Nine Nights of Hanukkah

After our fabulous Christmas celebrations we were, well, very full. We also knew that we had to begin planning for our Hanukah celebrations!
Sufganiyot appeared in stores 2 whole months ago (I suppose this is the Jewish equivalent to putting out Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving, as they were put out after all the major fall holidays). These are fried donuts filled with deliciousness. The most basic, and my favorites, are filled with strawberry jam. They can also be filled with halva, dulce de leche, chocolate or really anything else. They can be covered in frosting, sprinkles, chocolate. There are also savory sufganiyot which I have heard are fabulous. Huge hanukiahs/hanukiot have appeared all over town. However, hanukah really isn't a big holiday. It is enough to get us a few days off from school, to garner some hanukah-lights around town and the smell of fried food in the air. But, life does not stop for hanukah.
Of course we had to celebrate it though! We had been lighting the hanukiahs every night and singing the prayers. Yet, the only available night to actually celebrate was the day after Hanukah had ended. Oh well!

This Tastes Like Jesus: Christmas

Let's begin with the Christmas party. We decided to have our Christmas dinner on Shabbat night, two days before Christmas because we always do Shabbat dinner!  

Our menu: Cornbread covered in dulce de leche made out of goat milk, latkes, Chinese noodles, bread, cheese, applesauce (homemade with cranberries), applesauce from a jar, mashed potatoes with LOTS of butter and sour cream, broccoli and other veggies, a pear pie with whole wheat crust, a berry pie with whole wheat crust, and ice cream! 

The venue: my apartment. My roommate was in charge of cleaning, inviting and decorating. She bought beautiful flowers and placed them all over the apartment, some in wine bottles and some floating in cute little dishes of water. She lit tons of tea lights and lined the counters and tables with them. We cut out some snowflakes which were taped up to the window. A bunch of friends showed up with food in hands and a 3-D Christmas tree they had made (way better than my 2-D one). They placed it under the sign that read "Presents Here". Somehow, everybody had managed to dress up in Christmasy colors and I turned on the Christmas carols. Another friend brought over these very strange candies that looked like little Christmas presents. Everything was ready and Christmasy! Let's eat! 

Thanksgiving in a Foreign Land

"Can we plan Thanksgiving? Can we? Please? Canwecanwecanwe???" Muttered responses, noncommittal smiles were all I received. No one seemed to be as concerned or as interested in recreating this strange but lovely American tradition. Or maybe they knew it would be CRAZY. And Thanksgiving was fast approaching! In the mail, I received some terribly punny Thanksgiving stickers from my Mumsy, to be used on Thanksgiving placemats. It was a sign! We had to have Thanksgiving! 

So, when invited over to do homework, I ambushed my friends. "Who should we invite to Thanksgiving?" This was the worst part of planning, the part I was dreading. When we had named all of the people who we normally hang out with, the list numbered 15. Then we had to pick from the list of 17 "maybes". Boy, did I feel like a Queen Bee. We argued and debated about who garnered an invite and why. At 1:00AM I left the apartment with a list of 26 people, with 6 starred as "probably won't come". 

The venue: 4 friends' apartment. The menu: traditional Thanksgiving food. My task: to invite everyone, assign them all a food to bring and figure out how to fit so many people in an apartment.

Stone Soup

"Once upon a time (“far, far away!” someone shouted), there was an old man.” So the story of Stone Soup began, told by a friend sitting next to me. “Now, this old man was poor and he was hungry. He had been wandering the countryside for a while and was hoping to happen upon some food. He found himself in a small village and began to ask the townspeople if they would be able to share a meal with him. But everyone refused, telling him how hungry they were, how they barely had enough for themselves. After being refused time and time again, the old man called everyone to the center of the village. ‘I would like to make you all a meal. It will be the best meal you have ever had! All we need is a pot of water and a stone.’ ‘A stone?!’ the villagers asked, incredulously. The old man assented, then paused: ‘But I have just remembered! This stone soup will be even more delicious with an onion.’ A villager piped up, ‘I have an onion!’ And off she went running to get her onion so she could add it to the soup. ‘What about a clove of garlic?’ someone asked. ‘Yes,  I think that would be quite good.’ The soldier responded. Soon all the villagers were hurrying off to their pantries, grabbing whatever they had, even if it was only a carrot or a sprig of parsley. They all brought their ingredients and added them to the large pot of boiling water. Soon, a wonderful, rich smell began to emanate from the pot. The village had made stone soup. It was the best and the biggest meal that they had eaten in a long time. The entire community had contributed what they had and they all came together that night to dine on stone soup.”

I found myself beaming as I listened to the story. A few weeks ago when I told my friends this story over one of our first “Stone Soup” dinners, they had never heard it before. It was a story I grew up with and was reminded of when friends and I began to cook and eat together here in Israel. Everyone contributes a little something, even if it was just a can of sweet corn or a red pepper. And suddenly we have a huge meal, always enough to feed the 12+ people who end up at dinner.

Trip Number 1: Trip to Tel Aviv

You might ask yourself, as I often do, whether or not I ever attend school. At the moment, it doesn't really feel like I do! I had a week off for Rosh Hashana break (went to Tel Aviv and the Mt. of Olives), had about a week and a half of school and now I have 2 weeks off for Sukkot break. This is fabulous (although made that small amount of in-school time very difficult to focus on!).
I, as a poor college student without a job and in another country, decided that I would try to stay in my apartment for most of the break. I would take a few day trips, but would try to sleep in my own bed and eat food that I had cooked. That was how break started...
Day 1: Woke up. Made a big brunch. Went back to bed. Woke up. Made a huge dinner.
Day 2: Woke up. Went to Meah Sharim, a Hasidic neighborhood, to observe preparations for Sukkot. Most people had departed to different corners of Israel at this point and I realized that I was VERY antsy. I wanted to go somewhere to!!!!!!!







Day 3: At 9:00AM, I find myself zooming perilously down the highway to Tel Aviv.







We arrive and start looking for a hostel. The first place we went to was...well, scary to say the least. In fact, I'm not sure it was hostel. There was just a lonnngggg dark hallway with ominous looking doorways and a lot of trash on the ground. We hustled out of there as fast as we could. The next place we went to looked a little bit less sketchy. A friend jumped to pull the bell, which was placed at about 7 feet in the air, and we were buzzed up.

Full of young people. "Chill"
is a good word. Made me feel like
I was back at school!!

"Heeyyyyy, you all must be the people from Costa Rica," a man who was obviously very hungover said while high-fiving us. "No," we responded. "We just want a room." We were offered a bed on the roof for 60 shekels (a bit less than $20). We agreed.

"What a strange place," I kept saying. The chic, young
and artsy mixed with what were basically shanty-towns.

No one was out, as it was the first day of Sukkot. 

Off we went to the beach, snacking on pita and hummus that one of our savvy traveler friends had packed in his bag. The Mediterranean was soooo blue and sooo beautiful. Everyone was out, as it was the first day of Sukkot and most of the shops were closed. People were barbecuing and flying kites and swimming: it was LOVELY. My friends were actually given a huge amount of BBQ as we were walking along by a very kind family. Good feeling was all around! 










We found a spot on the beach and jumped into the water. Only to find that this section of the beach was much less clean than the last one we were at. We were surrounded by floaty things that ranged from plastic bags, seaweed and discarded hats to other objects which were less easily identifiable. It had been a long day (HAHA) and a nap was in order.

A friend and I stretched out, him to read and me to sleep, although I quickly fell asleep, while our other two friends continued to frolic in the waves. They then began to build an epic sandcastle while simultaneously digging two very deep holes that they could stand in, making it look like they had lost their legs. When I woke up to this sight, I was very confused, haha.

Jaffa port at sundown. 

After three hours on the beach, we decided to search for food. We headed in the direction of Old Jaffa. When I came here for Birthright in January, Jaffa was my favorite place in Israel. It was the place I claimed I wanted to live if I ever settled in Israel. I wasn't sure why then and I have no idea now, but Jaffa is still my favorite place in Israel. It is beautiful and homey feeling.

Sigh. No words. 

Kiortush and a cappuccino.

We found a store called "Kiortush" and sat down for a coffee. The people at the neighboring table ordered this amazing pastry-thing and we decided that it was a necessary part of our experience to order one as well. We ordered a kiortush with halva (sweet sesame seed paste) in between the layers of the dough, caramel and toasted almonds on the outside. It. Was. Amazing.






Our destiny was Dr. Shakshuka. Shakshuka is basically two sunny-side up eggs in spicy tomato sauce. Lucky for me, unless specified, it is ALWAYS vegetarian. We were told this was the best shakshuka ever, so we decided to wander around Jaffa until it was time to eat.


We found the port and caught the end of the sunset. It was so beautiful, it took my breath away.

The view of Tel Aviv from the Jaffa Port area. 

So many families, of all different colors and sizes, were out, wandering around. There was beautiful art on the walls (some may call it graffiti, but I don't. This seems to exist all over Tel Aviv. There is a plethora of purple eggplants, bandaids, the word "sperm," different monster-like creatures and very inspirational, matter-of-fact statements sprayed onto the sides of so many buildings). We took picture after picture, reveling in being tourists, until we finally found our way back to Dr. Shakshuka. And ate and ate and ate.




Afterwards, what else could we do but eat some more? So we went to get frozen yogurt/gelato (I'm not sure what it was, as it was claimed to have both). The flavors ranged from the basic (chocolate, vanilla) to the unique (Werther's candy, nutella, ferro roche). I got Snickers and caramel.
Had we eaten enough? Yes. We wandered around for a bit. Entire streets were taken up by candle-lit tables at little restaurants. It was so gorgeous and, well, romantic. Eventually, we ventured back to our hostel, to change and rest, with plans of going out in the evening. We ended up just sitting around, looking at the stars and talking. I ordered my first beer, drank 1/8th of it and gave it away. I really don't like beer. Slowly, we got sleepier and sleepier, till we were tucked on our respect sofas/hammocks.
A midnight revelation: I was, for the first time, celebrating Sukkot. Sukkot was the first real Jewish holiday I celebrated with my family. It is a very pagan celebration of the harvest. You construct a temporary building (with various requirements, of course. One is that you must be able to see the stars) and put decorations of fall fruits around it. And here I was, with a see-through tarp over my head and the moon right above me. Beautiful.
I woke up to a blue, blue sky. We decided we needed another kiortush before we left. The man who was working yesterday was tickled to see us. "This is the best thing you ate here, yes?" YES, I told him.

We then wandered around the area, where there were tons of antiques and various other items being sold in the street. I bought a pair of very flowy, genie-like pants which are in very vogue here. I then bargained (kind of) for a bunch of bangles. Check one on my bucket list: bargain! It was fun. We Americans are so reserved: it is hard to bargain!!!! But, the shop owner obviously was having a blast, enjoying our discomfort. "It is Shabbat, I just want to go home. You want for 200NIS? No, 350NIS. Here, you take. I just want to go home!" was his running monologue as my friend tried to buy a large tapestry (amusingly, we had just watched him fill in the pattern on another tapestry with a cheap felt tip pen). When we left, he smiled at us and shook our hands, wishing us happy holidays. He then pinched my cheek and told me I was so beautiful in a very grandfatherly way.
It was then time to split up. A friend and I were going to a dance performance (The Project) at the Tel Aviv Opera House, while our other friends were planning on wandering around.
After the performance, we grabbed huge slices of pizza (we hadn't eaten anything for hours! GASP!). Hopped on a bus and were headed home to Tel Aviv. We actually knew how to get back this time and our way around Tel Aviv! We still walked around a ton, but it was all in good fun. Got off the bus, very groggy, bargained down a taxi driver and ended up back in my apartment. Great adventure.  Bring on the next one!

Turns out I live in the shuk + some meal math

Turns out I live in the shuk. Whenever I have free time, I seem to be in the shuk. Tonight we went to the shuk to party. My life revolves around the shuk. 

French Hill, where I live. 

 Some meal math: 

The shuk!  

Dinner begins with 1. 

1 conversation about food and moves 2 quickly to 3 people in the kitchen. 

4 dinner tonight we have 5 pots on the 4 burner stove and 6 people who are actually in the kitchen. 

7 people are sitting around, drinking wine and eating appetizers, they can’t wait till they have 8. 

9 extra dishes are needed and 10 extra utensils. 

Want some cheap cereal? Just be sure to check the expiration date.
Sometimes it expires in a month. Sometimes it expired
3 months ago! 

With 11 people, I begin to worry that there isn’t enough food and we are up to 6 dishes on the table, a number that is still increasing. 

12 was the first big dinner, but now it seems we have skipped to 15, 17, 20 people.

The birds love this store. They had just flown away when
I took this picture.

 5 people sitting on the floor, 9 people on chairs and couches, 8 dishes. 

6 people have wandered in randomly and are invited to stay.

Spices and spices and spices galore. 

 4 people clean up, 2 dishes are set out for dessert, 3 hours have passed since we begun. 

One of the few women who works at the shuk. 

Everyone is full, everyone is smiling, everyone is talking or just being. 

1 dinner = Me + a roommate, or maybe 2 + 4 people from another apartment + 2 people who live below us + 3 people who live above us + 1 person who lives next to us + some random people who seem to have a sixth sense and only ever show up when we are cooking food + 1 person from my class + a roommate’s friend = a normal amount of people for dinner any given night of the week.

On the menu this week?

Yesterday: Scallion pancakes, sweet and sour soup, rice noodles, sweet rice balls with a peanut sauce, tapioca pudding, bruschetta and pita, guacamole and chips, mashed potatoes with garlic and cheese, white rice, stir-fried broccoli, white wine, red wine, plum wine, cookie dough/cookies

Tonight: improvised curry made with left over coconut milk and so many veggies, scallion pancakes, left over rice, tapioca pudding, no-bake peach crumble, Israeli salad, leftover chili, leftover squash, potatoes and olive dish, broccoli and bean sprout dish.

Tomorrow for brunch: yogurt, fruit, pancakes, French toast (with nutella?), a frittata

My mantras: There can never be enough people. There can never be enough food. No, you don’t have to bring anything! (Just do the dishes later…) Stone soup (everyone contributes something at some point and we get to eat a wider variety of things and more things). Dynamics are important: if someone doesn't fit in well with the 12 or so normal people, well, that's all, bye-bye!

Nuts and dried fruit

I thrive in this setting, with so many people stopping in and eating and the chaos and the way that, in the end, everything always works out, and everyone is always so much happier after a good meal and good, leisurely time with friends. This is how life should be, yes? 

OF COURSE YES! 

Canddddyyyyyyyy

Don't know how I managed to miss taking a picture of the pastry stores.
Next time. Muhahahahaha. 

It is better to be eaten by a stranger than by your friend...

Yesterday was Yom Kippur. The day that culminates the High Holy Days in Judaism. It is a holiday to which I have never really connected. Also known as the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur comes 11 days after Rosh Hashana, giving Jews a time to reflect on the past year and on the year to come. On Yom Kippur, you fast, abstaining from food for 25 hours (although I learned that the fast lasts 28 hours in Mexico and is more like 22 hours here in Israel). It is called the Ultimate Shabbat, a time to ask for forgiveness from God and from others, to repair wrongs, to generally cleanse yourself.

A few friends and I prepared the requisite big meal, but none of us had any intention of fasting. A table set with chili, quinoa, no-bake peach crumble, noodles and chicken, meat for the chili, an amazing cheese, and fruit, we sat down and ate until we could eat no more.

The beautiful dinner!!!

The next morning I woke up and realized that I was interested in fasting. Not because of any of the religious ideas - I may not know what I believe in, but I certainly know I do not believe in sins and repenting. I believe that forgiveness should not be dictated by a holiday and that the self-awareness encouraged by the High Holy Days should be present throughout the year. Moment one where I realized that I grew up in a very secluded world of thinkers: turns out that most people DON'T spend their days contemplating their existence and their effect on the world. Who knew?

I had an interesting conversation with a friend about how Yom Kippur offers us a time to think about the presence of food in our lives. Like me, he did not condone the idea of forced forgiveness or repenting for sins, but he fasted because he felt that it made him more aware of how lucky we are to have such a constant surplus of various foods.

The end of Yom Kippur celebrations. We sat and had a picnic
with this great view of the Western Wall. Most people had already
gone home to break their fast. We were late!

I fasted last year, although the day after Yom Kippur, for myself. This year, I fasted for myself again. But I did it in a country where everyone was doing the same. Even the most secular Jews were abstaining from food. Although I think I actually spent less time contemplating my influence on the world and others, I was awoken to how much I take food for granted. Normally I wake up to the sounds of my roommates in the kitchen, opening and closing the refrigerator, preparing their eggs and oatmeal and cereal and toast. On Yom Kippur, there was silence. Normally, the kitchen and the connected living room are where we hang out and catch up. But these rooms were silent the entire day. We stayed holed up in our rooms, reading, watching TV, sleeping, trying not to think about food!!!

It was not even the food that I missed. I spend so much of my day preparing and thinking about food. I am most at peace when I am in the kitchen. Even as I type this, I am watching over a pot of tapioca pudding that is to be dessert for a huge meal some friends and I have planned for dinner tonight. I am so happy when thinking about what I will be making, when I am preparing it, when I am eating it. I truly enjoy food. At the hardest part of the day, when I was ready to break the fast before we walked to the Old City with a picnic, I began to cut up mango. It was so difficult not to lick my fingers, I threw away so much food that I normally would have snacked on. But just touching and smelling the food soothed me.

The empty streets of Jerusalem on Yom Kippur. Kids ride their bikes in the street,
we walked in the street: NO ONE is out. In fact, a lot of the streets are blockaded.
But that is a topic to bring up another time...

Moment two when I realized how sheltered I am: I had a conversation with someone on the way back from the Old City. We were debating the merit of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana. I explained to him that I feel that forgiveness should not be forced, it should be genuine. I told him that I also think that this level of contemplation should always exist and asked if he would normally think about his place in the world in the way he was required to on Yom Kippur. He told me that he would not, that he generally takes his Rabbi's and Judaism's teaching as the end-all-be-all guidebook. This astonished me. I have been taught to question everything, to take no guidebook for granted ever. I cannot imagine living by one source. It sounded so  constraining to me, but he sounded happily grounded by it. As a religion major, this gave me a completely different, more realistic perspective on faith. As a person, it opened my eyes to the reality of human life.

Moment three when I realized how lucky I am to be so sheltered: I have existed in a world full of intellectual, curious, compassionate people who are concerned about their impact on the world and on others. I have been taught to seek out beauty and wisdom, to always try to be the best person that I can. I am also constantly surrounded by love. I carry around my keys on a keychain given to me by a friend, made because she knew that I always carry my keys that way and I would need a keychain in Israel. I carry a cookbook with recipes from different family members and friends, written to preserve their memory and to help me record my cooking endeavors. Multiple people think about me, care about how I am and who I am, miss me on a regular basis. I am so incredibly lucky.

This is a big thank to all of you. I would not be who I am today without you. I would not be able to feel so secure and so sure that there is good and love and compassion in the world without you. I hope you know how grateful I am for you!

And it's only 9 o'clock!

(So called because of a broken clock in the dance studio the other day. We had our break from 9 till 9 and had to hurry through the rest of rehearsal cause it was 9. Luckily, we had some time after before the bus came because it was only 9.)

I woke up at 4:40AM this morning. I have a friend who works in the shuk and my roommate and I were planning on accompanying him to see the shuk open. An hour later, I hadn’t heard a peep from either of them and was getting a bit tired of wandering around the empty campus. Suddenly, I got a call, and we were off and running.

The shuk is an open-air market in the middle of Jerusalem. It is by far my favorite place in all of Israel. Just getting there is an experience. There is such diversity on the train/bus: Haredi Jews (the Ultra Orthodox, in their dark suits, with their long hair curls and tzit tzit hanging down), Muslim women, Arab teenagers with hair slicked this way and that, tourists, people like me who still seem like tourists even if they are residing in the city, Ethiopian Jews, Middle Eastern Jews, Asian Jews etc. Huge families squeeze on the train, with as many as 6 children. You have to be careful who you are standing next to as it seems every other person is garbed in order to protect themselves from physical contact with the wrong gender. A beautiful, interesting mix of people. We rode the train down, which has signs in Arabic, Hebrew and English (hopefully a good sign for the future of this city). It is still free, although it has been working since I got here. They have yet to figure out how they are charging people or how the tickets work or something. Just my luck!

We hopped off the train and walked into the shuk. There were huge trucks in the middle of the shuk, full of fruits and vegetables. Men were carrying hot trays of fresh bread and pastries to various stores. Slowly things were beginning to open. The shuk is a sensory delight. The air is filled with the smell of so many foods: rugelach (a sticky, chocolate pastry), sweet, ripe mangos (mangos and pomegranates are not delicacies here! They grow in abundance! We Americans can’t seem to get enough of them), spices that sit outside in bags…Everywhere you go, you are surrounded by beautiful food. This morning, the vegetables shone. Dark eggplants, cheerful, bright tomatoes, small cucumbers, pale lemons…piles and piles of vegetables and fruits. Bags of rice and lentils and beans. Sticky towers of dates and raisins and other dried fruits. Bowls full of nuts, stores full of pastries, wheels of cheese, mountains of olives. And the sounds. Everyone yelling out their prices, yelling at each other, laughing at each other. The bakeries are surrounded by a soft buzzing sound as they are loved by huge, peaceful wasps. People wheel small cloth carts around, ones I associate with little old ladies. Others carry their bags in their arms and on their backs. Some just run into the shuk to grab a handful of candy from one of the stores full of sweets. I. Love. The. Shuk.

Well, it was only 6:30 and I was still a bit asleep. I walked around until I found a place to sit in the sun to wake up. Two men came sprinting past me in bright yellow shirts and black spandex. Then two more men. I looked up the road and saw that there was a whole gaggle of people running down the hill toward me. I watched them whiz by my while trying to get my courage up to venture into the shuk by myself. Eventually I did. I find it difficult that I cannot converse with the shopkeepers. I want to ask for this and for that but do not know the words. I was able to apologize to someone today (for having big bills) and to say hello, how are you, I’m fine, happy holidays. I know all my numbers and no longer hesitate when they spit a price at me (sometimes in the shuk, it is best to just act as unpleasant as you possibly can. As though the shopkeeper is wasting your time just owning a store. At other times, a smile and a greeting work wonders, sometimes even winning me a discount or a sample. It seems to depend most on how the shopkeeper feels about us foreigners who don’t speak Hebrew acting like real Israelis and shopping in the shuk.) I am going to try to start learning the words for food so I can stop just saying “excuse me, excuse me!”

It was my plan when I came here to make friends with the shopkeepers. I began to do so today! I bought mini-challahs from the same store that I always get pastry and pita. The old man recognized me and gave me a big smile, asked how I was. I bought rice and bright orange lentils from an Ethiopian Jew who spoke fabulous English. He asked where I was from, if I was black. I am, I told him, with a Jewish mother. He wanted to know if I was planning on making aliyah and told me that he had. I told him how cool it is for me to see black Jews as there are so few in America. He gave me a mini-history lesson. I am planning on going back there, especially since I bought a kilo of rice and a kilo of lentils for 10.5 shekels, which is roughly the equivalent of about $3.50. That is the other fabulous thing about the shuk: the prices! Vegetables, fruits, grains and spices are so cheap here. I eat really healthy food all the time because it is less expensive than bread and dairy. It is going to be a difficult transition back to America!

I walked out of the shuk with a big smile on my face. I was laden down with cauliflower, grapes, peaches, green beans, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, mini-challah, lentils and rice. I only spent $90 shekels- less than $30! I have food to last me the week. As I was walking out, I saw an old woman selling flowers. I have always wanted to buy flowers just because and this seemed like the day to do it. I picked out a bunch, smiling at her as she chattered at me and wished me a good day, a good year and good luck on Yom Kippur (that God would write my name in the Book of Life). I sat down to wait for the train, munching on bright purple grapes and holding my fragrant, beautiful bunch of flowers. And that feeling that today was a good day went through my entire body.

As I was sitting there, a grandfather and his granddaughter came and sat next to me. He was singing and stroking her hair while she ate a bit of candy. It was the sweetest picture. All of a sudden, we were surrounded by a loud Israeli family. There must have been 30 people! All talking and yelling at eachother and commenting on the countdown till the train got there. A woman took a video of her family, and there I was, sitting right in the middle of it, a foreigner with a bright pink backpack. What a great situation.

I rode the train home and picked some wine bottles off the top shelf of the kitchen (the customary place to put used alcohol bottles). I cut the stems of the flowers and placed them all over the apartment. What a good day. And it was only 9 o’clock. 

So, what are you eating?

Clearly the most important post. Can't believe I've been in Israel for...holy shit, it's been almost a week!!!! Feels like about 10 years.

Hummus. Lots of it. With everything. Crackers, bread, peppers.
Veggies. I know, weird, right? I actually, contrary to popular belief, do like vegetables. And fruit. And, for some reason, I keep buying Costco sized things of fruit, so I eat like 3 pears/bunches of grapes a day at least.
Just cooked my first meal tonight. VERY simple. Need to buy some key ingredients...like flour. And sugar. And garlic.

Moving on and more importantly, the weird/good food that I have had here thus far:
The amazing chocolate with pop rocks in it! I blew all the dancers' minds with this!! Pretty funny.
A chocolate croissant. OH. MY. GOD. Here, they give you WARM pastries. And in the middle of this croissant was basically a ton of similar but better than Hershey's Kiss chocolate. YUM. I have never been so happy.
Yogurt. Well, really, what I thought was yogurt. I am definitely smart enough to read the side of the container and figure out what is yogurt and what is not, not to mention that I helped one of my roommates decipher "Vanilla Yogurt" the other day. But, I was rushing and just grabbed something in the dairy section in a yogurt-like container. I opened it the next day and took a spoonful. NOT what I was expecting. I figured maybe it was just plain yogurt. So I put some sugar in it. The more I thought about it and looked at it, it reminded me of cottage cheese. After contemplating this and staring at the container and, well, eating my strange, sugary container of lumpy dairy product, I finally asked my Israel-savvy roommate. "Oh, yeah," she said. "That's a type of cheese. It's not cottage cheese, but it's similar." HAHAHA. I bought quite a few containers of this and now need to figure out what to do with my runny, yogurty cheese.

I have yet to eat falafel (since I don't really like it) or really anything I buy from anywhere else yet. Sadly, by the time I get  home, all I want to do is sit down!

Dance class number 2 today! We did something called GAGA, which is this up and coming dance style. It was a blast. "Pretend there is a ball in your body. Rolling around your body. Faster. Now there are 2. Now there are 64! Now there are 180! Is that how fast you would move if there were 180 rolling balls in your body?!" Too fun. I actually picked up the choreography a bit quicker today, although I don't think the choreographers quite know what to do with me. The director of the program told me that I am doing just fine and that I am here to learn. Which is what I am doing.

Huzzah!

My Favorite Place In Israel

Rather a bold post name, I suppose, seeing as how I have only really done Israel 101. But, today we, me and two people I've been having out with, neither of whom speak English as their native language (which sure makes it interesting, let me tell you!) decided to be bold and figure out how to take the buses down to the shuk, the big open air market in Jerusalem. Surprisingly, this went just fine. It was in fact, very easy and I am no longer intimidate by buses (I say now). But, truly, the shuk is the place I most loved and was most looking forward to visiting again (FREQUENTLY) when/if I returned to Israel. Picture this. Blocks and blocks of an open air market. No, not like a farmer's market. That is such a terrible copy. The food, it has flies on it and sometimes adventurous pigeons. You can smell most of the food from 4 stalls down; olives, mangos, tomatoes, cilantro...And it is beautiful. Truly. The food, it is so bright and real, not waxy and pale like our American fruits and veg. The people themselves are just as varied. It is what I think of when I think of Israel. Dark, dark skinned Jews, loud Israeli Jews, Asian Jews, Arabs, Europeans, Americans, students, vicious old grandmas, etc. Everywhere, talking at once, shouting at each other, laughing with each other. Could have stayed there forever. If you ever have trouble finding me, that's where I'll be.
I also was able to use my Hebrew! The most exciting part was getting shouted at in response - but in Hebrew. I hope that simply means that the shouter believed I actually spoke Hebrew! I just poured out the 'Toda's (thank you) and the 'Slicha's (excuse me) and even asked a question in a full sentence ('Afo ha shuk?' Where is the shuk? Seeing as how we are ignorant and do not speak your language, but boarded this bus anyways).
Finding food has been interesting. I have eaten three meals consisting of bread, hummus, tomatoes and grapes. Yummm. Today I bought some rugelach from a very grouchy man. Surprisingly, I am not yet sick of my normal sandwich. It has many variations. For example, this morning I had a bowl of grapes and toasted the bread, then put olive oil and garlic salt (thanks, Mom) on it. Yummmmm. I proceeded to sit and stare at my beautiful view for 3 hours, while reading and chatting with my roommates. Hopefully I'll figure out how to vary this diet...I think I am in need of some protein...and calcium...and fiber. I'll get there!
I also looked up the Hebrew word for 'language' today and managed to change some of the settings on various websites to be in English. So now I no longer have to guess what each one is (guess meaning click on all of them until one does what you want it to). Go me! It's the little things. Taking the bus, figuring out the Internet, becoming immune to the constant crowing of the rooster who lives on the roof of the neighboring apartment building...the little things!
So, that's day 2 in my world. Please send me updates about yours! It's really nice to hear from people!