enjoying the breeze

Ok, time to give a real update. I am sitting right now at Pardes. I just had a wonderful lunch with that friend I mentioned before. It just feels better to be here knowing she is here – it certainly makes it a more fun time☺ Tonight we are going out on the j-town – I don’t know where we’ll go but I can’t have another late night. I have had too many in a row. I spend each day wandering around trying to find an apartment and get my health insurance figured out. It is pretty ridiculous as I call around to apartment listings that interest me. The conversations go pretty much like so, complete with my broken Hebrew:

Israeli: hi

Me: hi,I am calling about the apartment listed on homeless.

Israeli: yes, yes. The apartment has…

Me: Slicha, excuse me, I just have one quick first question, are you vegetarian?

Israeli: what?

Me: are you vegetarian?

Israeli: what?

Me: Do you eat meat?

Israeli: Yes.

Me: Ok, thanks. Have a good day.

I accept that I probably sound meshuga, but hey, a girl has needs.

So, no luck on that front yet but if I have no success with my veggie apartment seeking I will give up and be more easy on that front. We’ll see how it goes.

On shabbas I went for the first time to Kol Haneshama. It was a nice service with a lot of singing and not like most Reform-type services I have led or been to in the last few years - people actually participated. There are two services during the summer. This shabbas I went to the one that has visitors, next week I will go to the one that was described to me as “more adult” whatever that means. I don’t know, am I adult? Certainly not by choice☺

The apartment I am renting for the month overlooks a park where there are kids playing soccer and basketball at all hours of the day. I like the background noise for the most part – it feels good being in a neighborhood. But on erev shabbas I couldn’t get to sleep for a while and the noise outside didn’t help. I was staring at the ceiling above me thinking about a boy…and being annoyed that I was thinking about a boy…eventually I fell asleep and slept well till late morning.

I spent the rest of my shabbas walking around Jerusalem, playing with kids in the park, reading in the shade and crashing a boy named Avshalom’s b-day party. It was a big day. I loved it.

Enough details, I hope it didn’t get too tedious. I was telling someone last night that throughout the day I keep having thoughts like,

“I am walking on a street IN JERUSALEM”

“I am hailing a cab IN JERUSALEM”

etc.

still getting used to it, but enjoying it all the while even if I am not over the shock of the change.

I leave you with this parting thought: some of you may know that two things calm me down and bring me a sense of peace at all times: a hand on my back and a breeze against my body – and every night in Jerusalem (just like you said, Varda) the wind picks up and if I take a walk outside and find a quiet place to sit a breeze seems to always find me. It is glorious.