This past Shabbat was my first Shabbat in Jerusalem with no planned group activities. Leora, Rose, and I went to the Old City on Friday afternoon. We walked briefly through the Christian Quarter (my first time there!) and then went to the Kotel. After waiting for the bus back home for half an hour, we started freaking out because we knew that we had missed the last bus before Shabbat. Buses stop running really early on Shabbat--about 4:30. We ended up just taking a cab and we actually got a friendly English speaking cab driver who didn't rip us off! My roommates and I heard of this man who does Jewish student outreach at Hebrew University. He finds students free Shabbat meals, plans trips, etc. I have heard he is a crazy man, but for those of us with no means of income we'll take any free meal! So Friday night we went to the student center and had dinner with about 50 other young people from all over. The rabbi who officiated was a hard core young Haredi guy. His peyes were swinging and his body was swaying when he chanted the blessings! He was a Ba'al T'Chuva Jew, meaning he grew up secular and then became frum, or ultra religious. He then talked to us about when he decided to become religious and about the Torah. Interesting stuff. Saturday afternoon I just went with 6 friends from my program to a young American couple's house who are in Israel for six months. We had a delicious meal and argued politics among other things!
Today was my best day at work so far. I actually had a lot of work to do (stayed late and didn't even have time for facebook!). I was doing research for clients, media intel (sounds cool!), etc. Still not the most interesting stuff, but it's better than spreadsheets! Then my office today had a Passover party type thing. They supposedly do this twice a year--before Passover and before Rosh Hashanah. One of the girls gave us an really interesting lecture on Italian hagaddahs from the 17th and 19th centuries, and then one of the guys put together a PowerPoint presentation on a "Ruder Finn Hagaddah." It included, "Why is Ruder Finn Israel different than all the other Ruder Finn offices?", what the 4 sons ask about Ruder Finn, the "10 Plagues of RFI." It was very cute. I didn't get all the jokes since I had only been there a week and half but it was funny. We then all had wine (!) and they brought in lunch (bagels and tuna, veggies, muffins) for us all. All the employees got gifts and they gave me a bottle of wine. So it was very nice.
More observations about Israelis:
-When I'm out running people do not move out of the way for me. Whether they're walking or standing I have to go around them!
-Cashiers plop your change down on the counter. I don't think one cashier has handed me my change yet! Customer service is seriously lacking in this country!
But I know I can't take any of this personal..it's just the way Israelis are!!
Thursday the whole group is going to Haifa which I'm excited about. And starting next Wednesday I have the entire Passover holiday off. I'm going with a few of the girls to Tiberias, a city near the Knerret (or Sea of Galillee) towards the end of Passover break.
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Sounds like an amazing time! Why is RFI Jerusalem so different than the other branches? I guess its kind of like an office christmas party, the more i think about it!
ReplyDeleteIsraeli cashiers are as rude as Israeli people? Who would have guessed? I would've expected people to move out of the way when you were running though!