First Shabbat

Friday was the first day I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t go to Tel Aviv (except to take a sheruit, which is a sort of mini-bus that runs all the time, even on Shabbat), but spent the day in Yafo. Sam and I went to Super Shuk, a two-part supermarket. I was in the produce market, paying, which she went back to the regular market to get the ingredients we had forgotten. The woman in front of me was purchasing enough veggies to feed an army. It’s Ramadan and people have large family gatherings to break the fast. A man came around her (from the outside!?!?) and got in front of me. He said something and motioned to her. I couldn’t respond, but the woman behind me started yelling at him. There was a shouting match for a while, and the cashier didn’t really know what to do. She started to ring the man up because he was getting on everyone’s nerves. The purse of the woman buying the whole store was touching the scale and he went off on the casher for ringing him up because it was effecting the weight/price of his veggies. After he finished, I paid for my stuff and got out of there. We realized we should have gone shopping earlier in the day. We had waited until three and everyone was out shopping before Shabbat started and the stores closed down.

For Shabbat we went to an apartment in Ramat Gan. A girl from Tufts, Jackie, lives there with five other people. The six of them work for a Zionist movement. They run programs for kids and other educational events. Everything in their apartment is communal and they’ve made aliyah (they’ve become Israeli citizens). Our dinner was delicious. They had made roasted potatoes and beets, squash soup, an eggplant pastry (I didn’t eat that), grape leaves and challah. Sam and I made a salad of tomatoes, watermelon, basil and balsamic vinegar with feta cheese on top. After dinner, Sam and I went to meet up with her Israeli friend and his friends. They were hanging out at one guy’s house. His mom is Yemenite and he made us the best hummus we’d ever eaten. There were so many spices on it. The family keeps Shabbat, which was really interesting. There was a hot-water dispenser (like for tea at a catered event) in the kitchen and the hall lights were left on. The bathroom lights were not on and could not actually be turned on. We spent the rest of Shabbat (Saturday) by sleeping late and going to the beach. The beaches here are nice, but they allow dogs to run around on them, which is annoying. The dogs run around in packs getting wet and shaking water everywhere. I got stepped on at least two times and had sand thrown at me from all angles.