Soccer in Gan Sakker (pronounced "soccer)

(Quick update: Shabbat dinner at the Breuers. All 4 kids were there, including the two I haven't seen since they moved here. Shabbat lunch was with Sam and Adj at Danny Gordis's house, then we wandered over to Adj's to read books/watch Adj fall asleep. Headed over to my friend Amir's apartment, which I found sort of by accident, and then got lost on my way to Sam's cousin's for dinner--where we discovered that they know both the Breuers and the Sterns, and had a great conversation with Sam's aunt about my Race, Drugs, Drug Policy class).

I woke up at 6:15 this morning to do recruitment for the mechina on the other side of Jerusalem for high schoolers here with the American Tzofim (Israel scouts) group. It was actually a lot of fun, although reminded me how obnoxious sixteen-year-olds can be... Getting up so early made me really tired all day, so after nuking a sweet potato with brown sugar and cinnamom in the microwave that we just figured out how to work (!) I took a nap. [It has come to my attention *ahem, Gideon* that it was not clear from this that my nuked potato and nap were after work. Yes, Sunday is a real day here.]

Then it was time to go play soccer in Gan Sakker! Well, Leah and I took a really roundabout way (okay, so we got a little lost.... naturally, when we asked a policeman how to get there he said, "Keep walking straight..." typical Israeli answer, and not at all correct, but okay. We figured it out).

We had been planning to meet up with a couple of Leah's friends from school/home/seminary, but it turns out that they had joined a larger group of girls/women who play ever Sunday at 7:15 in Gan Sakker. It's some grassroots group that's been meeting for years--mostly religious women although not entirely--and everyone who played was an English-speaker. It was a lot a lot of fun--I realized I haven't actually played soccer in years (at least two, probably three). As it got later, the grass got more slippery, so there was a lot of falling and the twilight/post-sunset time (despite occasional floodlights) is actually the worst lighting for seeing a ball. But it just felt really good to play...it was the first actual pick-up game I've ever joined, and I think we're planning to go back next week. It really was a lot of fun! Got some good sweating in :)

Well, we finished around 9:30, and made our way back home (this way we didn't get lost, and we even took a shortcut, which showed us exactly where we made our wrong turn on the way there) and were exhausted and hungry, so we made easy food: noodles! And now I'm about to fall asleep again...

sorry about the lack of pictures!