Post-Birthright Day 5: Shabbat Shalom!

This entry will be relatively short (especially compared to that monster of an entry just before this), so I can throw something in here I completely left out earlier in the week.

Wednesday night (Day 3), after getting back from Hebron, I was playing Apples to Apples with some girls at the Heritage House when I finally got a text from Ariel (my soldier friend from the Birthright trip who lives in Jerusalem) saying he was off work and in the Old City - we had been trying to see each other, but he kept having to work late - and was with another Birthright participant, Ali. We walked around the old city together for a while, explored Ali's super awesome hostel (Austrian Hostel in the Muslim Quarter next to an Armenian church) and enjoyed the view from the roof, then Ariel walked me back to the Heritage House.  It was a great evening, it was so good to see familiar faces (and feel safe walking in unfamiliar territory with a soldier).  Ariel, if you're reading this, I miss you!  Come to America!

So, fast forward through the last monster entry to Friday, Day 5 on my own in the holy land.  I spent the morning in the Arab shuk with Nicole (the girl I had gotten dinner with the night before) and did a little shopping before she left for Tel Aviv.  After an obligatory stop at Holy Bagel, I left the Old City and started walking down Jaffa Street.  Realizing it was too late to get to the Israel Museum (it closed at 2 for Shabbat and it was already late morning), and also realizing that I was leaving Jerusalem that Sunday for my southern adventure and had nothing booked (and staying in an observant Jewish hostel, wouldn't be able to use my computer until Saturday evening), I set off on a search for a coffee place with internet I could use.  I settled on Cafe Hillel, drank some delicious lemonade, and proceeded to use the afternoon to do all things internet-related I would need to get me through the next leg of my adventure.  At 3, I realized I was running out of time to go shopping for Shabbat, and packed up and ran down the street to Mahane Yehuda (the Jewish food market from Day 2).

I had told some other girls staying at the hostel I was picking up some Shabbat fixin's, since we didn't feel like doing the whole, get-set-up-with-local-families thing and just wanted a quiet night in, so I was worried I had let too much time go by.  It turns out, I got to the market just in the nick of time, which is the PERFECT time to go.  The shuk was absolutely nuts! Vendors were practically throwing food at people and barely even taking their money, they were so desperate to make those last-minute sales and get home before Shabbat set in. There were people running, shouting, buying, bumping, bustling, haggling... it was an absolute blast.

Morning walk through the old city - I have a friend named Isaac Kaplan, so this banner caught me by surprise.

Shopping in the shuk, up to the last pre-Shabbat minute!

Awesome building on Jaffa Street.

Jaffa Street, deserted, just before the start of Shabbat. Israel pretty much shuts down for the Shabbas.

The Shabbas candles in the Heritage House.

My simple little Shabbat feast - Challah, cucumbers and tomatoes, labneh, wine, halva, and dried fruit from me; incredible strawberries and more wine from Jazzy and Pauline, miscellaneous other shared items. There is no heat-based cooking allowed on Shabbat, so I had to go the "raw" route .It was a simple, wonderful little ladies' Shabbas, made more special by my own preparation!

Some of the Heritage House girls - this photo is stolen from a different night, from Shira's camera (she's one of our host moms, AKA madrichot, on the far left) - L-R Shira, Jazzy, Melodie, Arielle, and Paula.

It was a very pleasant evening - it was relaxing to be with other less-observant people after three straight weeks of complete inundation (the host moms were all out at their own Shabbat dinner plans, we were actually technically locked in for the evening), getting to know each other, sharing the day's adventures, etc.  I really met some amazing girls at the Heritage House.

I then went to bed early - I had a big day looking at me and wanted to get some good rest.

As always, I do not include all (or even close to all) of my photos here in my blog.  To see all my photos from my post-Birthright travels, see my Flickr album:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtashalocke/sets/72157628990457609/