How it looks after week one

It's erev Shabbat (Friday afternoon) in Jerusalem. Though it's now officially the beginning of my second week in Israel, I am still not used to the fact that life pretty much stops around 2 o'clock on Friday afternoons in preparation for Shabbat. Everything closes, and the traffic is much quieter--I live right near a main road, and it's busy all the time, even in the evenings, but right now it's finally almost calm.

I had a small triumph today--I went to the grocery store, and unlike my experience last week, I actually managed pretty well. I knew how to use the carts (more complicated than it sounds, as you have to have either a special little card-gadget or provide a 5 shekel returnable deposit to unlock one for use), found all the food I wanted, and was even able to manage enough Hebrew to order cheese and make rudimentary conversation with the check-out clerk and some people in line. Of course, making rudimentary conversation with my fellow-line standers consisted mostly of listening to the woman behind me complain that the store was a "balagan"--a fabulous Hebrew word that means something like chaos. And it was a balagan--shopping on Friday is hazardous here from what I can gather, plus Israeli markets are not like big American grocery stores. Unlike the US, there are not a zillion different brands of everything, and the stores (at least here in my neighborhood) are relatively small. The two exceptions to this rule seem to be yoghurt and hummus, which--between the two of them--seem to take up half the store.

Another feature of Israeli grocery shopping is the snacking. Everyone seems to be eating the food as they wander--and not just like a grape or something--whole pieces of fruit, bread, open bags of snack food, you name it. There appears to be no rule against this as far as I can tell, though I haven't joined in the trend (yet?). Finally, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the traffic pattern of carts and it is very, very crowded. All in all, it is, as my new friend kept repeating, a balagan. Still, I came home hot, sweaty, and proud that I have come so far in a week. My Hebrew is slowly returning to me, and things seem clearer day by day.

I am looking forward to a pretty social Shabbat, with services and dinner tonight at Pardes, shul tomorrow, and lunch out. Matthew and Miri will visit Elie at camp on Sunday and we have a "skype date" for me to talk with her. I am really excited to have the chance to see and talk to her--I miss her a lot.

Several of you have posted here or emailed--thank you! It's really nice to hear from folks at home. My goal for the next few days is to try to get some pictures up here to give you a sense of what things look like--we'll see how I do. Shabbat shalom!