Shabbos Yerushalayim

TGIF! I am really, really looking forward to Shabbos! It's still extremely surreal that I now live in Jerusalem, but I have to say that I'm getting used to the temperature differences. When I left the apartment this morning, it was hot but pleasant. There was no stickiness, no humidity, so sweat bead starting to drip down my back. Just beautiful.

Yesterday was another busy day of trying to get organized and going to Supermarkets. While we were at the SuperSol Deal in Talpiot, Itai called to ask permission to show the apartment this weekend. I told him he could show the place all day on Friday but could not show it on Shabbos. Regardless of my physical presence, there's just no showing the apartment on Shabbos. It's Shabbos. Period.

Well, he got all huffy with me and said that it was in my best interested to be accommodating to him and his Aunt regarding the apartment.

And folks, that's when I lost it, and after all these months of biting my tongue I couldn't stay mute any longer. I went OFF on him for using the word "accommodating". I've been nothing BUT accommodating when I had the leak in my apartment, and the sinks both exploded and ruined all my stuff, and let's not forget the river of shit that I had to clean up! For the first time, he completely backed down. And while he didn't apologize to me, he did stammer, and that made me feel great. I'm no longer his punching bag! Good luck to whoever ends up moving in though, I hope it's someone that can stand up to him.

Well, Buggy was very proud of me, even though I made a bit of a scene at the supermarket. He was happy I finally stood up to the big bad bully! We went back to the apartment to put away our groceries and Buggy got to work. At 5:00 , we headed to Yad Vashem for a guided tour of the museaum. It was extremely powerful and the new museaum is absolutely incredible. We took more than 2 hours to go through it and it still wasn't enough time. The end of the museaum is basically a view of the hills of Jerusalem from the other side of the mountain. When you start in the museaum, there is this video montage of the Jews of Europe, so that we can get a sense of who these people were. There is this one video of the children of Munkatch singing the Hatikvah. It made me tear, my Father's side of the family is from Munkatch. I wondered how many of those children were once my relatives.

We were starving when we got back but emotionally not hungry, so I cooked us a quick dinner and we ate. Afterwards, I was pretty wired and so I got to cooking for Shabbos. I made the muffins and I put together the corn salad. I left the bulk of cooking for today, because I knew that I would have all afternoon to cook.

And, for the first time since I moved into the apartment, I had no trouble falling asleep and slept straight until my alarm went off.

Buggy had a meeting and work this morning and so I went out for coffee and breakfast to Caffit with his cousin Rachel. She is a wonderful person and I really get along well with her, so it was nice to just be in Jerusalem and enjoy the morning. Afterwards, I walked back down Emek towards the apartment and stopped into this one Supermarket that has some American products. I was thrilled to see my pie shells, Hunts tomato sauce, lime juice and whole berry cranberry sauce. I didn't buy anything thought, because it was Friday and the line was insane. But, I made a mental note of what they had for future reference.

It was the first time I walked back to the apartment by myself and I really didn't know which way I was going, so I just continued on until I saw a small path from Emek. I continued on the path and eventually ended up in Baka. It's about a 25 minute walk from the apartment to Caffit, and it's such a nice day that I enjoyed every minute of it. Baka is a beautiful neighborhood, especially during the day, when you can really look and appreciate the architecture of the community.



Of course, as soon as I got into the aparment and changed into my "cooking gear" my phone rang about an flower delivery. I assumed Buggy got me some flowers and the delivery guy wasn't very patient so I ran downstairs in my skivvies. Whatever, I gave him a 5 shekel tip so it was all good. Anyway, the beautiful flowers (seen in the first photo) were from Buggy's parents and siblings, welcoming me to the first Shabbos in our new apartment. I was very touched.

And then, a few minutes later, another delivery guy came and this time I got a dozen red roses from my Beloved. They're perfect and will fit into Buggy's Grandmother's crystal vase which he brought over for us. When his Grandparents passed away, Buggy kept a few items from their home because they were special to him. He specifically kept this vase because he hoped to "one day" have a wife to give it to.

It's beautiful and I'm very appreciative of the forsight.

I still have to cut them into water, but I've been cooking and decided to take a quick break to blog. I made steaks, rice with portobello mushrooms and onions, edemame, purple cabbage salad, and a cauliflower kugel. All I have to do now is make the shwarma chicken and I'm done with cooking. As you can tell, I already set the table for Shabbos and it just looks beautiful. We're looking forward to this weekend!

We're planning on going to shul tonight, although I can't tell you right now which one, but it should be very nice. I'm waiting for Buggy to get back so he can set the Shabbos clocks and the treisim clocks.

Wishing everyone a Shabbat Shalom!

Crave of the Day is my Mother's baked ziti. It's the nine days but since I'm not combining protein and carbs, I can't have noodles with marinara sauce and cheese. Anyway, my Mom's baked ziti is heavenly! I don't know which part I like more, the sauce and the cheese or the sauce and the noodles. It's just basically all around yummy! Maybe one day I'll learn how to make it with low-fat cheese and whole wheat noodles.