We got together with one of her friends, Becky, for a walk around the Old City. Becky, from Salt Lake City (they didn't know each other before), had only visited the Jewish Quarter with the school the day before. So we showed her the Christian and Muslim Quarters, mainly just wandering around the shuk and the Church. I took quite a few pictures to replace all the pictures that I lost of Israel when I reformatted my computer last winter. It was a gorgeous day- not too hot! If anything, it was so cool for me that I had to put on my button down shirt over my tank. I supposed that I was getting used to Tel Aviv's hot weather...
We walked into this store that sold beautiful olive wood sculptures and pieces. Many of the pieces were related to Christianity. Meredith fell in love with The Last Feast piece. The guy persuaded her to buy it and said it was 300 shekels. Meredith resisted and replied that she didn't have 300 shekels. I whispered to her, "200 shekels," as she looked at him and complimented on the piece. Then he said 260.... he was so pushy that I walked away and encouraged her to come with me and Becky out of there. As I stepped out, I found her still standing there, trying to get out of this man's face. Then I heard that she had agreed to buy it and then the guy sent his little boy to help her find an ATM machine to get the cash. I couldn't believe it. After the whole transaction was done, I asked her, "How much was it?" She responded with a smile, "200 shekels."
We stopped in a beautiful spice store. I had no idea that there were spices for a variety of dishes like chicken, rice, beef, etc. The zatar was done beautifully like Jerusalem's valley. I'll have to consider buying some spice to take home with me for my cooking.
We stopped in the Church of the Holy Schelupre to show Becky around a little. I re-took some of my pictures. Here were a few that came out quite nicely and I liked the compositions. The Church was hardly crowded at all, which surprised me. I wondered if tourism was really going down this year or something.
As usual, because of Meredith's long, red hair, and her sweetness, merchants tried to coax her into buying their pieces. So it took a lot to keep her moving and ignoring all the "cat-calls." I know that because of my dark complexion and likeness as a Jew, nobody would bother me if I walked through here by myself. Sometimes her hair could pay off well in terms of bargaining, I think. One of the things I noticed was that there were a lot of brown sandals! I had been trying to find a pair of nice brown sandals in the United States but they were hardly anywhere. I didn't know why I just never thought of finding a pair in the Old City. I thought about all those brown sandals as we spent time around the Old City. Finally, we stopped in one place and looked at them. I found a pair that I liked and Meredith found a pair that she liked. At first the guy said, "one shekel!" in a joking manner. Then he offered us 70 shekels for them. I told him, "Eh, 50 shekels." He said, "70." I decided that I could think about it and come back another time. But Meredith continued to talk with him and complimented on the sandals. I guessed that she did want those shoes. Then he said, "Okay, I'm giving her 55 shekels so I'll give you 55 shekels, okay?" Well, that's close to my asking price so I got a new pair of brown sandals! YAY!!!! (Toby later evaluated the shoes and thought they were extremely well made for such a bargain price).
We came out of the Jaffa Gate and began walking down Jaffa Road. The whole road was a serious disaster. The construction for the new railway (more like a tram as it looks like from the tracks) had indeed begun. The fact that they even made it all the way to the Old City from the Central Bus Station last year, it was progress. I kept saying, "wow, this is progress!" Essentially, Jaffa had become a one way road. It'll still continue to take a long time because of archeaological excavations that need to be done to ensure that nothing of value would be destroyed. We caught the 19 bus back to Hebrew U after walking through Ben Yehuda a bit. I was amazed to see more of rail construction on Bar Levi, another major road.
After changing and picking up my stuff and the flowers, Meredith and I headed over to Toby's by bus and got there a bit after 5. We chilled for a bit while we waited for dinner to begin. We had a lovely evening of talking about ourselves, families, religion, and academia. It's always interesting to learn more about Mormonism and how she lives within her religion. She also talked a bit about her studies at her university in Middle Eastern Studies. We chatted for quite a while that it was time to send her on her way after 2 1/2 hours of sitting around and talking!
I was so exhausted that I read a few pages of my book before falling asleep.
On Shabbat, Toby and I went over to her friend, Soushana's for lunch. Soushana used to live in Manhattan and made aliyah when she was 18. She wanted nothing to do with her life in the United States after high school. She had her mother (who made aliyah recently) there along with a friend and a young family, both recent olim from California. It was pretty interesting sitting and thinking there how these olim gathered together like this, to talk about their challenges as new immigrants of Israel. Although Toby had been here as an immigrant for the last 9 years, she still faces difficulties at time, mainly with bureaucracy and Hebrew. As much I think olim should spend time integrating within the Israeli society, they do really need the support of the olim community, especially in their neighborhood. There will be things that olim will just not *get* like the Army experience and internal emotional attachment to Israel as sabras. And of course, Israeli Hebrew.
(Some pretty pictures of the Baka neighborhood)
After lunch, we walked back along Emek Refaim and Toby pointed out some new places that had popped up recently. Yo-Jan, my favorite Asian restaurant ever, changed its name to RYU. I do hope that the menu and quality is still there!
It seems to me that the more I come back to Jerusalem each time, the bond grows. I see myself living there more and more as Jerusalem continues to strive for improvement for the young and secular. You have Talipot, a neighborhood south of the city that's famous for its nightlife. The budget for cultural activities have doubled. The construction, despite the fact that it smears the city view, continues to produce gorgeous architecture of Jerusalem stone. The whole city is essentially made of Jerusalem stone that the only way you can tell by how long the building has stood for is to look at how dirty the walls are. The recent fight over a parking lot to be used on Shabbat makes me comfortable knowing that there is indeed a secular voice in this city. I love living with history and each time I walk around and look at Jerusalem, I'm just reminded of the city's survival over the last 3,000 years. Although it's a holy and spiritual city and I'm not much of a religious person, I'm more for the preservation of the city's architecture, culture, traditions, and historical spots like Mehane Yehuda shuk and Mea She'arim (yes, as much I don't like the haredim, that neighborhood is important). And it's just always beautiful. I do hope that when I do live in Jerusalem in the future and when people send me mail that says "Jerusalem, ISRAEL", I hope that they think that I live there not for purely religious or Messianic reasons, but a great place for me who appreciates history, culture, and politics.
Gee, I hope I don't really have the classical Jerusalem syndrome. I mean, I left the city, didn't I?
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