The Shuk

A few kilometers from where I live there is the "Shuk"; the big Israeli market that sells fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese, bread, spices, pastries, and more for reasonable prices (maybe the only place with reasonable prices in West Jerusalem).  It is a hectic place, especially on Thursday evening and Friday morning as everyone does their shopping to prepare for Shabbat. Last Friday morning, I went to the Shuk for the first time.

VIDEO of the Shuk:

Cait and friends at the Shuk

The Shuk is a mix between tourists and all types of Jewish Israelis. People play music for money and you are surrounded by the vendors yelling out prices, beckoning you to purchase from them.  Everything is in Hebrew, and although most vendors speak at least some English, if they can spot that you aren't a local, you most definitely will pay a higher price for their items than the true Israelis.  Tourist or Israeli, you have to literally push your way to the front if you want to buy anything.

Joseph, Breanne, and I wandered around the Shuk, buying our groceries for the week and Breanne showing me the best sweets and pastries.  We stopped for a moment to buy cheap cereal (always a month or so past the expiration date, but who cares when it's cereal?), and as Joseph was paying, I was approached by an Israeli man, holding up a wallet with an ID inside and speaking Hebrew to me.  I looked at him, confused, not understanding a word of what he said and luckily Breanne turned around to help.  I guess he was asking if the man in the ID was me (a man? really?), and Breanne told him no and he disappeared into the crowd.  Not even 5 seconds later, Joseph exclaimed, "Hey, where is my wallet?" and Breanne ran to chase after the guy, but he was gone, lost in the swarm of people.  After about 5 minutes of trying to track him down, we gave up and headed to the nearest police station, where of course the police officer spoke no english.  Somehow with Breanne's help, Joseph managed to file a report, but unfortunately we haven't heard a word since.  

What a crazy afternoon!  Undeterred by this experience, I am convinced I will always do my shopping in the Shuk!  I love that place with cheap prices and wonderful sweets and fresh pita bread.  At first I was a little overwhelmed and intimidated by the crowds, but as soon as I spent a little bit of time there, I feel more comfortable with how things work and asserting myself just enough to not be run over by the others clustered around waiting to buy things.

Shabbat dinner

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I will throw in a quick story from the first week in Jerusalem.

The weekend in Jerusalem is much different than the States. The 2 day weekend actually varies depending on religion and culture, and there are many religions and cultures here. Generally in Jerusalem the weekend is Friday and Saturday, with the work week being Sunday-Thursday and this is the schedule that I follow. The Muslim holy day is Friday and the Jewish holy day is Saturday, and the Mormons observe the Sabbath on Saturday to keep with the customs of the area. 

I live in an area of Jerusalem that is almost exclusively Israeli Jews, and the Jewish “Shabbat” (Sabbath) starts at sundown on Friday and goes until sundown on Saturday. There is a huge variety of Jews here, from very secular to ultra-Orthodox, but regardless of the variety of religiosity, EVERYTHING shuts down from Friday afternoon (to give everyone time to go home before Shabbat starts) until Sunday.  There are no buses that run, no stores that are open, and it makes living in Jerusalem extremely inconvenient on weekends because you have only Thursday night and Friday morning/early afternoon to do things and get errands done. But everyone goes home on Friday and has Shabbat dinner with their family.

Anyways, this last Friday I was invited to participate in Shabbat dinner with a fairly orthodox Jewish family along with several of the other former-BYU students that I’ve met here.  The father of the family was a very large man, maybe 6 ft 4in, from Canada and wearing “Sunday clothes” and a kippah (also called yarmulke, the head covering), the mother was from Brooklyn. They had lived in Israel for over 20 years and had several daughters, all dressed up in Sunday clothes, that spoke English with Hebrew accents and were all extremely talkative and friendly with us. Several other friends of this family were there, all Jewish except for our small Mormon group of 4. 

After everyone got there, we gathered around and the father started singing in Hebrew as a type of opening prayer.  We would join in every once in a while with a “lachaim”.  We then passed around a wine cup (grape juice for us) and everyone had a sip and there was silence until bread was broken and passed out (much like the sacrament on Sunday) and eaten and then the silence was broken and the meal commenced.  There was wonderful bread, hummus, salad, cauliflower, beans, tofu curry, chicken, and potatoes, a huge meal and the company was hilarious, very loud and talkative and welcoming.  The family was extremely gracious, inviting us to come every Friday night for dinner.

We sang one more song and that was the end of my first Shabbat dinner.

Traveling to Jerusalem: Italy and Greece

On my way to Israel, I stopped in Italy for a few days.  I think I will bullet point some highlights- I always did prefer bullet points to writing essays in school!

You can't really read it but this is a plaque at the mission home in Rome

On the final leg of my flights to Rome, I met Marco Coppola from Napoli.  He looked to be about in his late 20s and he described to me how he was a student at NYU studying film (I have since looked it up and confirmed the information... those sneaky Italian men, you never know!)  He was thrilled to find out I was a Mormon and told me how much he loved Mormons; so much so that his first full length feature film was going to be about 3 Mormon brothers, disillusioned with their faith but then venturing out into the world they rediscover how precious their faith and family really is.  On the train ride into Rome from the airport, Marco showed one of his short films.  He was incredibly talented and I am looking forward to seeing his movies one day in theaters!

The sights and sweets of Rome

Rome was a whirlwind of revisiting old mission companions, members, and investigators.  

I hung out with Luca, my favorite Romanian investigator all day Wednesday and we stopped by the mission home, visited with the sorelle including Sorella Olsen, ate lots of pizza and gelato, and finally ended up at Institute where I saw even more people I knew from the mission.  How strange to be hanging out with the GANS (YSA) as a free person rather than as a missionary! I loved it!

This is a picture of Luca and I eating pizza

Thursday I visited with Raffaella from Ladispoli and Adriano, Angela, and Marco Agomeri from Ostia.  

This is Adriano and Angela and Sofia and Sorella Olsen

Sorella Olsen and Sofia

Friday morning I left Italy for Israel, with an 8 hour lay over in Athens, Greece.  It was pouring rain, which I was totally unprepared for, but undeterred, I left the airport and hiked up to the Parthenon.  I was happily surprised to discover that it was a free day, all the ruins and museums associated with the Parthenon were free that day!

The Parthenon was great mostly because it is so famous and it is always surreal to actually be at the site I have seen in so many pictures, but it actually seemed no bigger or cooler to me than the Greek temples at Agrigento in Sicily!  It was pretty much the same thing!  On my hike down though, I started talking to a family from Australia and we spent the rest of the afternoon together at the museum. This is my favorite part about traveling; its not fulfilling to me to travel alone and experience these things alone, rather it is the people from all over the world you meet and connect with and share these experiences with that make them memorable and exciting.

The Parthenon was free!

Walking around downtown, you can see the Parthenon on the hill

I spent my last hour in Athens running around desperately in search of a gyro. As far as I can see, they don't actually exist in Greece.  I found lots of these bagel type things instead and bought a sugary-donut one but it was an unsatisfactory replacement for the highly anticipated gyro.

I chased after my umbrella in the wind and was laughed at by a family of gypsies.  I tried to take a picture of a pink mohawk, piercing, tattooed man on the corner playing the guitar and he immediately stopped playing and charged at me, yelling, "don't take picture, don't take picture!".  

One of the many stray dogs of Greece

I heard that in Greece there is some type of law that protects stray dogs; they are fixed, vaccinated, and fed (by the government? I don't know).  I saw them everywhere, they are nothing like the skinny stray mutts of Mexico.  The stray dogs in Greece are fluffy, well-fed beasts! They are huge!

I saw these everywhere for sale on the streets of Athens!

Video clips from Rome and Athens:

At the Vatican with Luca

With the Sorelle at Piazza Sempione

Bus in Rome

Parthenon

Athens square