Nutshell

This is going to be a quick hitter. Don't have much to say about anything, just some things to nutshell:

Zachy D stayed with me Wednesday and Thursday. He's a great friend of mine from NFTY who did EIE (high school in Israel) with me. He made aliyah last summer and it's been wonderful to spend time with him and catch up.

I'm convinced there's something in the water. I think my chest hair is about 4 times thicker than when I arrived. Even Max has facial hair here. Or maybe the Kress genes just decided to kick in at this exact time in my life.

Yesterday morning I woke up at 6:00 AM (or 11:00 PM your time) to go hiking. We went to Sattaf, a site I visited and lived near when I was on Kibbutz Tzuba a few years ago. We hiked for four-ish hours with a few mini breaks to nosh or enjoy the views. At the end we built a couple fires, made Pita, Tahina, Labane and Tea. I got back to my apartment around 1:30 and passed out.

For dinner two of my best friends here, Kayla and Becka, came over. I made a delicious dish called Shakshouka. I made it as simple as possible. First I sauteed onions, tomatoes, peppers and garlic in a little olive oil. Then I dumped some tomato sauce and about a teaspoon of sugar (tomato paste is better, but i didn't have any) over the sauteed veggies, mix it all together and cover it. You let it cook, stirring it every couple minutes, until it thickens. After most of the liquid is gone, you crack eggs on the top of the mixture (my pan holds 6 eggs on top of about 3 tomatoes, 1 pepper, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves and 3/4 can of tomato sauce). Recover the pan until you have some nice sunny-side-up eggs on top of the concoction. Sounds gross, tastes like heaven. Try it. Or I'll make it for you when I get home, cause it's just that divine. Thank you Zachy D for teaching me how to make it.

I feel bad that I'm half way across the world in sunny 75 degree weather while three feet of snow is on the ground at home. Staam.

This is a perfect opportunity to teach you all a hebrew word: Staam. It essentially means kidding, or joking. When I was here in 2007 and asked my Hebrew teacher what she thought of the meeting at Annapolis, she said 'staam, Annapolis'. Useful in both serious and not so serious situations.

So, אמא אבא, (dad, mom) I love you but I don't feel bad at all. I hope you are getting a good workout shoveling.

Anyone near my house, go visit Lili and love her for me. Cause I miss her:

Alright. That's all. Hope everyone had a wonderful Shabbat.

Kress

Superbowl & Shtuff

Thursday Laynie and Leah made their way down to Jerusalem from Haifa. We went to Hebrew Union College (The Reform Movement's Seminary) for a reunion of URJ camp staff.

(Maxwell, Mollie, Jill, Sam Roberts (Harlam's Assistant Director), Laynie and Leah.)
After we left HUC, Sam took us to Focaccia Bar off of Ben Yehuda and then to this delicious little Waffle shop. We met up with a camp friend, Itai Liptz. Just so happens he is the part owner of a bar in Jerusalem and took us all out. The following night Maxwell made dinner for everyone, chicken and penne in a white wine cream sauce. Itay Chen and Itai Liptz came over and we hung out. It was a wonderful night. I went out with the guys after dinner back to Itai's bar.

Saturday we took a walk into the Old City. We strolled through the Armenian quarter on our way towards the Kotel. I was seeking out this spot I was taken to on EIE. After lots of wandering I found it:



Beautiful view of Mount Moriah and the Kotel. The pictures on facebook have group shots with everyone. They're wonderful.

After the Old City we walked towards central Jerusalem to look for an open restaurant. We found a nice little place that was essentially Italian food. I had a steak sandwich with cheese, don't mistake it for a cheesesteak. However it was delicious. The others got delicious Pizza and Pastas.

Some more pictures from the trip to the Old City that I particularly enjoy:



And then Super Sunday. Wow. We had Ulpan from 9:30-2. I played basketball from 3:30-5:30, hung out a bit, Skyped with the rents, made dinner. Then I got ready to go to Tel Aviv for the Super Bowl. It was a hell of a trek, waiting a long time for the Bus to the Sheirut Station and at least 45 minutes for the Sheirut to leave. Sheirut are 10 passenger little buses that go to and from Tel Aviv and also run within cities. It costs 22 NIS ($5.87) to get from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and takes about 45-60 minutes. We left our apartments around 9:30-10:00 and got to Tel Aviv around 12:30ish. We went to a restaurant/bar called Mike's Place. Most importantly on the wall there is this:

Beautiful. Philly was the only other city represented at the bar. Naturally. We hung out with Guy, Totah, Leah, Dahlia, Jill, Max and met a ton of people from Philly. There was a girl in there in a DeSean Jackson jersey, Guy was reppin a Don jersey and Max and I have are our Phillies shirts. It was a great night.

More to come. Love you all.
Kress

So. Some events. Some commentary. Miss you all. Enjoy.

First and foremost, it's become ever so clear the importance of camp in my life. The free, tell all spirit encouraged by Jewish camping is unrivaled and the difference in people is conspicuous. I love camp, I love people who understand camp and that seems to be an underlying recurrence in my best friends. On the camp track, Jill, Max, Mollie and I met Sam Roberts near Ben Yehuda last night and had a wonderful time with him. It's the dimples.

Max and I have been trying to make regular trips to the Shuk. Today we took a bus down and bought lots of fresh stuff: salmon, tomatoes, onions, pita. I made salmon in a white wine and lemon sauce with peppers, onions and mushrooms for dinner. A couple nights back Max and I cooked for a few friends of ours. We make penne with onions and mushrooms sauteed in a red wine butter sauce. Delish. Cooking is fun.

After a few weeks I am beginning to appreciate knowing SEPTA like the back of my hand. We've been slowly figuring our way around via the buses, but I couldn't begin to explain the geography of Jerusalem, how to walk somewhere or the way to anywhere but Ben Yehuda or Emek Rafaim. We've vowed to stop taking cabs, so buses are the only choice here. No regional rail. No subway. No weird trolley's that are underground sometimes and above ground others. Nada. Just buses. Hopefully I'll master it in the next four months.

HEADLINE: Jews who come to Israel like to ball. Great news. I've got a pretty solid group of guys, and a girl, who love to ball. I've been playing three or four days a week: twos, threes and even some fours and fives. It's nice to actually play some good pick up ball.

Thursday Laynie and Leah are coming down for the weekend. We're all excited to see them. We'll go to the Shlichim reunion on Thursday and see Sam and then go out to Foccacia (Sam and my favorite restaurant here). Hopefully we'll make our way to the shuk and the old city on Friday/Saturday. No plans set in stone except excessive cuddling. Yes to that, as Ilayna would say.

Alright. I'm tired. Oh, cherry beer, delicious. Check it out.

Be well. Love always,
Kress