Heater Pick-Up (Rena) and Shabbat with Beth and David

On December 7, we had plans to go to Rena's apartment (another fellow Scrabbler) to pick up a heater she was lending us for our cold apartment back on Borochov. She lives in Talpiot and we decided to walk there from our Wendy apartment in order to get some fresh air, exercise, and to save funds. We ended up walking there in quite a roundabout way, but finally after Rafi asked some passerby for directions, we found the proper direction and were back on track. We made it to her apartment, which was beautifully decorated in art, both her own and by others, and schlepped the heater in question down to the road. Rena, Rafi, the heater, and I all packed ourselves into her car and she began the drive to our own apartment in Kiryat HaYovel. She asked us if we had been to the best viewpoint in Jerusalem yet? It is a special promenade that is built over an amazing vista. We had not had the pleasure of visiting there yet, so she took us straight to it. We enjoyed the full view of Jerusalem in the lovely weather. Rena snapped a few pictures of us while standing in front of the view and then we went on our way to the apartment once again,

Upon arriving at our apartment on Borochov, Rafi and I unloaded the heater and schlepped it upstairs once again, this time to its temporary new home. After we unloaded the heater in our place, we immediately left, not wanting to stay another second in that smelly place, and headed back to Wendy's by way of the Lightrail.

After a lovely day of relaxation and reading at Wendy's we had plans on December 9th. We were going to Beth and David's for Shabbat dinner. We were told that there would be others in attendance as well. We were excited to spend another Shabbat with friends. I made a batch of parve peanut butter, oatmeal, and chocolate chip cookies to bring along for dessert. We walked to their house and arrived early so we were able to chat before the others arrived for dinner. Beth and David are great to spend time with, whether we pop in unannounced, or have an actual invitation. Thank you Beth and David for letting us come in and bug you when we need some human contact other than our own!

The other guests that night were two girls who had attended Seattle Jewish Community School (the elementary school that Rafi attended - his mom teaches there, as does Beth), a woman our age who also graduated from UW and is friends with Beth and David's daughter Helen, Jamie Schwartz (we also know her and her family from back home in Seattle), and her friend. It was a great crowd as usual, with conversation flowing and food been passed all around. Oh how Rafi and I love these evenings with friends! They are so fun and great to have especially when we are away from home :) We walked back to our Wendy apartment that evening in a light and happy mood!

Tel Aviv Shell Gathering: November 27

On Sunday morning after the late-night tichel party, Rafi and I woke late to begin our day. We had planned to head to Tel Aviv to a special beach we like in order for me to collect some more seashells and beach glass. Due to our late start, we made it to the beach with only about an hour of sunlight left, but we made the most of it!

Rafi helped keep an eye out for beach glass while I combed the beach for whatever caught my eye - be it shells, glass, washed up bits of tiles and pottery, cool rocks, etc. It was quite a good bounty! Tel Aviv days are so fun, especially when we are able to watch the sunset from the shore :)

Tichel Party for Malika: November 26

A few days after our move-to-Wendy's date, I had an event to attend! I was to go to a Tichel Party for Malika after Shabbat On November 26. For those who do not know, "tichel" is a Yiddish term that described a head-scarf, specifically one worn to cover the hair of married Jewish women. Malika, a friend from Seattle, lives in Jerusalem. You may recall a previous blog post we did about her engagement party. Anyway, now I was invited to her Tichel Party, which was basically a bridal shower where we shower her in tichels. I had two for her: a teal long scarf-type, and a striped blues large square. They actually look nice together if she wants to use them both at the same time (here in Jerusalem, the married women really take it upon themselves to wear their headscarves as fashionable as possible - sometimes layering scarf upon scarf to acheive a turban wrap look).

The party was held at her friend's apartment, very near Wendy's. I looked up the directions and walked there myself as this was a women-only event. There were many foods and treats laid out during the party that were snacked on by the other women friends. We all sat in a circle during the gift-giving. Malika would pick up a package from the middle and open it to reveal the colorful and lovely scarves held inside. Whoever gave the scarf in question would then go to Malika and try her hand at tying it around her hair in an appealing manner. During these parties, it is customary (and helpful) for the married women in attendance to teach the kallah (bride) how to tie her tichel so that she can learn a variety of techniques and be ready when the time comes to wear one every day after the wedding. These scarves can be tricky to tie and keep on the head after tying, so having an experienced teacher is really important. Unfortunately (and with great humor), there was not a single married woman at the party. All of us unmarried girls had very little or no experience tying tichels so it was quite a laugh-fest watching our attempts. I do want to add that some were very good attempts. I was the first up to tie a scarf on Malika's blonde hair. It's a good thing that I have watched a few Youtube videos of how Orthodox women tie their scarves (What? You didn't know that Youtube even has videos of Jewish women tying their scarves? Youtube has it all!). I tied the square one very well in a simple design.

After many laughs and watching Malika unveil all the colorful pieces of fabric, I decided it was time to go and I left the party (now nearing 11:00pm) to Rafi back at the apartment.

Move to Wendy's: November 24

On November 24 Rafi and I moved in to a fellow Scrabbler's home in Jerusalem. She asked us to housesit and take care of her two cats and fish while she was in London with her family for almost three weeks. We we very excited about it because it would be a wonderful and welcome respite from our own apartment in Borochov. Wendy's apartment is located in Talbiyeh, situated in a great area close to everything. In the picture above, you can meet one of her cats, Chelsea - It was quite humorous to call a cat by my name!

This white kitty is Milky. She was a sweet older cat who loved to be pet!

We moved our bags and selves into Wendy's home and were so excited about the next almost three weeks! We had a real living room with couches, a plethora of great books, a dining room table, a full kitchen, two bathrooms, computers with unlimited internet, dvds, heat, and an overall cozy atmosphere!

The kitchen was wonderfully kosher and Wendy labeled everything for us so it was quite easy to get around. I was able to cook much more intricate meals here than in our own apartment. Here, we were able to use Wendy's four burner stove as well as the oven! In our own, we only have one burner and no oven :(

This is a snap of our bedroom during our stay - complete with a movie screening set-up! We watched so many movies! It was fantastic! We had been missing watching movies, especially in the evenings and nights when we had nothing to do. We were able to watch Shutter Island, Titanic, The Notebook, Antz, Failure to Launch (horrible movie!), Taken, The King's Speech, Jumanji, Inception, Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses, Salt, Bridesmaids, etc...

Our tasks while staying at Wendy's included cleaning out the litter box, feeding the kitties, feeding the fish, and watering the plants. The two cats definitely did eat a lot - just as we were told.

Rafi and I enjoyed many meals sitting at an actual table with - you've got it - actual chairs!! What a concept! At our own apartment, we can set up our tiny teetering desk as a meal table during dinner. When we do this, I sit on the edge of our bed as a seat while Rafi gets a chair on the other side (there is not enough room for us both to sit on chairs). During all other meals, we sit wherever we can - usually on the bed, as the bed is our couch as well.

The day we moved in was Thanksgiving Thursday so we decided that the next day we would create a Thanksgiving-themed Shabbat meal. Well, actually I created it, but Rafi's appetite sure helped! We went to the shuk and purchased turkey breast, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onion, and other goodies.

We set the table up Shabbat-style and joined in the American festivities a day late.

Yum! It sure looks like a good meal for two!

I made Thanksgiving themed cookies for dessert - cranberry oatmeal with cinnamon.

I baked the turkey breast, seasoned with olive oil, salt, rosemary, and thyme. Around the meat I tossed onion chunks as well as potatoes and carrots. I poured in a bit of chicken broth to keep it juicy and delicious, covered it with tin foil and popped it in.

For a side dish I cut up some sweet potatoes and green apples and threw them in a baking dish. I made a sauce by melting margarine (to make it parve to go with the meat), cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and sugar. I mixed it up and poured it over the potatoes, covered it and popped it in the oven with the turkey. It was a lovely and scrumptious meal! It was nice to be with each other, but we sure did miss our family back home.

Borochov Apartment: Kiryat HaYovel the Coldest Place on Earth

This posting is basically to show our dear family and friends back home how cold our apartment in Kiryat HaYovel actually is. We do not have any heating here. At all. We are constantly cold and shivering. Sometimes when I cook, it is really a respite because the heat from the stove and the steam from the cooking food slightly warms the room. At all times inside, we have to bundle up in sweatshirts and sweatpants, socks (multiple). Rafi has to wear his shoes because the tile is so cold that it sucks out the warmth through our socks. We are constantly in our sleeping bags to stay warm (we sleep in them every night since we moved here because the apartment was only partially furnished and we did not want to buy blankets simply to throw them away when it was time to leave). In the above picture you can see me huddled in my sleeping bag as I am reading from my Nook. A typical thing for me to have to do to stay warm.

This is strong evidence of Rafi's habits to keep himself warm. He must remain bundled in his sleeping bag even while doing household chores such as washing the dishes.

I must tell you that these are in no way posed. These are real candid shots taken while Rafi went about his daily routines. Brrrrrrrr!!!!! What is also terrible is that the water does not warm easily. So, Rafi has to wash the dishes in cold water! His hands must be freezing (luckily I do not often have to wash the dishes because I do all the cooking. It has been the rule in my family that the cook does not wash the dishes - and I like it that way).

On another, happier note, I included a picture of the seashells I collected from the beach in Tel Aviv. I love collecting seashells and cannot wait to bring these babies home to display :)

Israel Museum: November 21

On Monday, November 21, Rafi and I caught a bus to the Israel Museum. We had been wanting to tour this museum for quite some time, even trying to walk there one day and accidently taking a very long way around - not arriving at the museum until near to closing. This time we planned accordingly to allow ourselves hours of perusing. We had heard that this was an excellent museum. In particular, I was excited to see the museum's collection of archeological objects as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

It was a lovely day, full of sunshine and blue sky with fluffy clouds. The Hershey Kiss-looking building you can see in the picture above is the Shrine of the Book where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept.

We toured the museum for a total of five hours, leaving only because it was closing for the day. We had so much more to tour! We spent the first part of our day in the Archeology section. This was a fantastic collection of ancient archeological finds from the area and told the story of the Land (Israel). The story was well told, with so much information to gobble up at each artifact. Photography was forbidden at the museum, but I managed to snap a quick picture of an ancient object on which is inscribed the Priestly Blessing. It is one of the first objects that has biblical writing on it. So cool! One of our favorite parts of the exhibit was the ancient glass section. We spent near an hour in that small part alone. It was fantastic! The glass was beautiful and colorful with iridescence. There was so much to look at and absorb into our minds.

After the Archeology exhibits, we quickly toured the Judaica exhibts that were also housed in the Israel Museum. It was wonderful as well. The Judaica collection housed by the museum is vast and very special. We barely even scratched the surface, having to leave it soon to find the Shrine of the Book - the home of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

We found the Shrine of the Book after leaving the main exhibitions and walking through the now rainy Jerusalem weather. We went down into a cave-like exhibit in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were contained. It was so neat to see them, ancient Hebrew script lettering all over the parchment. Rafi and I could make out letters and some words. It is so special that this language has been able to survive for so long throughout history even when Jews are scattered over so many countries and continents and now speak many more languages. The Dead Sea Scrolls include the "oldest known surviving copies of Biblical and extra-Biblical documents" according to Wikipedia. They date from between 150 BCE. to 70 CE. Overall, it was a great day at the museum. We were both impressed by each exhibit and how the information was conveyed.

Shul and Shabbat Dinner with Pamela and Werner: November 18

After four days of sleeping, being sore and generally recuperating from our hike, we had the lucky occassion to go out for Shabbas. Some of Rafi's parents' friends, Pamela and Werner (Rafi also plays Scrabble with Pamela at the Jerusalem Scrabble Club), invited us both to their shul followed by Shabbat dinner at their residence. The synagogue, Har El, is a reform shul that we later learned was began by Werner. Before services we stopped by the home of some of Rafi's family friends, Beth Huppin and David Bennett. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with some Seattle folk here in Jerusalem. It is a magical experience! We schmoozed for a while until Rafi and I had to leave to locate the synagogue.

We actually took quite a while trying to find the right place. First of all, we forgot the name of the place. We knew the general area that it was supposed to be, but could not locate it. After roaming the streets for a while, we encountered a young man pushing an elderly woman's wheelchair. We asked him where the Reform synagogue was and he asked if we meant "Har El." Yes! We recognized the name immediately! He told us that he was headed there as well.

After following the man to the proper place, we entered and found Werner and our saved seats. It was a nice Reform service, complete with guitars and plenty of singing. It did seem as though there were more older attendants than young. The shul itself is located in an old Arab house, complete with the beautiful round ceilings and neat architecture.

After services ended, we followed Werner out to his car and he drove to his house for dinner. When we arrived at their home, we met Pamela and their grandchildren at the dinner table set up for them in the cafeteria. Pamela looked strikingly lovely as usual. Her three grandchildren present were very amiable and chatted with us through dinner. After the tasty meal, we retired to Pamela and Werner's apartment where we had desserts and tea/coffee. It was wonderful to be among friendly company in a warm room. Our apartment in Kiryat HaYovel is freezing cold!

Werner showed us his book that he wrote. It is a memoir about his life and that of his parents. It encompasses so much history of Europe, World War II and the Holocaust, Israel, etc... It is a wonderfully created book full of information, stories, pictures, and primary sources. I think that it is great for a personal read, and also as a textbook assigned in classes pertaining to the subjects I listed. The book is definitely textbook sized, but very easily read and digested. It is called We Were Europeans: A Personal History of a Turbulent Century by Werner Loval. He paged through it with us and told us stories that are found it the book. It was a very interesting and entertaining night for all of us. Werner also gave us a copy of the book to take home to Rafi's dad. I have looked through it more since bringing it back to our apartment and very much enjoy it.

The night came to an end and the eldest granddaughter drove Rafi and I back to our refrigerator abode.