Out and About

It's been an interesting few days in Jerusalem. Allow me to share some highlights with you. On Tuesday evening, we watched the sunset on the tayelet (I believe that's Hebrew for promenade) over Jerusalem. After an obligatory icebreaker, we did a short text study on a poem by an early Israeli poet named Saul Tchernichovsky. He began writing poetry in Hebrew long before Israel was even a state. Since I'm pretty sure this has to be public domain by now. . .

 "Wondrous rose, a blessing from G-d
She blooms to each and every man.
There are those who search for her all the years of their lives.
There are those who find her quickly 

And the ways of life, we wander in them,
Until our days end.
Every flower we meet we question,
Are you my rose? You? 

And then a sad wintery evening arrives,
And the wild fields mourn,
As you take note, discern your way,
Your rose already picked. 

Happy is the man that finds his,
And in his hour picks her.
And woe to him to the man who doesn't recognize her,
While he is on the roads of his life. 

He has it good if his life's light has not been extinguished,
And like the fallen descend into the pit.
Indeed, he would be like a blind man,
Whose light was darkened."

I shall leave you to interpret that as you wish. I chose to leave the non-gender neutral translation, as it seems to be more true to the Hebrew. Anyway, after that we watched Jerusalem light up, with the sound of the Muslim evening prayer call in the background. I promise pictures after I stop being such an atzlanit and actually plug my camera into my computer.

On Wednesday, we had a 4th of July barbecue/potluck, which means that Carly and I braved the shuk again, this time with friends Michael and Lindsay in tow. This is what the shuk looks like.

I quite like the shuk. Fruit is so cheap. Not that I've ever purchased a lemon in my entire life (yay for having a tree in the backyard), but a lemon here is just one shekel, or the equivalent of about a quarter. Same thing with an onion or a head of garlic. Try finding a deal like that in the Hollywood Farmers Market. I will admit that I'm a bit thrown by the complete lack of limes in this country. I'm going to have to use lemon when making guacamole. We shall see how this tastes. Inside the shuk are many delicious and low-priced restaurants. Just outside the shuk is my favorite bakery, Marzipan. Om nom nom.

Today, we went on a "100 meters around HUC" tour, led by Udi. It wasn't quite what I expected, but in a good way. First, we went to the YMCA and learned all about the architecture. I didn't take any pictures, but since I'm planning on joining the gym there, pending getting a hold of some necessary paperwork, I should have a chance later to do so later. The most important thing to note is that the architecture contains Christian, Jewish, and Muslim imagery, which is awesome. Then, we took a peak inside of the King David Hotel. Gorgeous. Running up and down the lobby is a long, white tile containing the signatures of many famous people. They have everyone from Madeline Albright to the Black Eyed Peas (really? how did they get on there?). There is also a hallway filled with pictures of many famous Israeli and world leaders. There was a good one of Bill Clinton and Yitzhak Rabin. We also got to see the table where the peace treaty with Jordan was signed. The table was actually transported from the hotel to Joran in order to sign the peace treaty, and then transported back. Afterwards, we had a talk at an organization called Gesher. Gesher is basically responsible for bridging the gap and facilitating relationships among the may different groups of Jews in Israel. I am not going to get into that at this point in time, as I feel like that will be the theme of many of my posts, but I am SO glad that someone has been working on this daunting task.

Tonight, Sam took me and Jen to a concert of Sephardic music sponsored by the Cantors' Assembly.

Best. Concert. Ever. I realize that I say that about every concert, but these musicians were truly amazing. Such skill! And so fun to watch! Especially the guitarist. He got really into what he was playing. This in itself would make any concert worth watching, but since Ladino music is quite dramatically romantic, it worked especially well in this context. Here is a translation of a couple of verses of one of the ones that we really, really liked:

"The morning meal,
In the afternoon I'll bring it back,
So that my mother will know
that I wish to marry you 

An hour by the window,
another by the balcony,
so that my mother will know
how much I love you"

See? Fun stuff. I LOVE Ladino music. We were talking to both the guitarist and the violinist after the concert. VERY cool people.

On a completely separate note, there seem to be more non-kosher restaurants in Jerusalem than I expected. As a vegetarian who often dines with carnivores and cares much more about the ingredients than about the supervision, I don't actually have a problem with this; it's just a bit unexpected. This has been quite the long post, so signing off!