Thursday 7/26

After visiting the apartment, Becca and I realized that we needed to clean it out a bit before we started getting furniture. Since there was a general labor strike and she works for the Israel Museum she had the say off again! She bought a bunch of cleaning supplies and we got to work. She was on floor duty while did a bunch of other stuff. I cleaned all of the dust out of my closet, cleaned the bathrooms which were pretty ok to begin with, and washed all of the windows as much as I could. I’m really excited to live there! It was really really hot but we’ll have fans so it will make it ok. I also really like Becca. I won’t elaborate in case she ever reads this…I think that would be really awkward, but I am really excited to live with her. We plan to paint and decorate in a few weeks after her job is over and before she starts school. It’s going to be fun.
I had to ditch her a bit early so I could get to Hebrew University to take part 2 of the ulpan entrance exam. I hate having to go the university. It takes almost an hour to get there, It is such a complicated campus I always gets lost, and I have to visit 3 or 4 offices before I can get in touch with anyone who can actually remotely help me. The ulpan test itself was fine; I had to write a simple essay, but when I tried to hand it in they drove me crazy. The lady in the Hebrew department I found said that I wasn’t in the computer and didn’t even need to take it at all. Fortunately I finally got someone who knew what they were talking about and I WAS in the computer (after 20 minutes of freaking out) and I DID need to take the test and things were ok. But still it was annoying and very typical of Israeli institutions. No one has an idea what’s going on but they all pretend they do and it usually means a few unnecessary heart attacks before the truth can be dug up. Oiy is all I have to say really.
After that lovely afternoon I went back to Aaron’s to wash up and rest. My cousin Ben Feltoon was on his way in from Haifa to hang out with me for the evening. We met up on Emek Refaim and went out to dinner. It was so great to catch up with him! I hadn’t seen him since our last family reunion and that was around 3ish years ago (I think. It was a long time.) He seems to be doing really well. He wants to be in the FBI and was telling me all about the training and stuff he wants to do. Pretty cool stuff. It was his first time in Jerusalem and I really wanted to show him around properly. I don’t think there are many things in the world as beautiful as the old city at night. We walked from my area (its about a 25 minute walk and the fastest way to get there) up to the old city. At about the halfway point the old city comes into view with the walls lit up and it is absolutely breathtaking. There’s this really cool footpath up to the Zion Gate and while you walk up it gives a sense of what I must have been like when all of the Jews would go up to the temple and climb up the mountain. I showed him around the Jewish Quarter and then we walked down to the Kotel itself. It was much more crowded than I had expected but was nonetheless beautiful. We simply sat in the plaza and chatted and looked at the wall. David had gotten out unexpectedly from the army and we were waiting for him to meet us there. There was some kind of Bar Mitzvah or something going on and there was a parade behind a huge Sefaradi Torah. David met us and davened Maariv.
Ben’s tour the next day wasn’t going to be taking him to Ben Yehudah so we decided to walk there too. We went out of the old city through the Yaffo Gate after snakeing through the Armenian Quarter and the beginning of the Muslim Quarter. In town David bought dinner and we just walked up and down checking out the street performers and tourist shops. It is really nice to see the downtown area so packed and lively. 3 years ago, as the Intefada was just ending, people were out and about but not in these numbers. I had never seen that area so packed as I have so far this summer. I’m so glad to see that people are finally comfortable enough again to be anywhere and everywhere all the time without fear.
It was starting to get late so we headed back to Emek Refaim where we were staying at David’s parents apartment. The walk took us down Keren HaYesod and through a whole separate area of Jerusalem than we’d taken Ben to before. We spent just over 3 hours walking and we saw a ton. I love Jerusalem. Back at the apartment we were all exhausted. We watched a few episodes of the Office and then crashed.