the rest of our safety.  But that's the reality of the situation.  I could write an entire blog entry about this another time, maybe I will.  I was talking to  a former officer the other day, and he was telling me that he became an officer at 20, and the soldiers under his command would come to him with all kinds of problems, about family, fears, life in general, and he wanted to be like... I'm only 20! I don't know the answer to that! I'm not any wiser than you are! But of course he couldn't, he had to figure it out.  Crazy.

Tea Party

So apparently it's traditional to have a "light dinner on Saturday evening" towards the end of Shabbat called Seuda Slishit, which means something like "Third Meal." Shai wanted to host, but his apartment isn't set up yet, so I agreed to do it for the Jerusalem Dorot fellows, since my apartment rocks. 

I was planning to just put the stuff I bought out on the table, but Rebecca is a natural amazing hostess and she was like "Ariane, do you want me to help you set up...?" and before I knew it, the hummus and cheese and tuna salad and crackers and chips and pretzels and all the rest were in beautifully arranged bowls. Rebecca also had the right bowl/cup thing for washing (it's special, with 2 handles) and a Havdalah set.  And a Shabbat kettle (automatic water heater so you don't have to turn it on and off). She's pretty much my guardian angel because I wouldn't have thought of those things. 

Anyway we had a lovely afternoon noshing and chatting, and then we did a really nice Havdalah.  I loved that we figured out it was time the traditional way Jews have been doing it for millennia... we looked out the window to see if we could see 3 stars :).  I think Havdalah is my favorite Jewish 'holiday' besides Passover. It's just beautiful! I love the melodies, I love the ideas, I love it as a way to start a week.

I told Rebecca she should, as the superstition says, hold the Havdalah candle very high over her head to indicate the height of her future husband, but she didn't want to get wax on the table.

My second faux pas was related again to speaking.  We did a group "call to prayer" type thing, and then everyone went quiet. Jess pointed to a line in the prayer book, and I thought she wanted me to read.  Well, my Hebrew reading is almost as bad as my Hebrew speaking, and I was like "Okay.... Baruch... Atah... Adonai... Eloheinu... Okay guys seriously somebody help me out here because this is going to take forever if I'm the one reading."

Then I noticed them all mumbling and I realized it was quiet personal prayer time.  Ooooops.

Shavua Tov

After they left, I cleaned up and went for a run.  Running in Jerusalem is amazing, especially at night when it's cooler.  The air is just perfect, and very low humidity.  And it's gorgeous, of course.  I went running with the recycling.  And as I was feeding bottles into the bin, I noticed that the side door to the bin was open and bottles were spilling out into the street.  I wasn't sure what to do about that.

Now I hate to say it, but I think in America, most people (including myself) would just shrug and figure the garbage crew would get it and move on.  But as i was feeding the bottles, a young couple walked by and actually DID something.  They closed the door thing and set to picking up all the bottles.  So of course I joined in and the three of us got it done really fast. I've noticed this here... people go out of their way to do civilized things. It shouldn't be exceptional, but it kind of is.  We wished each other shavua tov (good week!) and went on our separate ways.

And when I got home, Rebecca had already turned on the water boiler for my shower because I am seriously convinced she is my British Fairy God Sister.

And when i turned my phone back on, it took me about five minutes to see the things I missed and respond to the people I needed to respond to.  And when I think about how much time I would have spent looking at it over the weekend if it had been on despite that, it's pretty sickening.

Know Your Talmud

And now, I will share with you some pieces of Talmud (um... long long story short, it's an important ancient Jewish text) that I learned over the weekend from various people I met.

-If you surround your bed with a circle of sawdust or ashes, you can see little chicken feetprints in the morning from the demons that come and sit on you when you're sleeping.

-It is strictly forbidden to use a baby to cool yourself on Yom Kippur (how would you manage this??)

-If a man udders "Rahab Rahab!" he will... well, ejaculate in his pants. Because she was so beautiful in the Tanakh. Anybody want to test this out and let me know if it's true? I'll wait here.

This is the same book that says I'm not Jewish enough for full citizenship rights in Israel.

Ohhhh Talmud.

But seriously, here's the thing.  Good, bad, and ugly, life here amazes me. There was this prayer in shul today that was something like "Lord, thank you for separating the days, and setting apart shabbat, lest all my days would be the same as the ones before."  That's not a good recollection of it.  But it resonated with me, and it's the biggest reason I'm here. The days never blend together here, for me. I experience each one fully.

Shavua Tov from Jerusalem <3.

New Home!

I moved into my new apartment today! It is beautiful!

Here are the pics from the ad, which is exactly how it looks :)

Balcony!

Living room!

My room!

Shower room!

Asian decor makes it feel like home in the states <3

More living room!

And here's a shot I took of the living room so you can get an idea of the view.

I'll try to get more pics of the view... it's great. Trees in Rehavia, and Jerusalem hills in the distance. And at night so many lights!

I'll also try to get some pics of my beautiful neighborhood.

Anyway, Rebecca, my roomie, and I went out to dinner and it was fun! She's really great. We talked about her time in Jerusalem so far, and the organization she runs, and Lean In, and feminism in the work place, and more. She's really inspiring!

That's all for now :)

First Shabbat in Israel: Arak and Spelunking

Today's topics:

Around the Moshav
Dinner and Cannons
Spelunking!
A Very Friendly Dog

I had a great first Shabbat in Israel!

Around The Moshav

Rivka invited me to visit her on her Moshav, which is basically a little neighborhood with farmland attached.  Some homeowners also owners also own parcels of the farmland, but Rivka and Geva (her awesome boyfriend) are renting so they just get to enjoy the neighborhood without worrying about crops.

I took a bus to meet them. The Israeli bus system is great because it goes everywhere and it's pretty fast and pretty inexpensive, but it's really bizarre at first.  There are bus stops on the side of highways. Like... little poorly labeled sheds on the side of the freeway, literally. AND in major cities, of course.  And while some busses are new and have announcements about the stops, most don't, so they just silently stop in the middle of nowhere and just drive away...

Last time I was in Israel I found this really stressful and frantically asked everyone around me if they knew where I was going until I found someone who did and could tell me it was coming up.  But this time I have a smart phone! Smart phones are the best things ever. I just watch on google maps as the bus gets closer to the destination.  Amazing.

This time I got off at a highway stop in Latrun. Latrun was once the site of several battles and lots of bloodshed. When Rivka told me that was my stop, it's kind of like if someone tells you to randomly get off at "Gettysburg."

But like Gettysburg, it's mostly farmland, now.

Rivka and Geva are the best! They are some of the sweetest people I know, and they're so caring and fun. We went to their Moshav near Kiryat Gat, which is about a half hour drive to the Gaza border.

In the car ride, I caught them up on my week, including the Cohen quandry.

Rivka: You know, Geva is also a Cohen.
Ariane: Really? I thought his last name is Katz!
Rivka: It is, but it's a kind of... acronymn. Ka is for Cohen, Tz is for Tzedek, or justice.  Priest-Justice. But he doesn't really care about any of it, and actually, his Grandfather married a divorced woman.
Ariane: How did he manage that?
Geva: Well, he told the rabbi that his last name was not *really* Cohen... it was Kohen with a K and not a C so it didn't count.  And the rabbi said okay and married them.

Even though Geva and Rivka have been together for many years, and live their lives as if they're married, they refuse to get married because they find the laws so absurd.  Both in solidarity with their friends who can't marry, and also because of divorce laws. Rivka is appauled by the ancient ritual that to get a divorce, your husband needs to ceremonially throw a shoe at you.  What??? Oh Israel, what??? Can we please enter the modern era in marriage laws like we have with technology, environmentalism, and art??

I got lots of cuddle time in with Tuna!

Rivka and I went for a long walk around the Moshav.  It's so beautiful!

Well, mostly.  The first thing we did was check out the bomb shelter. In Jerusalem, you have about 90 seconds to take cover when you hear an alarm. But where Rivka lives, you have only about 20 seconds, since it's so close to the border, so it's important to know where the shelter is in case you need to book it in the dark.

It says "miklat" which means "shelter"... yay Hebrew skills!

I think it was actually pretty nice for a shelter. It had chairs inside and somebody left a bottle of Coke from the last attack :P.

There is a vineyard on the moshav!

Beautiful Rivka with the grapes!

Israel has the greatest sunsets

There were tons of animals! Horses, bunnies, chickens, guinea pigs, a donkey, a pony, and goats! This goat was my favorite, because of his awesome horns, but it was hard to take a picture because he kept trying to scratch and itch.

Gorgeous vineyard

I get silly when I pick giant fruit.  Look at this huge pomegranate I found!!! We also picked passion fruit!

Dinner and Cannons

Their friends Ayelet and Tal joined us for dinner. It was fun and delicious! But a little bizarre for me, because now and then you could hear this rumbling sound.

Ariane: ...was that thunder?
Tal: Haha in Israel? No way.
Rivka: Don't worry, Ariane. It's just cannons.

They could tell by the nature of the rumble if it was a missile from Hamas, the Iron Dome shooting down a Hamas missile, or the IDF firing on Gaza. Ayelet had just returned from a month in the reserves, where he job was to help civilians find shelters, distribute gas masks, basically deal with home front issues. Geva has been in the reserves too, but he couldn't tell me what he did. I remarked how strange it is for me to be in a place that is so adjusted to war time. I said how when just one bombing happened in Boston the entire city shut down.  "That's how it should be," Rivka said. "We shouldn't be used to being bombed, but we are."

I only had one glass of arak (anise liqueur) mixed with grapefruit juice, but I was drunk just like the other girls (Geva and Tal seemed to hold it together). It was a great night.

I don't know, it's hard to describe. A four year old was killed in his house by a mortar Saturday night, and the Israeli south is heavily protesting the government for not taking more decisive action against Hamas as rockets rain down on southern homes, and there's protesting in Tel Aviv against the government for taking basically any action at all in Gaza, and meanwhile there's 20-somethings being 20-somethings, like anywhere else. It all exists, one layer on top of another.

In any case, I felt really welcome and they all spoke in English so I could understand the conversation, and the food and booze was great, and I had a really nice Shabbat dinner.

Spelunking!
Nearby to the moshav is a world heritage site called Beit Guvrin, or house of heroes (it doesn't seem like people know why it's called that, alas).  Rivka is a professional tour guide, so she and Geva showed me around!

Spelunking is probably not really the right word because they weren't natural caves, but I love the word too much so I'm going to use it anyway.

Basically waaaay back in the day, maybe 300 BC? The first city was built on the site, and under the city was a city of caves! They did all kinds of stuff in these man-made caves. Rivka told me everything but I'm still not super clear on who was there first, but at one point or another the city + caves were inhabited by Greeks, Jews, Muslims, Sidonians, and maybe some other people too. They all kept slaughtering each other and moving in.

I knew we were going to see caves, but it was funny to be walking around, chattering and walking down some steps, and then... WHOA

I said "THIS IS LIKE LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE!"

The picture just does not convey how HUGE this cave was.  All hand-dug!

Rivka: Ariane, guess what the niches are for.
Ariane: Um... candles?
Rivka: No.
Ariane: Canopic jars?
Rivka: No.
Ariane: Skulls?
Rivka: No.
Ariane: Okay, I give up.
Rivka: PIGEONS!

Indeed, this huge "columbarium" was an underground pigeon coop. The (Greeks?) kept them for food, ritual slaughter, and  fertilizer.

Down down down!

Rivka and Geva chilling in a burial cave

These are reproductions, but the original paintings were effaced when Muslims were ruling because it's taboo to depict faces.

Gryphon! 

Some ugly fish!

Porcupine!

Cerberus!

A bigger view of the cave. Rivka explained to all the other Israelis hanging out, too, because Rivka is awesome.

Rivka and meeeee

Enormous Bell Cave! There were a ton of these, former quarries!

huge!

Bats! (Telafim!) They kept squawking. I liked them.

 It was a really fun afternoon! And hanging out in caves was a great thing to do on a hot day because it's so much cooler underground.

A Very Friendly Dog

That night, we took Tuna on a walk around the moshav. I thought it was so cute because almost every house we passed had a dog, and the dog would run out and sniff at Tuna and play with her until we passed out of range.  It was a parade of dogs.

There was one dog in particular that followed along for a long time. I thought it was extra friendly and cute.

At one point, Geva and Rivka stopped because the spotted a tree that was growing wild, ripe "Ptango" which are... like pumpkin shaped little tomatoes that taste like sweet peppers.  I bit into one and was marveling over the strange taste when I felt something warm trickling down my leg, and I looked down to see the very friendly dog peeing on me!!

I shrieked but mostly found it funny. That was a first for me. "You have a lot of interesting experiences on the Moshav," Rivka said, before I washed my leg and sandals.

Back to Jerusalem

Sunday is the first day of the work week in Israel, so it was a packed bus back into Jerusalem this morning.  All the soldiers were heading back after their weekends off, with their ipods in, nodding off or texting with friends, rifles in their laps. Soldiers are required to keep their weapons on them at all times, although they can only keep them at home over breaks if they have a locked area within a locked area to keep them, otherwise they need to stow them at their local police station and pick them up before heading back to base.


New Hebrew
miklat - מקלט - shelter
cochavim - כוכבים - stars
Ani shikurah - אני שיכורה  - I am drunk
Nemalim - נמלים - ants

A Place For This Baby

Today I went with Shai and Sam, from my program, to the Jerusalem bus station to get Rav Kav cards.  These are like Charlie Cards, rechargeable bus/train pass cards. I was nervous about getting it because the Hebrew form is intimidating, which is why Shai came along with me.  But in the end, they didn't even ask for the form. They didn't ask for anything but my name. The took a photo suddenly, with this camera velcro-d to the wall, which was totally off center, and then she just photo shopped it to just my face and printed by card. It was actually all really funny.

We got some hummus, went to the mall, and then I wandered around a bit until I was meeting a friend, and I saw this:

Lolol, I don't think that little thing was meant for babies? But it's so cutely perfect.  It's just the fencing inside the stone thing, and there's turf at the bottom? I think plants are supposed to go in there? But she put her baby in, hahha.

I went with a new friend to dinner and then we saw an improv show, and it was really fun! I volunteered from the audience for the "day in the life" game, and it really made me laugh.

I miss Huxley! I would like to be snuggling my dog right now.

Sleepy!

And at its heart -- a wall

I got a handy-dandy rocket alert app on my phone.  It tells me when there are sirens so I don't have to refresh the news.

Sirens in: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ashkelon, Ashkelon, Ashkelon... All in one minute!

Ashkelon is 75 km, about an hour's drive, away. It's weird that they're under fire and everybody's going about their business here in Jerusalem.

I'm sure I'm going to get used to it, but I definitely jumped a few times at other noises today, like ambulences and stuff :). I love this video of Israelis mistaking various sounds for the bombs sirens:

I chose an apartment! I will post pictures after I sign the lease. Part of me felt I should search search search, but it got really old, really fast, and looking for apartments isn't how I want to spend these first few weeks.  The apartment I chose is gorgeous, in a great neighborhood, fully furnished, allows a 10 month lease, (instead of my having it for two months longer than my fellowship and having to eat it or figure something out), and I'll be living with a British girl who's also in ROI (one of my networks) and founded an organization to promote Israel/Asia relations, which is pretty badass.  Anyway, I will post pics in a few days, I'm moving in on Monday.  I have this temporary apartment for a few more weeks... but I don't like living by myself.  It's kind of sad.

Anyway, to clear my head of the apartment hunting miasma, I went to the old city! I like to start my stays in Israel off with a visit to the Western Wall to pray a little :).

Old city walls!

I ALWAYS get lost in the old city. I don't know how I always manage that. I think the alleyways move when you're not looking.  One second you're looking at scarves and the next you're in a weird back alley where they're throwing fish guts and the next you're outside a synagogue and the next you're on a residential street with a million tiny children and the next you're squashed into a birthright group and the next soldiers are warning you not to go any farther because Temple Mount is closed to non-Muslims right now.

But finally I found the Jewish quarter and knew where I was!

I always take a picture of this sign because it always makes me laugh. I am packing heat at all times as a woman. I can do serious harm to stonework and human beings if not properly concealed. 

The wall is the same as the last two years, of course :).

I put my prayer in and prayed for a bit. Didn't cry. Sometimes I do, but mostly I don't.  Everybody around me was crying though.  I prayed for a lot of things, and I signed my note "xoxo, Ariane" because that's how God and I roll.

I took these pictures for my dad, who is very interested in the Karaites and thinks I should be one because they embrace patrilineal descent. 

I passed a lot of birthright groups and it made me so nostalgic <3. I can't believe it was only two years ago that that was me. 

Aww, birthright 2012 Ariane! Experiencing it all for the first time!

It's such an intense, amazing experience. I wonder how it will impact all the people I saw on it today. It's cool to see birthright groups all over the place because it always makes me stop and look around and try to remember how it felt that first time I saw these things, and it's a constant reminder of how grateful I am to be living here.  

I was watching Munich, and there's this part when Avner's mom says:

"Everyone in Europe died. Most of my family. A huge family... I didn't die because I came here. When I arrived, I walked up to the top of a hill in Jerusalem, and prayed, for a child. I never prayed before but I was praying then. And I could feel every one of them praying with me. You are what we prayed for. What you did you did for us. You did for your daughter, but also for us. Every one of the ones who died, died wanting this... A place to be a jew among jews, subject to no one. I thank God for hearing my prayer... A place on Earth. We have a place on Earth. At last."

I wonder if that's why people cry. Sometimes you can feel every one of them praying with you.

Little Victories

I slept for about 6 hours last night! That's a record so far this trip. I sleep a tiny bit more each night, I'm slowly adjusting.

I saw an apartment this morning that I LOVED, and I loved all three of the Israeli girls that live there. They were so nice, and funny. We talked for a good hour. I know it's going to be super competitive though... we'll see what happens.

Then I saw another apartment that I liked very much, and I loved the roommates again, but there was weird painting on the walls and the roomies said I'd have to track down the ex roomie and get her to paint it as she was contractually obligated by neglected to do... I'm not very excited by that idea.

I was waiting for a light when a little girl with a gap between her front teeth came up to me, and we had this lovely interaction...

Girl: Slicha (excuse me), blah blah blah stuff I couldn't understand in Hebrew?
Ariane: Uh... At Medeberet Anglit? (Do you speak English?)
Girl: No... Rak Rega (one moment)... (she went to a group of other girls in similar clothes, campers maybe, and tried to get her to translate, but the other girl was too shy.)
Counselor: C'mon, girls! You know English.  Here, you speak and I'll translate for them.  They asked what you've done so far this summer?
Ariane: Oh! Well... I went to Paris, I went to Madrid, and... I moved to Israel!
Counselor: Blah blah blah Paris, blah blah blah Madrid, blah blah blah ISRAEL!!!!!
And when she said the last part, all of the girls went "AHhhhhHHHH!!!" and started jumping up and down and clapping and cheering for me. "Israel!!!!!"

Little patriots <3

I needed a little break from apartment hunting, so I went to the shuk (open-air market). I went to my favorite dress shop and browsed for a while... I didn't buy anything because I have all the time in the world! And I think I probably shouldn't buy more stuff until I'm settled in my new apartment.

The shuk is awesome. So many amazing tasty things, and so fresh. I didn't even know what to buy.

ENORMOUS POMEGRANATES

My haul: Some apples, two giant avocados, a giant mango, some olives and some stuffed grape leaves.

I may never buy from a grocery store again. It's way more fun to go to the shuk.

I also found handsoap in the shuk! It's been strangely hard to find.

And I took the bus for the first time! Now I'm addicted. So fast. So air conditioned.

Hebrew I learned today:
olives - זיתים - zitim

I got coffee with an Israeli who did linguistics in the army.  You might not know that army service includes a lot of different jobs, not just combat positions.  He was learning high level Arabic for intelligence and also teaching Hebrew to new immigrant soldiers.  He was telling me that the famous "chet" throat sound in Hebrew is actually a new Israeli thing, and that it should be a softer H, but the only people who still do it the "right" way are Yemeni Jews.  I found this very interesting.

When I got home, I was just sitting on my couch talking to Lily on the phone when I heard my very first red alert siren!  It's kind of a creepy sound.  Like this:

When you hear it, it means Hamas has fired a rocket over your area. If you're inside, like I was, you need to head into your building's shelter, if it has one.  Mine does have one - but it was locked, fascinatingly!  If that's the case, or your building has no shelters (and many buildings in Israel do not, I supposed their builders were optimistic), you hang out in the stairwell.

Israel has a great anti-missile system called the Iron Dome. It has a very high rate of interception, but of course it's expensive to fire.  So if it looks like the rocket will fall in an open area, they let it.  If it looks like it will fall on a populated area, they attempt to intercept it.

So when you hear the siren, you go into the safest place you can and wait until you hear a BOOM.  Hopefully the boom is an interception, although there's a chance it hit something.  You have to wait ten minutes after the boom, in case there's falling shrapnel or anything. According to the news, it was intercepted.  And Hamas is proudly owning their missile launch at civilians and a city they claim is holy to them.

Now might be a good time to say that things might get political on this blog, because it's hard not to feel political when people are trying to kill you. If politics is something you'd like to discuss with me, then feel free to schedule a coffee date with me.  But I'm just going to be blunt and say I won't post or engage with anti-Israel comments on this blog.  This is a log of my feelings and experiences and it's not open to critique.  There are other avenues for discussion if you want.

Anyway, I hung out in the stairwell with a nice family. The mom was telling her little son it was like a midnight pajama party.

Turn Your Frustration into Fascination

One thing my boss Jay taught me is the saying "turn your frustration into fascination."

I think this is a great idea.  It really feels a lot better to think about life that way.  Thinking about frustration just makes me more frustrated.

Let me tell you about my amazingly fascinating day!

I saw a bunch of apartments today, and I walked all over the city several times. I was coated in several layers of sweat! It's not humid here, so the heat doesn't bother me as much as it does in Boston, but everybody still develops a brine over the course of the day.

Also, I don't know quite how, but even keeping my sandals on, the bottom of my feet turned BLACK! I guess I was kicking up a lot of dirt or something?

My Fascinating Experiences Apartment Hunting

Honestly, I did meet some very nice people today.

I also met some really odd people, with really odd mannerisms. Both residents and other people that I ran into multiple times on the hunt.

A lot of apartments here are VERY inexpensive in my mind... $350 - $500/month, but they just... I don't know, they feel like where you might live in Allston while a poor undergrad.  Which actually, is basically the case for a lot of these people.  It's a cultural difference... Israelis do 2-3 years in the army or a bit more, then usually travel for a year, and THEN go to school.  So there are lots of 25 year olds who are still in school. So people who would have upgraded their living situation in the US are still on student budgets in Israel.

It might come down to living in a kind of meh apartment in order to live with cool people.

I did see one place that I LOVED. It was very pretty and very central, with two really fun guys.  But I just got the sense from them that they'd met a prospect earlier and already chosen.  Well, who knows? Maybe they were bluffing.

I'd be willing to pay more for a nicer place, but I'm not finding much in a higher price range. I know they exist in Jerusalem, I just don't know how to GET one...

Well it's only been two fascinating days. I'm sure there's a lot more fascination for me to come!

I did get to see a cool roof deck in Nachlaot. In the distance you can see the Supreme Court, Parliament, and the Israel museum.  I wish I could just live on the roof!

Someone asked me how my search was going, and I said, "the housing market is a little strange here." and he said, "don't worry! everything is a little weird here!"

My Fascinating Experience with Kashrut

Keeping kosher... it's fascinating!

You probably know you need to separate meat and milk. And you might know that you need separate dishes/utensils etc for both categories and they're not supposed to mix.

Today I was making spaghetti with tomato sauce. That's a vegetarian meal. In the apartment, there are HUGE pots in the dairy cabinet and tiny pots in the meat cabinet, and I need a big pot for the pasta and a tiny one for the sauce.

Can I use both pots since it's a vegetarian meal, not part of either group?  I asked my facebook wall, and my friend Ro called me to explain...

You can use both pots when cooking a veggy meal ONLY if you're not cooking vegetables like garlic or onions, which are "sharp" vegetables, or spicy, and can strip the meat-ness or dairy-ness out of the pots and corrupt them if mixed.

I told her maybe the can of sauce had garlic and onions in it... but apparently it's okay because they're already cooked.

I don't really know how "do not boil a kid in its mother's milk" turned into "you can use two pots if the onions in the sauce are already cooked" but it's fascinating ;).

Hebrew I Learned Today
delicious - טעים - taim

Today the guard outside Netanyahu's house was this cute young girl who was nodding off. :)

My lovely porch with the pomegranates growing!

How Is This Only Day 2

Life in Israel is insane. It's not like life in the States. It's not like life anywhere else that I've been. It's just so FULL. Every day feels so saturated to me, so much happens and everything is intense.  Turning the volume up to 11 :).

Arrival

My flights were fine, uneventful and on time. Baggage claim and airport security took me only 20 minutes! Amazing. And Ben Gurion is the easiest, most beautiful of all airports.  When I landed, it just felt right. I was beaming the entire time.

Rivka picked me up and brought her little puppy, Tuna! Here we are, all happy.

Rivka is the sweetest! We talked about all the fun things we're going to do together over the next year... she's a nursing student but she works as a tour guide part time, so she knows all the best places. We're going to explore caves, and go see my relative's sculpture in Tel Chai (Dad, she knew the one... I said "Do you know Tel Chai? there's a statue there..." and she said "The lion statue?" and I said yes, and that Avram sculpted it, and she said she'd go with me!), and do "sup" (which I think is a kind of surfing? maybe?), and eat wild grapes on her Moshav, and go to her parents house on the settlement, and all kinds of fabulous plans. She is so sweet to include me and I feel so welcome. I love her!

Anyway she drove me to Jerusalem and we found my temporary apartment and walked around a bit and got delicious food.  Tuna almost got eaten by a German Shepherd. And a pitbull! The pitbull had a muzzle on bit it was still terrifying.  Yeesh.

Jerusalem is so beautiful. It's called "jerusalem of gold" for good reason.  All of the old stonework just lights up from within when the sun is setting, like it's glowing.  And there are mountain breezes, and palm trees and pine trees everywhere. I just couldn't stop smiling. It feels so amazing to be in Israel and Jerusalem.

My apartment is great! Great location, with a beautiful balcony with pomegranate trees surrounding it. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow. It's enormous... there are supposed to be 4 fellows in it, but they've already found permanent housing, so it's just me.  There are at least 6 extra beds... come visit :).

One funny thing is that my neighbor, a cute old man, is from Brookline! He lived near Washington Square, like me! I feel like this little happy bubble follows me everywhere here :).  He decorated the hallways outside our apartments with posters of Cape Cod, haha: 

There are a lot of religious people in the apartment. When Rivka and I got back for dinner, it was time for post-Shabbat prayers, and there was a huge minyan (gathering of pray-ers) in the front entry way. I thought maybe we had to wait, but Rivka just wove through them to the door so I followed her :).

A Funny First Date

Last night I admit I had a bit of a panic attack. I usually do the first night of a trip. I think it's mostly because I hadn't slept in a very long time. However, as my panic attacks go, I handled this one pretty well! I found a panic attack log thing on the internet and I filled it out and that was helpful, and I talked to a few friends online, and I watched Dr. Horrible for a bit.

The thing about when I panic is I fixate on a few things that really aren't a big deal but seem, in the moment, like a HUGE DEAL. Last night, it was the idea of going to the tech store and getting an Israeli sim card with limited Hebrew. Logically, I knew it would be fine, but I was not feeling at all fine about it.

I was talking to this dude on OKC, and he was like "hey, when I moved to Israel, I got pretty ripped off on my first cell plan, why don't I come with you and check the Hebrew contract for you?"

And I was like... SURE!

So today, the first thing I did was go on my own to get health insurance.  This felt like a big accomplishment because the office was not where it seemed to be on the map... so first I walked into the old Knesset (Parliament) Building, in which a soldier* asked me what I was doing and I said I was buying health insurance and he said not here in the old knesset building... and then I went into a Russian lawyer's office and sat in the waiting room listening to an old couple get agitated with the lawyer in Russian until I figured that was probably not the right spot, either.  So then I found it!  And they were super nice and helpful and I got my insurance card right there on the spot.  Whew!

So then I met  TheDude and we went to the tech store and got my sim card.  It was also really easy but I was grateful for TheDude's insight and Hebrew prowess.  I have an Israeli number now! E-mail me if you'd like it.

Then he got me some felafel and we sat by a fountain and ate it, and then we wandered alllllll over the city. Through some parks, the old train station, Ben Yehuda, other parks, German Colony.  He was just moving out so I decided to help him pack since he helped me with my sim card, which seems like a sketchy idea as I'm writing it but it didn't seem sketchy at the time.  So up we go into the German Colony apartment and as we're cleaning and packing he tells me he's a Cohen.

So I'm sure you know people with the last name "Cohen", but you might not know that this signifies they are in the priestly class of Jews.  Their ancestors were the priests of the tribe and it's passed down through blood. They don't necessarily have religious jobs or anything, the Cohens I know do not, but I guess they could? The rules are a little hazy to me.  Cohens have certain "privileges," I suppose, they're invited to read the first prayer at various services, they can deliver priestly blessings.

They also have certain restrictions, mainly concerning marriage:
-They can't marry a divorcee
-They can't marry a convert
-They obviously can't marry a non-Jew.
-I learned today they also can't marry someone who's had sex with a gentile. Huh!

They also can't enter cemeteries or be "under the same roof" with a "dismembered organ."

"Can't" carries various weight depending on where you are and what kind of Jewish you are. Lots of American Cohens don't give a shit and do what they want and nobody stops them.  If they were to ask an Orthodox Rabbi to marry them though, it wouldn't happen.  And in Israel, marriage is controlled by the Orthodox Rabbinate, and so they literally cannot marry against the rules.  It's not possible in Israel.  Just another one of those ways Israel likes to balance its extreme progressive awesomeness with medieval lunacy.

Anyway, this was an interesting conversation to have over the dishes.

Marriage laws in Israel complicate dating on all levels. Not that this came up specifically about us, or has come up for me before, but think about it.  If you know you cannot marry a person, how does that change things from day one of meeting them?

We got some pizza and then I went off to see an apartment. It was gorgeous! And the roomie is very cool. I'm seeing a bunch more, but this one has a lot of potential.  The view... whoa.  I can see myself writing there for sure.

Now it's 12:30 and I'm not tired at all.  Even though I've had 3 hours of sleep in the past 72 hours. I need to be sedated.

Tomorrow I'm seeing a few more apartments and attempting grocery shopping. Pretty sure that will quickly devolve into dress shopping :).

New Hebrew Words I Learned Today:

Slice (like of pizza) - משולש, Mshoulish? I forget the vowels. I guess I didn't learn it very well.
Your name? - שם שלך, Shem Shelach, "Ariane!" I told the barista at Aroma
Napkin- מפית, Mapit

Also, the guy at the corner store spoke to me very quickly, and I didn't catch all of what he said, but I think he said I'm יָפֶה -  pretty. Well thanks, CornerStoreMan!

Deeds warned me Israelis would make fun of my accent and give me a hard time, but so far they've been nice and very helpful. Maybe I just can't understand them making fun though, that's always a possibility.

Notes

*Soldiers are so funny here sometimes.  They're trained and armed and in uniform, but a lot of them are just kids doing their mandatory service.  I live right near the Prime Minister's house, and there's always a guard out front, and I watched the guard today get dropped off by what seemed to be his dad, carrying armfuls of snacks and drinks for his shift in the guard house, haha. It was really cute.