Sheryl here. This week is my turn. I will pick up where Seth left off. As you can imagine, all the family members prioritize different things, hence if I had written the blog last week it would have had so much more about the apartment, so here goes….
The apartment is great but it has taken work to get there. Lots of small things that needed to be fixed and not really clean. A big project was dealing with what is called the “chattel list” -- a list of every single item in the apartment, down to the toilet paper holders. It was our responsibility to make sure everything was here and that was a project that took several days, including a day of emptying the entire kitchen and counting each fork, glass, etc. I didn’t mind emptying the kitchen since I had to clean every surface anyway. That chattel list was a team effort and what we discovered is that the kitchen was not equipped for real Korelitz life. So what do you do in Israel if you need to stock an apartment? Road trip to Ikea, of course.
So last Sunday, while Seth was starting his ulpan, Allison Pollock took me to Ikea in her car. Don’t know how I would have dealt with that challenge without her but the Pollock’s are an essential part of this year. Ikea is on the way to Tel Aviv and the roads to and from Jerusalem are very hilly and Allison’s car was a bit of “the little engine that could” with the pick up. I got to sit back and relax while Allison dealt with aggressive Israeli driving. She is a pro.
Ikea on a Sunday in Israel in the summer. We think it was an alternative to day camp. It was CRAZY. Overrun with kids. Very successful trip and a high point was getting to buy the Swedish meatballs since they are kosher here. Nice.
An aside. My Hebrew is not great, but not terrible. I do understand a decent amount of regular spoken Hebrew but Israelis really are so patient with we English speakers. I always try to speak Hebrew first and often just start by stating, in Hebrew, that my Hebrew is not very good and then people always want to help. There was an incident in Ikea that will make the point. I could not find measuring spoons and cups and asked Allison how to say measuring spoons. She was not sure but told me to try “something Kapot” (kapot is the word for spoons.) Well that was not right and I could tell the woman felt a little bad because she did not know what I was saying. Next I tried to describe the spoons by saying that I would use them to tell if something was big or small and the light bulb went off and you could see that she understood what I was asking for. She had me follow her to where the measuring spoons and cups were and she was so happy that we communicated! It was very nice and we both felt very accomplished. But I did not buy them. They were in grams and all metric system on me and all of my recipes are imperialist and American so the spoons and cups would have been useless. Of course, I did not let her see me reject them and only dumped them at the checkout.
So that night I made dinner in the apartment for the first time. Not a complicated meal but a hot meal none the less and that felt like a real accomplishment.
I spent much of the rest of the week dealing with the apartment - cleaning, grocery shopping, meeting a workman and the plumber. A little aside about the plumbing. While there really was something wrong with our water system and the plumber did fix it, I always feel that one of the hardest things for Americans to adapt to here is hot water usage. That whole Dud Shemesh thing is really a challenge to get right. So the Dud Shemesh is a water tank on the roof that heats water through passive solar heat throughout the day and keeps the water warm in the tank for use at anytime. Then there is the boiler which is controlled by a switch in the apartment that needs to be turned on for at least an hour or so before you take a shower if you want hot water when the solar heat is not enough. Anyway, we were not getting hot water but it took a while to figure it out because we couldn't tell if it was the Dud Shemesh or the switch and I think the plumber just thought we were stupid Americans. (We weren't!) We think we have the whole hot water issue worked out. We will let you know how it goes in the winter.
Back to our tale. Our landlords have been great and so responsive so it was all taken care of, just time consuming. We had to do so many separate shopping trips because we don’t have a car so I can only take so much at a time. (Seth: "we" means mostly Sheryl). Seth bought one of those “granny carts” that you see people schlep around and I am not the least bit too proud to use one. They are essential Jerusalem gear. I did underestimate my purchases on Tuesday at Supersol, however. When I went to load the granny cart, I still had one extra shopping bag and a giant box of multigrain cheerios that would not fit. I had to call Zoe to meet me on the walk home. I am sure I was really a sight with my granny cart and my box of cereal until Zoe got to me. The good news is that our apartment is in THE BEST LOCATION EVER. Seth exaggerated last week when he said we are a 10 minute walk to the grocery stores/mall. It is 5 minutes at best. Seth can walk to work and climb the three flights of stairs to get to Pardes in 5 minutes also.
Guess how much a carton of organic free range eggs costs in the health food store on Emek Rephaim (the swanky shopping street for our area of town?) 18.9 NIS or $4.959. Which is actually not as bad as I thought it would be. Needless to say, I will not do that again. I have since found a health food chain that has them for much cheaper. Jerusalem definitely does the health food stuff very well. Some really nice stores with good products but you have to pay a premium, though that is true in the States as well.
Zoe went book shopping with her friend Nechama Kashuk on Tuesday. This was for her school books. It is a specific book store that just deals with school books and seems to stock for the entire city. We are not sure how it works, but she got all of her books except for math. Nechama will be her classmate at Horev and is the reason we know about Horev in the first place. The Kashuks are another essential component of #korelitzfamilyadventure2016.
Wednesday was all about the coffee clatch. I met up with my friend Aviva Kashuk in the morning and then Allison and I met up with Atira Kirschenbaum at lunch in the First Train Station. The First Train Station is a wonderful development in our neighborhood of Baka that incorporates old train tracks turned into a walking path/park that ends in an old train station refurbished with restaurants and public space. Great urban renewal a la The High Line in NYC.
Atira was the Bnei Akiva Shaliach (outreach representative) from Israel for two years with her husband, Eitan, and two girls and now she is home living in Tikoah. It was wonderful to see her and now she has three beautiful girls instead of two. Her baby Metar is gorgeous. It was a completely unrelaxing lunch for Atira even though Tair tried to help with the baby and Gefen entertained herself. It was a treat for me to see them. Lisa Parshan, another Akiva friend who made Aliyah last year was supposed to meet us but she was stuck in meetings. A rain check on that.
That night Seth went to a talk at Pardes and Zoe and I decided to do an explore of the neighborhood. We went deeper into the more industrial part of town and there is much gentrification going on. Like any major city, there is the clash of the old neighborhoods for long term local residents and the new building and businesses that cater to wealthier newcomers looking for space. Jerusalem definitely has this problem, but I have to admit that the new construction in the city is beautiful. Some of the older buildings really look like they need to come down; they were built quickly and cheaply, often without any regulations back in the 60’s and 70’s and they can be very ugly. That said, we are not sure we could afford to buy the apartment we are renting and it is not that fancy.
Highlight of Thursday is that we had a cleaner come to the apartment which makes me a level of happy that I am not sure can translate to the page. His English name is Seth which was interesting for him and our Seth as they do not usually meet many others. His Hebrew name is Saadya which is much nicer anyway. He is great and now I feel normal in our apartment. All the work on everyone’s part has paid off and it was worth it. This is a great place to land for the year and a thank you goes to Aviva Cohen for finding it for us and to Allison for making the trip to vet it for us.
Remember Thursday night is our going out night. Hannah could not meet us but the three of us tackled the overwhelming choice of where to eat in this city. We were going to go to a Lebanese restaurant but since it is the nine days and we cannot eat meat that seemed like a waste. We decided to do dairy and chose a restaurant recommended by several people called, Piccolino. It is in the center of town off of Yoel Solomon Street which is a happening place on Thursday nights. What a scene. The street itself is so beautiful at night and the restaurant is a treat. When we arrived without a reservation, we were not sure we could get in but I just stood there and smiled and the hostess found a spot for us. She asked if it was okay for us to eat outside and we said yes and boy were we rewarded. We were taken to the most spectacular courtyard with beautiful lighting and multicolored umbrellas overhead. You definitely did not feel like you were in Kansas anymore; it was pure Mediterranean, just beautiful.
FYI: The Thursday night during the nine days is for a popular dairy restaurant in Jerusalem what New Year’s Eve is for a popular restaurant in the States. It was so crazy busy but we just were happy to sit and take it all in. We did get fed and the servers were very nice and attentive. The food was delicious. Italian. Seth and Zoe got really rich pastas and I got a whole fish (which is my favorite thing in case you ever need to know this) and there were great appetizers.
So I had expressed the desire to walk home when we were first making plans for the evening and Seth said that it was too far, and I said it was absolutely not too far because I know that walk and it is a great way to spend 40 minutes. Plus, on the way home it is all downhill. After dinner he was so on board and so the three of us walked from the city center home. We encountered much teenage drama hanging out in the city center. Then the quiet and beautiful way past the Great Synagogue and Keren HaYesod and then down to Emek Refaim which was also filled with all sorts of people out for the night.
And if there is one overwhelmingly happy perk of this year in Israel, it is that I get to be an urban dweller again. Don’t miss the car. Don’t miss the lawn. Love the energy of the city. The rest of the family may feel differently.
This Shabbes was spent at home with the four of us at night and lunch with our friends the Kashuk’s. Aviva is an amazing cook and their apartment is beautiful. We did not stay too long there because we went right into Tisha B’Av after Shabbes and everyone felt they needed a rest. We heard of so many wonderful, exciting options for hearing Eicha on Saturday night. Some of them sounded very moving and included walking the walls of the Old City. Instead we went for close by and simple. It was not great for me and Zoe because we could not really hear. Oh well. So much for dramatic. All I can say is that the conversations about being in Jerusalem on Tisha B’Av are exciting enough. Much talk of redemption and whether we are open to seeing it right in front of us. Rabbi Lau gave his sermon (in Hebrew) at Shul that morning about this; we also discussed this at lunch. Today on Sunday, Seth, Zoe, Allison and I went to learning sessions at Pardes, one of which addressed this issue as well.
The last session we went to at Pardes was a movie about Rabbi Nathan Lopez Cardozo and his life. He is the father in law of Rabbi Michael Cohen at Young Israel of Oak Park and we are definitely aware of him and his writing. He is such an unusual figure and was definitely embraced by the Pardes crowd. We felt a little proprietary about him in that setting but realized that his presence in Jerusalem if quite large and maybe growing. And we were grateful to have something help us get through the fast.
Thanks for checking in during week #2. Even with the jetlag being over, I cannot say I feel settled. So much to work out every day. Not quite immigrants but not tourists either.
What happens in Israel…
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