Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem again-January
12, 2017
I slept until noon again. Don't know what's up. If I was jet lagged I'd be waking up in the middle of the night. Before we started our day with lunch, we tackled the dryer. David hung the vent out of the window as instructed, & we now have dry clothes. A miracle.
We took a slightly different route to Emek Refaim, our main drag. Chose a Japanese counter service place, Kampai. We ate noodles, mine with tofu, David's with goose & chicken. Average tasting, but crowded with lots of after school kids.
The weekend starts on Thursday night since Friday at sundown begins Shabbat. Work & school lets out early on Friday & most stores/restaurants close. School days are a bit shorter than in the States because they go to school six days a week. There must have been a music class today since lots of kids were carrying violin & cello cases. Unless they were concealing Uzis :).
Our mission was to find a gift to bring to Terri tomorrow night. She'd invited us for Shabbat dinner, & we didn't want to go empty handed. We narrowed it down to an assortment of dried fruits & nuts when David's phone rang. It was Terri. She wanted to meet us for coffee. We happened to be in front of her favorite cafe, Ben Ami. We had 15 minutes until she came. We bought the fruit & decided to give it to her when we saw her. Otherwise we'd have to carry it to Temple with us. Our pre-thank you gift was well received.
Terri is a treasure trove of information. She works for a group that arranges for Americans interested in volunteering in Israel (Skilled Volunteers for Israel). She's lived here 41 years and knows everyone. She's expert at orienting foreigners & gave us a crash course in her favorite shops & eateries. She plans to email us her "things to do" list as well as a phone number for her favorite cab company & basics on bus usage.
Terri painted a picture of Jerusalem that was unknown to us. Her favorite butcher and provider of Thanksgiving turkeys is an Arab butcher near where we had dinner last night. Evidently, being a butcher is a profession passed down in families much like the funeral business in the U.S. She told us that Israel (perhaps Jerusalem) has a huge Kurdish community second only to Kurdistan. There is need for Turkish/Kurdish speakers to work with them. She told us that the Islamic Museum was open on Shabbat & a wonderful place to spend many hours. We spent three hours with her. When I asked if she needed to be home for dinner, she said that Israelis don't have dinner like Americans. They have a late lunch & not an organized meal after work except for Shabbat. That left an unasked question for me of when families sit down to share their day.
We only left the cafe because it was getting crowded & they needed the table. When we parted I said that seeing her was like a reunion with someone I never really knew. We went to our apartment, put on warmer clothing, & headed for a falafel/shawarma (chicken gyros) place she liked. It was so much better than where we ate our first night here.
Toby
I slept until noon again. Don't know what's up. If I was jet lagged I'd be waking up in the middle of the night. Before we started our day with lunch, we tackled the dryer. David hung the vent out of the window as instructed, & we now have dry clothes. A miracle.
We took a slightly different route to Emek Refaim, our main drag. Chose a Japanese counter service place, Kampai. We ate noodles, mine with tofu, David's with goose & chicken. Average tasting, but crowded with lots of after school kids.
The weekend starts on Thursday night since Friday at sundown begins Shabbat. Work & school lets out early on Friday & most stores/restaurants close. School days are a bit shorter than in the States because they go to school six days a week. There must have been a music class today since lots of kids were carrying violin & cello cases. Unless they were concealing Uzis :).
Our mission was to find a gift to bring to Terri tomorrow night. She'd invited us for Shabbat dinner, & we didn't want to go empty handed. We narrowed it down to an assortment of dried fruits & nuts when David's phone rang. It was Terri. She wanted to meet us for coffee. We happened to be in front of her favorite cafe, Ben Ami. We had 15 minutes until she came. We bought the fruit & decided to give it to her when we saw her. Otherwise we'd have to carry it to Temple with us. Our pre-thank you gift was well received.
Terri is a treasure trove of information. She works for a group that arranges for Americans interested in volunteering in Israel (Skilled Volunteers for Israel). She's lived here 41 years and knows everyone. She's expert at orienting foreigners & gave us a crash course in her favorite shops & eateries. She plans to email us her "things to do" list as well as a phone number for her favorite cab company & basics on bus usage.
Terri painted a picture of Jerusalem that was unknown to us. Her favorite butcher and provider of Thanksgiving turkeys is an Arab butcher near where we had dinner last night. Evidently, being a butcher is a profession passed down in families much like the funeral business in the U.S. She told us that Israel (perhaps Jerusalem) has a huge Kurdish community second only to Kurdistan. There is need for Turkish/Kurdish speakers to work with them. She told us that the Islamic Museum was open on Shabbat & a wonderful place to spend many hours. We spent three hours with her. When I asked if she needed to be home for dinner, she said that Israelis don't have dinner like Americans. They have a late lunch & not an organized meal after work except for Shabbat. That left an unasked question for me of when families sit down to share their day.
We only left the cafe because it was getting crowded & they needed the table. When we parted I said that seeing her was like a reunion with someone I never really knew. We went to our apartment, put on warmer clothing, & headed for a falafel/shawarma (chicken gyros) place she liked. It was so much better than where we ate our first night here.
Toby
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