Real Concert this time (plus other updates)

The previous post was NOT a preview for this one.

I actually did go to a real concert last night with Avishai--one of the other interns--and Leeron, a friend from high school who's at Yale and in Israel visiting family for a few weeks.

The concert was a benefit concert for a youth group called Knafayim shel Krembo, one of Israel's newest youth groups (everyone in Israel is in a youth group), which is an integrated youth group for kids with disabilities and those without. It's a really great organization. Here's a link to their facebook page and some pictures from the concert. 

The cool bandshell in Ra'anana's ampitheater. There were 8 bands there, each of which played three songs. Between the songs they would screen short videos (campaign-commercial style) about Knafayim shel Krembo. One of a "regular" girl who is a volunteer counselor, one of May Ofir, a girl with a severely twisted spine who is a "camper" (?) and one of a mother of a severely disabled child who is a camper as well. They were really beautiful videos. That's not one of the ones that was shown, but it'll give you an idea.  There were a lot of people in the audience who had tears in their eyes.  And there were 8000 people there!

Hadag Nachash was on first, then a band called HaPil HaKachol that my friend Eitan introduced me to at the Mechina (the song that's linked is one of the most beautiful songs ever written) came on. After that I can't remember the order. I think next was Mosh Ben Ari--I can't remember what songs he played (oops), but this is one of his more famous ones. Ivri Lider was a crowd-pleaser (attested to by the girls standing behind us who kept shouting--to the openly gay Lider--"Ivri, have my babies!"). Efrat Gosh was a little too pop-y/Lilly Allen-y for my taste (and maybe drunk onstage?). I'd never heard of Assaf Amdorsky before, and he seems to be less well-known than the others (also his songs were slower). One of the researchers at Shalem had told me a lot about Shlomi Shavan, so I was pretty psyched for him. Although his solo piano-ing didn't really fit the mood of the rest of the concert, it was incredible! This video doesn't really do it justice, but the ones I shot would take too long to upload. Also, apparently Shavan is the guy who plays for Ernie's song in the Israeli version of Sesame Street! Finally was Mercedes Bend (yes) who was...well, awful--I couldn't find a clip that was as fake-metal-y as he was there, but trust me.

Just liked this one :)

Not from the concert. Just funny. July 4: Canada Day? This is near the street that leads into Mea Shearim, one of the most religious neighborhoods in Jerusalem, if not in Israel. I went with Leah and our friend Sara. Yes, I dressed according to their standards--and the second we left I changed, because it was shmoiling out! But I need to head back, because there's a very cool wood shop there...

Friday was also Princeton-in-Jerusalem get-together day (plus Sam). We met at Cafe Hillel, which is coincidentally where Avital organized the Princeton-gap-year-in-Israel get-together the year I was here. This is the "silly shot", although apparently me, Sam, Olaf, and Morris (although Momo's might not be intentional?) got the memo. Also, it was funny seeing Kate and Rebecca here, as the last time I saw them they were crashed in my room at the beginning of their cross-country road trip. Kate, let's go hiking!

The liquor store across the street from the shuk (open-air market where we do all our fruit/vegetable/other shopping). So many colors of wines!

Friday night I went to the Carlebach minyan at Yakar, which unfortunately starts late enough that I couldn't stay for the whole thing. But it was beautiful! And I ran into Temima (who I haven't seen since they moved to Israel about 10 years ago...). We (Sam, Joel and I) had dinner at Adj's with his family, and two of his high-school friends (one of whom is, coincidentally, good friends with Galya!) and then today I went to Shira Chadasha in the morning and to Anna&Michael and co.'s for lunch. mmmm. Scrabble, too!

Concert!

Outside my window. Lovely. (Then later there was a cat fight, and these two lazy cats ran over to watch it). By the way, if you thought the sound was babies crying you're wrong. It's the cats. Every night. Every day. All the time. Ah, Israel...

Harry Potter Comes to Israel!!!

Somehow the movie came out in this country at 4:30pm on Wednesday, July 13.
And I was there, in the 3D version! (A very long-debated, last-minute decision. And well worth it, despite the sizeable number of seats occupied by Israeli children, who cannot--to save their lives--shut up and watch a movie. There were times that I had to read the Hebrew subtitles because they were talking louder than the soundtrack!) Also, the first time the theater erupted in applause was really cute, one of those "this would never happen anywhere else" moments. But then when it happened 4 more times?

This is Leah and I during...intermission? What?! WHY IS THERE AN INTERMISSION!? They literally wait until the exact halfway point--with zero regard to scenes and excitement level--and pause the movie for five minutes (bathroom, popcorn, etc.) 

After the movie, taking our picture with Dumbledore. Clearly, Sarna and  I like each other more than Sam and Adj do.

And this is proof that the "light rail" Jerusalem train exists. In service? No. It runs through the city empty, doing months of "test-runs" before it will "open" in September (when I was at the Mechina it was supposed to open in September, too. September 2010...).

After the movie we walked back--a nice, leisurely 2.7mile stroll (wow!). Leah and I drooled over the second-hand bookstore we passed, so the boys left us and we browsed for a bit before heading separate directions. I showered quickly, and then headed off to meet Hadas, my madricha (counselor) from the Mechina a few blocks away. She had told me she was "bringing a surprise," but I did not expect it to be Eldad, one of the other madrichim! So the three of us went out for a delicious, shared dinner at Roza, an Italian place about 10 minutes away. We had a garlic-topped focaccia (Eldad's comment when I said that we go through at least one head of garlic a week: "wait, it's three girls that live there? No, there's a boy!? oy!"), and then ordered three dishes, which sat in the middle of the table and we all ate out of. It was wonderful. They came back to see the apartment, and Hadas promised to bring me a fan (it's not even that hot here!)

Today was an excellent day.

One fish, three Sams, and some graffiti

Mom, this is for you, since you wanted to see how the fish came out:

The fish: tilapia. From: Emek HaYarden (but bought at the shuk, where we watched the guy slice off the tail, shuck off the scales and fins, and dig out the insides). Stuffed with: Lemon, onion, garlic. Was planning to make mom's semi-Moroccan fish recipe, but that involves "medium sized chunks" of tilapia. And cutting a fish when raw (even when cooked, but be glad I've spared you those pictures) is super messy. So I scrapped that idea and instead took mom's replacement suggestion, of just baking him, and doing the vegetables (next picture) separately.

The vegetables: zucchini, red peper, onion, garlic, ginger root, tomatoes, paprika, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Sauteed till mushy and delicious, but still with different colors distinguishable. Served on the side.

The set table, from left: couscous with raisins and almonds, the fish, the vegetables. This meal was, of course, cooked in Adj's kitchen, because it was laundry night! [And we don't have an oven...]

This picture (or a similar one from the thirty-photo series) also made an appearance on my Facebook page. It is simply to show how many Sams can fit on one couch. Here we have a Sam T. sandwiched by two Sam G.'s, all of whom go to Yale. One of whom (the middle one) I live with.

This is just a funny graffiti on the way to the grocery store (where I went today to get some basics--although the eggs there were 2x as expensive as at the corner store, so I got those later--including chocolate chips and flour, because we're going to make cookies sometime! And challah! At Adj's, of course...). 

Arabic (Julie and Gavi, this post is for you)

I will not relate here the discussion that went down after our lecture with Ze'ev Maghen today, but I will put in what for me was the most exciting part of it.

Guys (Julie and Gavi), he spoke (and sang!) beautiful Arabic. And not only that, but he spoke beautiful fus-ha [standard. what we learn at school] Arabic. And not only that? But he spoke beautiful fus-ha Arabic that I understood!!

In any case, the important part. After the room was finishing erupting, I stayed behind to ask him my question, which was entirely unrelated to the topic at hand: would he be willing to meet for half an hour or so a couple times a week and just chat with me in Arabic? Of course, that was his cue to switch to Arabic--probably to test me, but he was not condescending at all. I understood everything (of course, this is standard Arabic as opposed to spoken/dialect, but still!). My responses took a little longer, but still, I was totally coherent!)

Basically, he said he only comes in to Shalem once a week (because he's a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University), but if we could find the time to chat in Arabic for thirty minutes at a cafe somewhere, he'd be totally down for it. I hope it works out!

Haifa!

This weekend reminded me why Haifa is my favorite city in Israel.

shavua tov!

Yay! It's always great to see a Levy brother, especially if it's Gevy. [And thanks, Batya, for a delicious lasagna and brownies and cookies...]

This was basically my weekend: Friday evening Gevy's friend Shaul came over and they jammed  for a while. Then we went to Shaul's house (and in the taxi, they asked the driver if they could play instead of having the radio on. The answer, of course, was yes). When we got to Shaul's, their other friends came over, and they just jammed around with guitars, harmonicas, the piano, and a ukelele all night. It was wonderful!

It's always fun to hang out with the Haifa kids from the Mechina (this is me, Udi, and Ron), because they have great spots to hang out. This is some spot in the middle of the Carmel mountains, where people have set up an area with things to sit on and a shade cover thinger. We just sat there for a while catching up, Udi made Turkish coffee and had his mother's home-baked new-recipe cookies (she's a confectioner--is that a word in English?), and we looked down on Haifa below us (behind us).

After we dropped off Ron so he could go back to his army base, Udi and I headed to the beach, where he went running and I went strolling. It was at sunset, which, of course is beautiful. (And I saw a giant jellyfish. For everyone's benefit, I won't put that picture up). I walked along the beach in the warm water, and then met Udi back by the car in time to catch the express bus back to Jerusalem (1:45 instead of 3 hours!)

Marriage Proposal on the Ramparts (not mine)

Yesterday, one of the other interns--a student at Hebrew U--came over to where Leah and I sit to chat. This is normal. On the days she's in (the Israeli academic system is a bit out of whack, and their exam period extends into July for everyone, and through October for many), she always comes over for a while. After talking for a few minutes, I realized that something was different. So I interrupted and said, "Did you just get engaged?!" (Cue mazal tovs and appropriately excessive aw-ing, and of course, The Proposal Story)

I won't bore anyone with the details of someone else's proposal, but I'll just relate a few anecdotes and some commentary for your reading pleasure, for which we'll need to take a step back to a few days ago. On our way back from our Old City shopping excursion, Leah and I walked through the Jewish Quarter, which leads to the Armenian Quarter. This is the section of the Old City where the "Ramparts War" is, essentially allowing you to walk on top of the walls of the Old City. I've never done it, but would love to sometime. In any case, it was sunset, and as I looked up I saw that walking atop the ramparts as we walked below was none other than Solomon, a friend from school. The sunset was beautiful, the warm glow of the sun reflecting of the ancient stones gorgeous, and the weather was perfect.

I turned to Leah and said, "Wow, that would be a great place to get engaged." ……..Fast forward to The Proposal Story this morning. Us: "Where did he propose? How did he do it?" Her: "Well, it was on top of the walls of the Old City, you know where the Ramparts Walk takes you? …"

Perfect….

The second is that she is in a very interesting position: her "boyfriend—er, fiancé, gosh that sounds weird—Dan" is still in the army. He's just beginning officer training, a special course that means that he voluntarily signed on for more than the required three years of service. It also means that for the next 3.5+months, he'll be home maybe once every three-four weeks. It also means that he's younger than her (by two years), which is neither good nor bad, but certainly interesting, and definitely unusual. Finally, it means that they are very limited as to when they can actually get married—the next time he'll be able to be at home for more than a Shabbat is in four months, and even with that, he'll only be allowed 11 days off for wedding preparations+wedding+post-wedding wind-down. It's a lot to plan a wedding when the other person involved is never available…

But she seems really happy, and that's really all that you can ask for.

Spot the cat

Let's play a little game. It's a combination of Where's Waldo and one of my favorite children's books, Zoom.
It's called: Spot the Cat.

[in front of our apartment. Also, interesting thing to note: why are there sandbags? Israel has no floods, let alone rain...]

Old City (and the lighting is pretty)--and sweet potato ravioli

Part of the internship is that we get to go on all sorts of field trip-y type things. Naturally, number one on that list is the Old City in Jerusalem (up-coming trips include the Israel Museum, which I'm super-excited about, since when I went when I was here for the year everything was out for fixing up).

In any case, Elisheva Gordis was our tour guide. I think every one of the interns had been to the Old City before, but like Elisheva said, there's always new stuff being uncovered, like this ridiculous painting on the wall near the Cardo (note the little boy with a baseball hat and a backpacking playing with the ancient girl?).

I love seeing the Dome of the Rock. It's so beautiful. Also, we heard the church bells chiming at the same time as the muezzin calling, which is one of my favorite sound combinations. 

We also went through Hezekiah's Tunnel, which I've never been through. Basically, it's a water tunnel that was dug under the City of David around 700 BCE, and you can still walk through it today. At it's highest, the water comes up to mid-thigh (Abby height) and it was a lot of fun to walk through, especially when we made everyone turn all their flashlights off! It's about a foot/foot-and-a-half wide at the most, and generally no taller than 5 feet high, so even I had to duck! But the water is cool and refreshing. Makes you wonder how long it took them to chisel such a long tunnel--I think it's 500meters long.

Leah and I both fell in love with all the scarves/belly-dancing skirts, Aladdin pants, pretty jewelry, and aromatic spice booths in the Arab shuk in the Old City (okay, I fell in love last year. I could spend days in there and be happy just looking at all the colors). So after we had finished with the tour and spent a few good hours at Shalem, we decided to walk back to the Old City and spend a few hours there. 

We got some good haggling (and, of course, scarves) out of the deal, and plus we discovered an entirely new way down from the Old City that led us by an old church (name?) that I remembered having gone to with the Mechina. The lighting in the Old City right before sunset is gorgeous! It reflects off the Jerusalem Stone a pretty, warm sunny  orange.

I know I've been raving about how well we've been eating, but tonight's dinner was really something to boast about. There are approximately 2098581 people named "Sam" at Yale, and approximately 2098573 of them are involved in Slifka, Yale's Hillel. Since I'm living with two Yalies, I've gotten to meet one of these Sams, who happens to be in Tel Aviv for the summer (another one, also a "Sam G." will be coming in about a week). In any case, Sam's parents are in Israel for a stint, and invited us out to dinner with them at Luciana's, a delicious Italian restaurant about 4 blocks from our apartment. Leah and I shared sweet-potato ravioli in white wine cream sauce with blue cheese on top, and a salad with sweet potato shards on top and pasta and delicious dressing and garlic and salmon... mmm it was so delicious! (And we have leftovers for lunch, too). It was a wonderful dinner, with great company, and lots of joking around, including a "birthday cake" for Leah, whose birthday is at the end of August, and a great waitress who totally played along with our shtuyot.

What a great day!

A good summary of how wonderful my shabbat was

Finally, Galya and I got to spend more than five minutes together! [A picture is worth a thousand words]

And on the way back from her kibbutz, I ran into a bunch of mechinistim about a block from the apartment--as well as one of our Madrichim, Dani, and his wife! (And then a former camper of mine). This country is crazy!

Thursday two friends from the Mechina--Shir and Ofir--slept over, and we went out with some other friends. They conked out as soon as we got back to the apartment, and left early Friday morning. Then I met up with some other mechina guys to "eat hummus" (the MEAL is the hummus. Pita and felafel, etc. are simply aids for getting the hummus into your mouth) at their favorite place, a hole-in-the-wall called Ben Sira. We ended up being quite a large group, and from there walked over to the shuk. Then I went with Noa to her house in Ramat Gan, and from there to Galya's kibbutz.

Now I'm back, and early tomorrow morning we have a tour of the Old City with Danny Gordis' wife, Elisheva.