[Israel] Part sheni: erev Shabbat
Mar. 15th, 2007 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidSince I took the train, I got to Beit Shmuel rather later than originally planned. After I caught my aunt and uncle up on the travel saga, I got more details about upcoming plans, including Shabbat dinner at a hotel and seudah shlishit in the apartment we were sharing. Not just seudah shlishit for the five of us, but for most of the people around for Shabbat, so there'd be 17 of us crammed into the place.
A detour to describe the rental apartment: there were two bedrooms, one with a queen bed and a private bath*, the other with two twin/single beds and a bathroom* just outside the bedroom. In between was the living room/dining room, plus a kitchen area.
The kitchen had a fridge and a gas stove/oven, the kind that requires a match to start (not used partly because of the layers of grease found on things like the handle of the oven, partly to keep things simpler), a sink and drying rack, plus many cabinets holding not much stuff: some plates, a cutting board, glasses, and flatware (including a little sharp knife for veggie prep), plus something to heat water in. Oh, there were some pots we never used, too.
The living room had a sofa and my cot, a coffee table and a large TV. The floor was stone throughout, of course. The windows were large and seemed to both swing in from one side or swing into the room from the top. There were trisim to pull down at night since the gauzy curtains wouldn't keep out any sun.
* eta The non-private bathroom included two taps about halfway up one wall that I assume are for filling buckets to do sponja; I couldn't figure out anything else. I thought it interesting that there were different ways of flushing: one had a round knob in the middle of the top of the tank to pull up, while the other had two parts that formed a circle together to depress (choose the larger part of the circle if one needs more water to flush ...stuff.... away).
So the first order of business was getting food for seudah shlishit, also breakfasts and such. The nearest supermarket (also the only supermarket I really know the location of) was the Supersol on Agron, so we walked over and got a bunch of stuff from the list we'd compiled, from matches and plastic plates to hummus and challah, tea and milk. I'd said that produce would be cheaper at Machaneh Yehudah, but my aunt wanted to have as much gotten already as possible, so we got a lot there, even though it's pricey. Then we carried it all back (I had four heavy bags; it took a while longer than the going).
Once that was put away, I walked to Machaneh Yehudah (alone, this time, the aunt and uncle wanting a bit of a rest, and I knew I'd be much faster going alone, if only because my walking pace is much more than theirs), going up Shlomtzion to Yafo, all of it wonderfully familiar (which was particularly good given how much other things had changed). All I had to get at Machaneh Yehudah was vegetables for the Israeli salad and pita, which gave me plenty of time to enjoy just being there in the mad rush before Shabbat, vendors yelling (especially about strawberries this week), people with huge bags of produce bustling about, people stopping off on their way home, kids with their parents. I finally ate something (I hadn't been hungry before): yay for borekas!
By the time I walked back, I realized how tired I was; I'd been awake since early Thursday morning, with lots of travel and walking. Luckily there was time to lie down before Shabbat started. And there'd been a message that the parents would be arriving soon. Yay!
So I lay down, and woke up with a start an hour and a half later, alone in the apartment and worried I'd not left enough time to make it to the minyan I wanted. I took a very fast shower (burning my foot a bit on the way; I hadn't remembered how hot the water can get when there aren't temperature regulators), lit the tealights I'd brought, and walked past Gan ha-Pa'amon (Liberty Bell Park) to Emek Refa'im. Luckily, number 12 is on the end of the street closer to where I was coming from, and there were other people going, so I followed them to the school building off the street where minyan Shira Chadasha davens.
Once I figure out how to get the photos off the camera, there will be more visual posts.
A detour to describe the rental apartment: there were two bedrooms, one with a queen bed and a private bath*, the other with two twin/single beds and a bathroom* just outside the bedroom. In between was the living room/dining room, plus a kitchen area.
The kitchen had a fridge and a gas stove/oven, the kind that requires a match to start (not used partly because of the layers of grease found on things like the handle of the oven, partly to keep things simpler), a sink and drying rack, plus many cabinets holding not much stuff: some plates, a cutting board, glasses, and flatware (including a little sharp knife for veggie prep), plus something to heat water in. Oh, there were some pots we never used, too.
The living room had a sofa and my cot, a coffee table and a large TV. The floor was stone throughout, of course. The windows were large and seemed to both swing in from one side or swing into the room from the top. There were trisim to pull down at night since the gauzy curtains wouldn't keep out any sun.
* eta The non-private bathroom included two taps about halfway up one wall that I assume are for filling buckets to do sponja; I couldn't figure out anything else. I thought it interesting that there were different ways of flushing: one had a round knob in the middle of the top of the tank to pull up, while the other had two parts that formed a circle together to depress (choose the larger part of the circle if one needs more water to flush ...stuff.... away).
So the first order of business was getting food for seudah shlishit, also breakfasts and such. The nearest supermarket (also the only supermarket I really know the location of) was the Supersol on Agron, so we walked over and got a bunch of stuff from the list we'd compiled, from matches and plastic plates to hummus and challah, tea and milk. I'd said that produce would be cheaper at Machaneh Yehudah, but my aunt wanted to have as much gotten already as possible, so we got a lot there, even though it's pricey. Then we carried it all back (I had four heavy bags; it took a while longer than the going).
Once that was put away, I walked to Machaneh Yehudah (alone, this time, the aunt and uncle wanting a bit of a rest, and I knew I'd be much faster going alone, if only because my walking pace is much more than theirs), going up Shlomtzion to Yafo, all of it wonderfully familiar (which was particularly good given how much other things had changed). All I had to get at Machaneh Yehudah was vegetables for the Israeli salad and pita, which gave me plenty of time to enjoy just being there in the mad rush before Shabbat, vendors yelling (especially about strawberries this week), people with huge bags of produce bustling about, people stopping off on their way home, kids with their parents. I finally ate something (I hadn't been hungry before): yay for borekas!
By the time I walked back, I realized how tired I was; I'd been awake since early Thursday morning, with lots of travel and walking. Luckily there was time to lie down before Shabbat started. And there'd been a message that the parents would be arriving soon. Yay!
So I lay down, and woke up with a start an hour and a half later, alone in the apartment and worried I'd not left enough time to make it to the minyan I wanted. I took a very fast shower (burning my foot a bit on the way; I hadn't remembered how hot the water can get when there aren't temperature regulators), lit the tealights I'd brought, and walked past Gan ha-Pa'amon (Liberty Bell Park) to Emek Refa'im. Luckily, number 12 is on the end of the street closer to where I was coming from, and there were other people going, so I followed them to the school building off the street where minyan Shira Chadasha davens.
Once I figure out how to get the photos off the camera, there will be more visual posts.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-03-15 07:12 pm (UTC)I didn't get any, because my aunt had gotten some at Supersol (definitely pricier, of course); I think she was worried about me carrying lots of stuff back.
And it's about 4 shach to the dollar now (well, 4.2, but 4's a lot easier for estimating purposes).