Jerusalem Apartment and Shabbat in Haifa

So, I know it's been a while between posts; internet access was severely lacking for the last half of my birthright trip and life has been crazy since arriving (again) in Jerusalem. In the interest of not falling perpetually behind as life moves on day to day, I'll skip posting everything for my birthright trip right now. There are a lot of pictures on facebook already if you absolutely can't wait, but I'll narrate that trip another time for you all.

Not so long ago in a city far, far away....

Following my birthright trip, I got a ride back to Jerusalem and met my friend Rachel on Ben Yehuda street, one of that main strips downtown. Rachel just finished her first year in the same program I'll be starting so in addition to it being great to see her and catch up, it was great to talk about her year and all the great things to come for the both of us. I had to meet my landlord's cousin in the Old City of Jerusalem in order to get the keys. He owns a shop on the Cardo called Gold of Jerusalem, obviously a play on the catchphrase, "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav," or Jerusalem of Gold. The Cardo, according to Wikipedia is:

"A north-south oriented street in Roman cities, military camps, and coloniae. The cardo, an integral component of city planning, was lined with shops and vendors, and served as a hub of economic life."

Interestingly enough, the Cardo today is still a major economic hub in the old city, still lined with shops and vendors. Pretty awesome to think that the street life on the cardo hasn't changed much in 2,000 years. Anyway, you want to know what else hasn't changed? All the steps. Not made for shlepping your luggage. =P I'm sure everyone was like, hey check out the newbie. Anyway, I got the keys and Rachel and I headed back to check out the apartment. It's amazing. It was a little more than some of the other apartments around but it's only a 10 minute walk from campus, it's newly renovated, and the other fees associated with the apartment were minimal compared with other places.

Here are some pics:A nice living room. There's a big TV you can't see, not that I'll ever use it.... but still.

The living room in my room (yup I get my own living room!). Up the stairs there is my lofted bed.

A nice kitchen ... now I just have to learn to cook!And a table fit for hosting!

Moving on ... so moving in was Wednesday. That night we were going to go to a Chopin concert by the Jerusalem Symphony, but they pulled a fast one on us and said we couldn't use Rachel's student tickets since it was a "special" performance. Whatever. Right out side the symphony hall was a cool adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in Hebrew, set to really bad music. Haha. Pretty random but equally awesome. (Awesome = Sababa for those of you following along in Hebrew.)
On Thursday we ate breakfast with Ari (the rabbinical student moving out of my place) at a restaurant that reminded me of the Runcible Spoon in Bloomington. Lots of books on the wall and kind of hard to find. The other girl was a friend of Ari's, I believe.
I went down to HUC to meet with people, get my Israeli cell phone and start what I'm sure will be the long and arduous process of obtaining a student visa. Yea! More on that front as it develops (no doubt). On Thursday night Rachel and I went to a play and then met up with Jordan, Sarah, and Carlie all from IU on Ben Yehuda street. Also pictured is their friend, Jeff.
On Friday, Rachel and I left for Haifa to stay with her boyfriend Dov. I haven't seen Dov in like 2 years since he finished up at IU so it was awesome to see him. And he and Rachel were really patient with me. I told them I was serious about leaning Hebrew so they agreed to speak only (or mostly) Hebrew with me. I wound up speaking some sort of Hebrish (Hebrew/English) but still, it was the most practice I've gotten yet and after only 24 hours I could feel a difference! It was really cool.

We went to a reform synagogue for shabbat and what do you suppose the odds are that I know someone there at services? Pretty good apparently. I look over during the service and see someone I met last summer in Bloomington. You can imagine the looks on our faces when we realized it from across the synagogue. Haha. Small world I guess. She's finishing up a semester abroad studying at Haifa University.

On Saturday morning, Rachel, Dov, and I went to Haifa beach. It was really nice. Warm, lots of families, and great waves. One of the phenomenons here at Israeli beaches is this ping pong without a table. Apparently so many people play, it's hard for everyone else to even walk around. So, here's a picture that I thought was too good to pass up.

If you zoom in on the sign, it reads, "A forbidden place for games." This girl is a true Israeli, haha! That'll show that sign!

Anyway, it was beautiful.
A picture of Rachel and Dov...

That's all for now, folks. Hope you've enjoyed this installment. Feel free to post and say hi! Miss you all and hope everyone is doing well! Until next time! Xoxo.