Adventures in Jerusalem

Ok ok I know I’m slacking big time on my blogs, but I did have a mild excuse. I was all set to blog this weekend and then I somehow contracted some sort of stomach bug, and spent my weekend crawling between my bed and the toilet. As I’m now taking one personal day from school and I’m slowly on the mend, I figured I could at least sit here and type up what’s been going on in my life. Mar 5- I went to see a concert here in Jerusalem by a group called the Idan Raichel Project. If you know nothing of his music, you should become familiar, it’s great. He’s an Israeli musician (Idan Raichel) who formed a band of people from all over the world, although his two biggest singer stars are Ethiopian. They sing in many languages and play instruments, and perform wonderful music! This concert was put on privately for all of us who participated in this organization called MASA, which basically gives out thousands of dollars in scholarships to students coming to study in Israel. There were thousands of people at this concert, but almost all were American and almost all were probably under 21. I went to a smaller performance by him in the states, actually at my school, which I enjoyed a little better because of the intimacy of the gig, but this time, listening and dancing to his music with soooo many other people who enjoy his music as much as I do was a lot of fun. My two friends who I visited in Haifa actually came to Jerusalem for the concert (and to visit/stay for the weekend) so a couple of us walked around downtown Jerusalem afterwards. We stopped off at a very yummy place called Babbet’s for waffles. The waffles here are famous, and it’s one of the great late night foods to snack on. Mar 6- There were 5 of us hanging out this weekend that were part of the Neri/Jess visit, and we decided to walk around the Old City in the morning before Shabbat. Sadly, despite the fact that I live in Jerusalem, I hadn’t been to the Old City on this trip yet. I don’t know why, it just worked out that way. Anyways, we got a nice tour-ish thing around the Old City by the sort-of boyfriend of one of the girl’s who lives in the Old City, and that was really nice. We visited the Kotel, and walked all up and down the streets, stopping at a few stores. Then we walked from there to Ben Yehuda street and then the Shuk (marketplace). We earned our food that day from all our walking. We finished our Friday off with a wonderful potluck Shabbat dinner at my place, with 9 people bringing so many yummy dishes, it was one of the best meals I’ve had. Mar 7- The next day was rather uneventful, but since we had absolutely beautiful weather, we laid out in the sun on the yard in the Kfar for awhile, enjoying our time together. That night we all went downtown again and found a semi-quiet bar, King’s Bar, to chill out in, where our old camp friend Jacob Sager joined us in the festivities for awhile.