If you’ve ever spent a Friday in Jerusalem, you know that you only have until about 4pm before things start closing and you have to walk everywhere. So, even though I got out of bed for breakfast only to get back in bed until 10:30am (my room had AC and a comfy bed, who could blame me?), I still had a bit of time to wander around Mahane Yehuda – the main shuk/market – before Shabbat really started in Jerusalem.
On Friday night, a few other Fellows in my program graciously offered to host us for Shabbat dinner, so I wanted to make sure to be ready for that. I walked through the shuk for almost an hour, getting used to a) the heat, b) the bustle of people also doing their Shabbat shopping, and c) the heat. Oh, did I already mention that? Well, it’s hot.
Around 3pm, I met up with Jenna – a fellow Fellow who I am trying to live with – at our AirBnB, and we hung out there (read: napped) until we got ready to head to Shabbat dinner.
It’s fun being surrounded by people around my age who know all the Shabbat prayers, keep kosher, and share the love for Israel that I do. Zoe, Lindsey, and Sydney all cooked for us at their apartment and hosted about 6 of us last night. It was nice because we could all get to know each other in a more casual setting than opening seminar for our program.
Saturday morning and day, we rested. That’s what Shabbat is for! We may or may not have taken a two or three hour nap, then continued to rest until we met up with a few other Fellows for dinner and a drink in the shuk and then we headed to the Kotel for some evening prayers.
Tomorrow, we start our program with opening seminar at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center.
Blog more soon!
!לילה תוב