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.

Recuperating from Yam L'yam

This is me holding up our map that we used on our Yam L'yam trek. It is map number 2 of the Israeli maps. If you click the picture to enlarge it, you can probably make out the orange highlighter line we drew on the map to mark the trails that we needed to take. On average we hiked between 7 and 7.5 hours except the final day, where we were at it for about 8.5 hours total before reaching the legitimate endpoint. We think that the whole trek was around 50 miles.

Upon returning home to Jerusalem from our Yam L'yam trek, Rafi and I both relaxed as much as we could. It was not very difficult though, as we could barely move. I, for one, was so stiff everywhere from my muscles being worked hard. I limped first from my overall muscle soreness and stiffness, and second due to my injured right calf muscle. Our overall feelings about the trip were quite positive in tone. I wrote them down on the bus ride from Ginosar to Jerusalem.

Chelsey's feelings: Accomplished; successful; tired; sore; that was the most physically challenging thing I have ever done; I feel powerful and human, hurting legs/feet/toes/back; blisters; we walked so far!; I am proud of us!; my love for Rafi and my love for life; also my love for my family, but especially mentionable is my dad for giving me my love of adventure; overall this was fun and amazing, challenging trip; I don't know if I will ever do something like this again.

Rafi's feelings: Feet hurt like hell; really happy to just sit on the bus and not have to move anymore because his feet actually feel incapable of walking; we did a REALLY awesome job; was just the very limit of what we can do - anymore would be too much; glad we were able to actually touch the water at the end - was mad when he thought he coudn't; hardest hike he has ever done; big accomplishment; glad he did it; wouldn't do something like this for a long time.
This is a photograph I took of my feet when we arrived home again in Jerusalem. Notice the second toe of each foot. Can you see the black-colored nails? These toes hurt so bad at the very beginning of our journey - almost unbearably. They turned black during our trip and continued to stay that way. As of now (Dec 17) they are still black and the nails themselves seem to have become loose and I am afraid that they are going to detach from my toes!

This is a picture taken of my feet after the hike. As you can see, I had a blister on the left foot that popped during our hike as well as a large one on my right foot that had yet to pop. Ow! All this even though I wore moleskin and bandages.

The final yuckiness! This was the most gigantic blister I have ever had or seen in my life so far. It started out as one blister on the first day of hiking. I covered it over the next few days, hoping to protect it. I definitely felt it with each step of my left foot - a searing pain. When I finally took the bandage off after the hike, I was surprised to find blisters on top of my blisters! I never knew that blisters could get blisters! It was terrible! None of it had popped by this point and it was just a bubbly and painful mass of liquid.

Yam L'yam Day Four

On the fourth and final morning we woke up to a 5:30 alarm, and being recent college graduates decided to succumb to our habit of pushing the snooze button. Our Nokia phones only have a few alarm tones, and we've become accustomed to the woman's voice saying (in a British accent), "It's time to get up, the time is _:__ (am/pm)." Chelsey's GPS in her car offers a similar monotonic woman's voice, whom we call Maggie (from the GPS brand name Magellan). This nickname has attached itself to our phone alarm too, and every time we push snooze we say "Shut up Maggie!" We finally got up at 6:00, and had our usual couscous and egg breakfast. We noticed some men (presumably from Tzfat) drive up to the parking lot by the water pipes. Each one was wearing the traditional Polish Winter Garb of a Hassidic Orthodox man. And each one derobed and hopped into the water, using it as a Mikvah! That explained the hooks and bench right next to the pipes, allowing the Mikvah Men somewhere to hang their clothes and hats. After they left, we filled up on the "Mineral" water, and by 7:45 we were packed and ready to go, making this morning our earliest start yet.

Our first leg of the journey (well, our first leg of the last leg of our journey) was a 40 minute downhill climb down the rocks we had ascended the day before. It was steep and therefore a slow descent, but much easier than climbing up.

Chelsey maneuvering carefully down the rocks.

It was steep at some points, and easier to turn backwards.

Here's the sign that alerted us to the possibility of water the night before. If we hadn't come across this sign, we might have ended up camping in the middle of the valley. It says "to Ein Koves 1/2 km, Tzfat 2 km."

When we made it to the bottom, Chelsey realized that she really had to poop. Good thing we brought along toilet paper! After Chelsey went, I suddenly had the urge to go as well. Both of us were trying to avoid this, but in a four day hike with only one Port-A-Potty along the way, certain things are unavoidable. Oh well.

After our bathroom break, we rejoined Shvil Yisrael (the Israel National Trail) and continued along our way. The terrain started out similar to the end of the third day, with relatively flat ground and few obstacles. Suddenly Chelsey lost her footing and fell, skinning her knee! Ouch! She wasn't too happy about this, but luckily it was only a small cut, and we were able to continue.

Before long, we had a stretch of terrain that significantly slowed our early morning pace. There were uphills and downhills, large boulders to climb over, and even handholds and footholds to help us keep our balance.

In addition, the majority of the path was along narrow ledges overlooking the valley far below. A downward plunge would not end well for either of us.

Yes, we actually had to walk on that skinny path you see in the top left of the picture.

We both agreed that this part was the most difficult for both of us. While not extremely taxing on our bodies, it took a lot of mental strength and focus to keep going at a decent pace. One misstep and we could be falling into the valley below. We were already exhausted and to have to begin the final day with such difficult terrain was not welcome. We had no idea how quickly we were going, how long this was going to last, and whether or not we would be behind schedule when we finally emerged from the valley.

In retrospect, this was one of the coolest parts of the hike. Tactically it was the most difficult, and to complete this part with huge backpacks after having already hiked for 3 days was a great achievement. The views were incredible, and completing this really boosted our morale.

Chelsey's left knee, which she scraped falling down earlier in the day.

By 11:00 we escaped the narrow ledges of the valley, and approached the highway that signified our first landmark on the map. Normally we would have approached our first landmark much earlier, but our slow going kept us from reaching the highway for over 2 hours. We saw a horse grazing in the distance - it was definitely a surprise! We stopped for a snack break and sat on some rocks, resting our aching backs and feet. Chelsey, being an avid shell collecter, was happy to find a snail shell on the rock.

More horses!

On the way to the highway underpass, we encountered a group of hikers and let them borrow our map. Past the highway was a bunch of construction going on, obscuring the trail and the trailmarkers. It appeared as if there were two ways to go, but there wasn't a trailmarker in sight.

While I scouted out the correct path, I let Chelsey rest her legs, waiting for me at the fork in the road. When I started back towards her, she exclaimed "Look what I found!" It was a baby chameleon!

Chelsey was so excited! Growing up, she had chameleons in her home, so finding one in the wild is always a treat. This was the second time we came across wild chameleons, the first being in the Tel Aviv botanical garden.

After searching around some more, I finally found a "Shvil" marker, and we were on our way!

This valley was much easier than the last, with mostly flat terrain and a few rocky patches here and there. The path was also overgrown with shrubs, and we often had to push branches and leaves out of the way to make it through.

Near the beginning of this portion of the trail, we had to cross a muddy stream. We crossed it carefully, fearing a repeat of Day 1, where we crossed and recrossed the stream dozens of times. Luckily, this was our only stonestepping of the day.

Up on this side of the valley, we saw a car that had apparently gone over the side of the cliff in a wreck long ago.

Walking through thick tall-grass and shrubs.

(Chelsey will continue this blog post now). 3/4 of the way through this valley, we decided to stop for a break. We were REALLY sore and tired by this point. Our backs were aching and our feet hurting. We literally needed the break. We dined on the usual fare: pita, peanut butter, dried fruit, and water. It was a nice time to briefly relax and regain our strength to make it out of the nahal.

I am tired here, but happy to be on the fourth day of our journey. I know that the end is near and we will be victorious!

After about two hours of hiking through this particular valley, Rafi and I spotted the end! Boy were we happy campers! After this checkpoint, we knew by looking at the map that there were only around 5 km left until we would reach our end destination. Although we were tired and sore, this really helped to boost our morale.

I am so elated right now because at this point, we can see the opening in the valley to the rest of the world. We are so close!

As we made our way out of the valley, Rafi spied a tortoise or turtley creature (I do not know how to tell the difference). This made us quite excited! It symbolized that the slow and steady finishes the race.

While crossing under the next highway, we noticed this "graffiti." It says, "Kol yisrael chaverim" or "All of Israel are friends." The graffiti on the right says, "Eretz yisrael l'am yisrael" or "The land of Israel for the people of Israel."

We soon encountered a grove of citrus fruits. We knew that this was the final leg of the hike and we could barely wait for the end!

We are so happy upon seeing the orange and lemon groves...

...and then the banana groves!!! The hike both begins and ends with banana groves! This was a good sign for us that we were close to Ginosar - the end point we had been waiting for.

Across this road is Ginosar! We basically made it! Now we just need to walk to the Kinneret and then we will have finished Yam L'yam! Oh joy!

We followed the path that we assumed would take us to the beach of the Kinneret...why we thought this, I do not know. We saw a sign that read "Beach" with an arrow to the right. We read it, but turned left instead, according to what we had planned out on the map. We should have trusted the sign and not our mapping abilities from home. Our route took us to what seemed like a path to the beach, but instead turned out to be a path to a boat launch and a lookout point high above the water. All that was separating us from the water were reeds and a 10-foot drop. We were so upset! The whole hike would not "count" if we were not able to touch the waters of the Kinneret and walk to the beach! The route we took lasted about 15 minutes, so it would be a total of around 30 minutes round trip to backtrack! Rafi and I wondered about what we should do at this point. Should we try to make it to the Kinneret? Should we give up and go to the bus stop? We needed to catch the last bus out of Ginosar to get home that night. We were cutting it close with time. Also, by this point we were both the most uncomfortable EVER! Everything on my own body hurt. My feet had blisters, my chronically pained ankle was not happy, and my back was screaming at me to get the stupid backpack off of it! I started calling my backpack a "torture device" and without unbuckling it, started writhing around in pain trying to tear it off. After much debate, we decided that we could never leave Ginosar without first reaching the beach so again, we trekked the 15 minutes in the opposite direction.

When we arrived at the other "beach" area it appeared as if we needed to cut through a resort-styled swimming pool in order to get to the beach. Everything was closed at that point, closing up for the day at 4pm. There was a museum there that also seemed closed. Rafi went in and asked how to get to the beach. The woman he asked was extremely unhelpful and unfriendly. She told him that we can't get to the beach from here. We were so upset at this point. We were the most dejected as we ever could have been. All we wanted was to touch the water! As we began to walk back, Rafi found a different path that may be able to take us in the right direction to the beach. He was right! Wow, our spirits definitely returned to their happy selves! In the picture above, Rafi is standing at the very beginning of our walk to the shore after finding the right path.

We are elated on our walk to the shore. Tired and ready to go home, but happy!

Finally! We made it to the water's edge! It was about time :)

Look at that smile! He is so happy, and slightly delirious from tiredness.

And I am definitely in the same boat as Rafi!

We had enough time at the Kinneret to touch the water, snap some pictures, collect some seashells and get to the bus stop to catch the last bus back to Jerusalem. What a great day and a successful adventure!