Day 151: There's a world outside sleeping on Friday morning...?

29/1/10

For the first time in months, I woke up before eight on a weekend. Having slept till 4:30 in the afternoon last week, I think this was quite an impressive feat. At 8:45, two friends and our Madricha, Emma, started out to the community gardens to help plant trees and flowers for TuB'shvat. Even though I was exhausted, I was blown away by Jerusalem in the sunlight of Shabbas morning - something I'd always slept through before. The entire community was out and about, scurrying around to buy challot, walking around the charity stalls that suddenly seemed to pop up everywhere over night. I've never seen the city more alive. I couldn't believe what I'd been missing in my laziness! It's going to be a struggle, but I'm going to try to find a place to go every friday morning so that I don't sleep away the most amazing part of the week.

The tree planting itself was incredibly disorganized, and I'm not entirely sure we helped too much, but it felt great to be outside working with the community. Even if it wasn't my first time with such an experience, it was wonderful to watch the faces of the kindergartners who were out planting their first tree. I guess it was significant because it was my first tree planted by my own hands in Israel! Hey, it's a pretty cool mitzvah. =D

Enjoying the perfect whether, I went home afterwards, put on a summer dress, and went to the Shuk (the craziest place in the world on a Friday). Because all of the vendors are trying to get rid of their produce by Shabbas, everything is ridiculously cheap, and EVERYONE is there! I was trampled, pushed, out-bargained, and swallowed by the masses...and it was amazing. I usually shut down in crowds, but there's something about the Jerusalem Shuk that just makes me a pushy Israeli. I bought delicious Challah and strawberries to make french toast tomorrow! The day was made even better by my discovery of the yummiest and cheapest smoothie stand in an offset of the main shuk. Kind of sketchy, but soooooo good!

Relaxed for the rest of the day, and eventually made a full Shabbas meal with my roomies. All in all, the best Friday I've had in a while. =D

xoxoxoxoxox
Rachel