Monday-Waking up and seeing several teenage boys staring at me through the window is probably one of the more disconcerting things that has ever happened to me. Especially considering that my 'pajamas' are my boxers. I am quite ready for that experience to never be repeated. The reason this happened is that Donnie was paying them to take about 16 cubic meters worth of dirt and rock out of the hole in the wall, up 56 stairs, and dump it. Quite the arduous task that I am quite glad I did not have to be a part of. Instead, I got on a bus for my (for me) required day trip to Yerushalayim.
To start: I friggin LOVE that city. I'm not nearly as familiar with it as I was once, but there are two reasons for this. 1) its been 12 years since my daily wanderings through the city. 2) so much has changed in jtown since I've been there I hardly recognize anything anymore. Course, that might also be due to my notoriously bad memory and the 12 year lack of familiarity. The point of my ramblings is that I so very much missed her, and I was super glad to be back. Wandering down Rechov Yaffo, while very much changed, including the new trolley, still smacked of old familiarity and it was nice to be strolling her sides again. The (also required) visit to machaneh yehuds was as awesome as always. My favorite call of all the "alo!"s had to be the "alo alo! Yesh leechy!". Hysterical, and for that alone I would have been glad to have made the trip to town. Then there was the old Israeli couple talking to each other in Hebrew, which included the gem: "don't tell me what I want!". Needless to say I was unable to refrain from laughing aloud. Fortunately machaneh yehuda is so loud, and they were busy arguing, that they didn't notice.
No trip to the area of machaneh yehuda is complete without a visit to Marzipan. For those of you unfamiliar with the allure of the crackfood known as Marzipan, you need to take steps to correct this. Immediately. There are very few things on this planet that taste quite so good as Marzipan rugalach. They are simply that good. Even with awareness of my tendency to exaggerate, you still need to take my word on this one. If these past few sentence have been met with a blank stare on your part then you need to take swift steps to correct this serious lack in your life. Go fix it.
I imagine it would be redundent to say this at this point, but i heartily enjoyed my visit to this shop. Simply standing the and getting drunk on the fumes was good, but it came time to partake of this sweet nector of the gods. When I asked the proprietor for 1 he looked at me like I was insane. "1 kilo?" "Nope. Just 1". After a few more minutes of arguing I eventually got just one. It tasted even better than usual, because it tasted like victory.
Following my immensely enjoyed visit to the upper parts of Yerushalayim and the shuk, it came time to head to the midrachov to meet up with some folks. My first visit my was with my old and dear friend Yael. I have known her for 28 years, but i haven't had the opportunity to see her since she moved to Israel 5 years ago. In a world where I find that people are changing daily, and rarely for the better, it was nice to see the same old Yael. I have missed her quite a bit. I spent some time hanging out with her and her sister in law, and then went to reacquaint myself with the center of town before going to meet some other friends. I had a near earth shattering experience when I went to the cafe egon hookah bar and it was closed (its a 24 hour place to those unfamiliar). Even with the many changes I'd seen already, the thought of this centerpiece of my post high school time in Israel, filled with many many fond memories, being closed was earthshaking.
After finding out that the other folks I was supposed to meet up with had baied on me, I contented myself with my wanderings, and seeing the city I love. I went back towards the area of froyo, and ended up striking up a conversation with these two girls selling hair wraps, and other assorted stringy type stuff. They were quite cool, and I got some very interesting pictures of their wares. I love chatting with random strangers.
As much fun as my day in jtown was, it became time to head back to meet my friend for a ride home. After making my way to Givat Shaul to meet Shachar I found him in his usual spot: hanging outside his office chatting with one of the local shopkeepers. Apparently being the branch manager of a bank isn't that tough? Rafi (the shopkeeper) apparently has a brother who is an event planner. Rafi immediately put me on the phone with his brother to help me find work. I'll say it a million more times, but I LOVE Israel. And Israelis. I left my card and they said they would be in touch. After this we headed back to the moshav. To understand what happened next you have to know the geography of Yerushalayim. For those who do know, I went from the tachana merkazit to the center of town to emek refaim to givat shaul. All by foot. I don't know the exact distances, but it wasn't less than 10-15 miles. So after a day like this that when I got home that I ate a rapid dinner, showered and collapsed.
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