What I didn't realize was that last night was daylight savings! I thought I had gotten up at 6:30 to go running so I could meet Grandma and Zev early. In reality, I woke up at 7:30. For once, the gym wasn't packed! So I got to stay on the same treadmill for an hour- a runner's dream workout in a gym.
I took the 19 bus for a change since it apparently ran in the neighborhood but I didn't know what happened as I got off maybe a stop too far down? Just not going to do this again.
Grandma, Zev, and I went into the neighborhood bakery for a little breakfast (at 11:30??) and cappacinos. Then we scooted over to next door to the take-out/catering place to pick up some soup for tonight's Shabbat and food for Shabbat lunch since it closed at 2. It wasn't actually until this point that I found out about the time change- no wonder why Grandma was in a rush to get to the take-out/catering place! While Zev went off to visit his sick friend, Grandma and I picked up the cleaning and dropped all the stuff back in the apartment.
Then I bargained with the cab driver:
Me: We need to go the shuk
Cabbie: Sure.
Me: How many sheklim do you want?
Cabbie: Oh, 19 or 20.....
Me: 12.
Cabbie: Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how insane that street is!?!? I still say 19.
Me: Just drop us off at King George and Agrippas, it's faster for us to walk from there. It's fine.
Cabbie: Okay, 17 or 18.
Me: I've only got 15 (in a very firm tone)
Cabbie: Ehhhhhhhhh..... (he feels me staring him down and moving out of the cab very so slightly) Okay, okay (puts up his hand in surrender), I'll give you 15. Get in.
Because he wasn't getting the fare that he really wanted, he attempted to pick up some fares from pedestrians along the way. Grandma tried to talk money in the cab but I shushed her- Once you've bargained with the cab driver and you tell him that's all you've got to offer, you don't mention that you've got more money in your wallet or how much you're going to spend at your destination. Grandma was impressed and told me that I'm just like Dad- always driving hard bargains.
At the shuk, when Grandma saw how busy Marizpan was, she gasped in amazement. We pushed our way through to pick up the burekas and then she went over to get some sweet pastries for breakfast including poppyseed. I began to keep track of our expenses so anyone could actually see how cheap the shuk could be. She asked if it would be possible to bargain over a wine bottle opener and I told her not with the Jews, particularly stalls on the street, not inside the market. Then we weaved our way through the entrance where she spotted some meat cigars for appeitizers. I showed her my favorite cheese shop as it's a bit more helpful and bigger where she picked up some brie and bleu cheese. I did learn one thing that day- the spice people will only scoop to the minimum weight that they could sell even though the customer might not need that much. Also, I found out that even after 2 weeks, Grandma still couldn't count money so I had to help her. She kept mixing up the two different kinds of "10" sheklim- one is really 10 sheklim and the other is 1/10 of a shekl. If you have been to the shuk, you could imagine my aggravation since it's a very fast paced environment where you need to be able to count your money quickly.
I made Grandma wait a few extra minutes for a pan of hot pitas, fresh out of the oven, at one of the bread stands outside the market. I thought this part was exciting to see one of the employeers carry the tray on his head and dumping them all on the table. I stood ready with other Jews for these pitas and when they were dumped over us, we all scrambled for our pitas! I also had to yell for Grandma to give me another shekl since I didn't have enough in my hand- like hurry, hurry- because I was getting squeezed out of the rush and losing my bag of pitas!
Grandma was very happy that we had found everything that we needed on our list. That's the best part of the shuk- it had all kinds of things you could imagine that a market like Mister Zol's would not have ready on hand. Including a wine bottle opener for 10 sheklim- the price that Grandma wanted to pay.
After the shuk and walking out with several bags, we met Zev in Ben Yehuda for some sabbiyah for lunch. Grandma loved it and actually ate well. Zev wasn't particularly hungry at first but after having a few bites of the one that Grandma and I shared, he decided to have his own. And Grandma ate some of that too. It was weird that my sandwich had more eggplant than his- he was kind of disappointed. I also learned an Israeli way from him- he liked to put some spices in his sandwich and have a sweet tea with it. On the way to home, we stopped in for a little dessert from a candy shop (those chocolate like snow ones at the movie theaters were soooo good- way better than at home!). Then we get a phone call from friends of Grandma and Zev's who had just docked in Aquaba, in the Red Sea, and they'd be in Jerusalem for the next 3 days. They were very excited and insisted on joining us for a Shabbat meal. At the end, they could only meet us at the Israel Museum tomorrow afternoon.
I invited Melissa and Laura for Shabbat. It was really wonderful as I definitely learned more about them, especially Laura. Grandma kept commenting about how interesting that they, as non-Jews, came to study in Israel. I told her that for me, I'm blind to that sort of thing because I'm more interested in just finding a common ground with others. Plus, I'm used to having non-Jewish friends as I basically grew up with them anyway. But with them, I do ask questions and try to learn more about Christianity and their family background so I could get things in perspective. Also, it's just different to hang around with them since I'm with the Jews all the time otherwise (I know, I know... but you know what I mean). They thought that this Shabbat was the best one they've attended so far. I agreed- it's been a while since I've attended a small one as I've been to big Shabbat dinners with lots of people for most of the time since I've been here. We got to try "Jerusalem kugl" which was a little spicy but good.... I don't know exactly what it's made of. But whatever.
Oh here's a funny story- I almost thought about canceling Shabbat because of a little kitchen glitch that we had....
So on Thursday afternoon, I made my challah and brownies as usual. So my challah recipe generally called for gradual turning up of the oven temperature over a period of 50 minutes. So I did all that and then I realized in the final 15 minutes that the oven might be in Celicius! So I turned it up to another 30 degrees. But the challah didn't come out right- it wasn't even done. I called up Doris Levine to find out what temperature she made her challah at and she said that she just goes by the ratio of 140 C to 350 F and she doubles the C temperature and adds on 30 to make the Faherenheit temperature. Grandma and I looked at each other and thought, boy the oven could be pretty hot at 600 degrees! We remained cautious and only raised the oven to 325, thinking it'd be over 500 degrees, perfect temperature for making pizza. Then Grandma called and left messages on Phyllis Pollack's and Ruthie Feine's answer machines for some help. Not only we had the brownies to deal with (having the raw eggs in there), but also the chicken! No chicken equaled no Shabbat! When the challah was finally done after being in the oven for over an hour, we decided to take a dinner break at Al Dente's. After dinner, Grandma came back to finish the brownies.
Despite it looking done and coming out clean, the brownies still had raw batter in the middle when we cut it tonight. But the batter was really good.....
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