I am finding that I enjoy Shabbat more and more each week when it comes. The days have been going fast here but I have been keeping fairly busy as well. I do not realize how tired I am until Friday night hits and then I remember how much energy I put into the week before.

I was very excited about this weekend because David, myself, and our upstairs friend Rose, were planning both a Shabbat dinner and a party on Friday night. We had spent a while working on getting everything ready for the night.

August 12, Friday
We spent the entire day shopping for groceries, scrubbing the floors, organizing each room, and then cooking. I really enjoyed cleaning and organizing with David. The last time I was on my own for this task because he was sick in bed with the flu. Cleaning and puttering is what David and I do best! It is our claim to fame.

When it was time to start cooking we decided to make eggplant parmesan (for the first time), vegetable stir fry tofu, and an Israeli salad (for those of you that are not familiar with this it is tomatoes, cucumber, onion, sometimes cheese, sometimes olives, lemon and olive oil). Everything came out delicious!

We had ten people over at 8:30 p.m. The point of this get together, besides an excuse to clean and cook, was to have people over that we have not had much conversation with since we have started school. It was such a nice crowd and I think that everyone thoroughly enjoyed being together. Before we knew it, two hours had passed and it was time to get ready for Rose’s party upstairs.

We quickly moved everything that we borrowed from her (including tables and chairs) and moved our guest as well as met at least thirty other HUC classmates upstairs for a great and fun party. It was nice doing something very different on Friday night. We did not go to services or go right to bed after dinner but people were over drinking and laughing and hanging out. I can tell that many people have started to loosen up and have fun with each other.

The night ended somewhat sadly. David and I were walking down a flight of stairs and I slipped and fell down three stairs. It was not fun and quite scary. Thankfully I just ended up with a big big bruise on my arm and tush! Oy, I can be such a klutz.

Saturday, today!
Well there is not much to report. I was able to sleep most of the day. I was planning on going swimming with Rose at the YMCA but unfortunately I really did hurt myself falling down the stairs the night before and decided to take it easy. Oy! I was able to rest, finish Hebrew homework and then David and I went to services at HUC tonight.

Tonight begins Tisha B’Av which is a holiday in commemoration of the Second Temple’s destruction. It is a period of mourning and reflection. The service was beautiful at HUC and then some people headed off to the Kotel to see what it would be like. David and I decided that we would feel safer to go home.

I realized that I have yet to speak about the big piece of history that is happening in our neighborhood, the disengagement. Two days from now is a scary, promising, hopeful, nerve-wracking time and it will be interesting to see what happens. I will catch you all up about what we have been experiencing in Jerusalem and try to give a brief summary of the disengagement process at a better time. It is very late here now and need to get sleep before school tomorrow. Will catch up soon!