Sunday was our first full day at Mount Scopus. I went to the shuk on Machane Yehuda and bought a chockfull of vegetables and other essentials for healthy cooking. Everything there is fresh and cheap. Also, there's nothing like a loud, Israeli shop-owner screaming, "SHECKEL, SHECKLEL HAMELOT!" into your ear to remind you of how far you are from the Stop and Shop in Amity Plaza.
I also bought a grocery trolly. If you have recently been to Israel, you might notice 80-year-old Russian women wheeling their groceries in these atrocious carts made of plaid fabric the color of hideous Catholic girl school uniforms. I went for Scottish Kilt Red. It actually came in quite handy seeing as it is a 15 minute walk uphill from the nearest bus station to my apartment, and a dozen plastic bags loaded with groceries on my arms tends to cut off my blood circulation. My roommates are borrowing it all the time. I think I should charge them.
At 5:30 I went to my first Jerusalem ulpan class. I was lucky to find I was in class with a bunch of my friends. But when we walked into class and realized that most of our fellow students were moms and balding men, we were a little crestfallen. Also, the teacher spent the whole class reviewing the Aleph-Bet. I feel like I'm backtracking to where I started in Tel-Aviv ulpan. The teacher said we will be bored for the first 3 weeks, and then we will feel we are at a comfortable level. THREE WEEKS? That's my life, we're talking about. Prime hours of my evening...5:30 to 8:30! I am going to see if I can switch into a higher level with my friends. I want to learn hebrew as soon as possible, and I don't think the Aleph-Bet has come in handy when trying to ask for directions or order coffee.
On another note, I am working on adding some warming touches to my room. I am glad to have brought my fluffy, down, tangerine quilt from home, and to have a window to open to let fresh night air in. It reminds me of cool nights in New England, curling under the covers with Sparky at my feet. Yesterday I went to Maxstop, the Israeli version of Walmart/Dollar Tree.
I bought:
- tupperware to store food in
-plastic sandwich baggies
-three, 2-sheckel, light-up, transvestite wrestler figurines
-a silver sparkly tube of paper to make some wall decals with (which I later realized was a giant party popper that exploded all over my room when I tried to take off the foil paper)
After my brief stint at Maxstop, my friend, Naftali, and I went to the shuk in the Old City to look for musical instruments. He wanted an oud and I wanted a drum. We stopped at various stalls, each shop owner carried a tray of hot tea to lure in tourists. One arab man tried to sell us a fine-quality oud from Syria. Upon closer examination, we found two pegs missing, and that it was impossible to tune. I found a giant drumhead (15" in diameter) with a small crack in it and haggled from 100 sheckles down to 70. The shop owner said, "You are a very hard girl".
Now is today. I am sitting on the grass under a tree on Hebrew U campus. I downloaded "Soul Messages from Dimona". I just got my Jerusalem bus pass, so I am able to explore the city a little more conveniently. Maya is coming today to help us fix our internet. I think I am going to open up a mailbox down at reception, and investigate acquiring a membership at Hebrew U's gym (as it is strictly prohibited by MASA's security guidelines to go jogging on campus (Maya told us some horror story of some guy who was running and didn't realize he had entered an Arab village...I guess it only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole bunch).
I had a lot of weird dreams last night...of signing a birthday card for my friend, Agost, with a character of a fat, mustachioed woman...of Miss Christine in pre-school ballet class, of ravens.
As I was sipping tea this morning, I heard something falling from the sky like hail. It was raining dry bird poop. Maybe someone above me was sweeping their porch. Go figure.
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