This House is Freakin' Sweet

Hello, all.  What another bright, sunny day here in the great city of Jerusalem.  Time to unpack the sunscreen that was the in bag that showed up yesterday.  And, a few hours later, time to reapply.  Oh the joys of being fair-skinned, blue-eyed, gorgeous, funny...oops slipped into dating profile mode :)

First, my other bag showed up!  I now have my nice button-down shirts, long pants, and a few other necessities.  Now that I'm here in one piece, I can feel a lot better about moving to a new country.

Second, my apartment is on Yabetz, which is this adorable little alley close to Yaffo, Ben Yehuda, King George, and not too far from the shuk.  I'm also about 15 minutes away from the HUC which is excellent.  There are only two problems: practically no furnishing and I'm at least a half hour away from most of my classmates.  These are problems that are easily taken care of--I'll get some used furniture, and I love walking.

One of my roomates :)
It's a good thing I love walking since I've done quite a lot of that in the last few days.  Yesterday, more students from my class arrived and did the tour of the HUC.  I joined them in a tour of the area surrounding HUC.  Last time I was in Israel with Birthright, every part of Jerusalem seemed so far away from each other.  From the HUC, I basically hop over to the King David Hotel, hop skip to the Old City, and hop skip jump to the shuk.  My walking has made it easier to know my way around the city, but I still carry a tourist map just in case.

Yesterday, I went with my classmate, Marc, to the Old City for his first time.  We decided not to go to the Kotel because I felt underdressed.  This trip represents Marc's first time in Israel at all.  It was so great to see how big his eyes were.  It reminded me intensely about my own first time three years ago.  Of course, my eyes are still quite big as I take it all in.  The two of us came the conclusion that we don't want to let the excitement of Jerusalem and Israel subside and lose its specialness.

Today was the shopping / shuk adventure.  I still have a little bit of food shopping to do to last me for Shabbat, but I got some well needed fruits.  I got a smallish bag of a few apricots and a few plums for about 5 shekels!  Mind you, these aren't the big gezunta apricots and plums like in the states, but they're simply divine.  In fact, I had a cherry from the shuk today while deciding if I wanted them today, and it was the best cherry of my life.  With the really good prices and excellent quality produce, I can't go wrong!  Although, I have been told that if I don't eat some of it right away it will go bad.  So...no melons unless I have a party.
To see some of the things people buy on Shabbat, here's a fun learning "game":
http://www.zigzagworld.com/shopping/
It's Friday here, and Shabbat is imminent.  Everyone was out shopping for Shabbat--getting fruit, meat, wine, challot, vegetables, and so forth.  One of the most famous store of the shuk is Marzipan with perhaps the most famous challot and rugalah in Jerusalem.  The place was too packed when I was there, so I decided not to get a challah this time.  Next Shabbat.

I sign off with this:
The pictures aren't cooperating with me right now, so I will add more to this post as well as future ones. 
Good Shabbos / Shabbat Shalom!

"This House is Freakin' Sweet" is from "Family Guy".  This is a parody of "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here" from Annie.