Trip to Petra in May 2023

In May we traveled to Petra to see this amazing wonder of the world. I wouldn't call the trip amazing, however. There was too much stress for my liking.

First of all, we needed to leave the country and come back because our 3 month visa was set to expire at the end of June (with us staying in Israel until the end of July), and we had heard that international travel allows tourists to come back to Israel and have the three months reset. When you get to the end of this post, you will hear how that turned out for us.

Now, back to the trip. We had heard the most impressive things about seeing Petra. People raved about the sites and how wonderful their experiences were. So, Mark found a lovely 2 day, one night excursion from Jerusalem for us through a travel company. We were scheduled to leave Jerusalem from the David Citadel hotel very early in the morning on a Tuesday morning, spend the day touring around Jordan, sleep at a hotel (not a tent) in Petra, and see Petra on Wednesday with a late afternoon trip back to Jerusalem.

We arrived early for our 6:30 am pick up and saw other tourists there, mostly Americans but also some other English speaking visitors to Israel. Each of them were taking either a three day tour or a four day tour with the same travel company we used. We were a little worried that we were not in the right place when no one else was doing the two day tour, but we jumped into the transportation provided anyway. Most of the people fit into the van, but Mark and I and one other couple (Robin and Bernie from Australia) were placed in a taxi that followed the van. We drove about an hour or two to the Allenby border crossing (north of Jerusalem) where things were pretty confusing. On the Israel side, we paid for the visa to Jordan, went through passport control, and then had to wait for a bus to take us across the border. The first bus was full so we had to wait "ten minutes" which was actually closer to 30 minutes for the next one. We paid $2 for each of us for the bus (we actually paid $5 instead of $4 because we didn't have exact change), and then we got to the Jordan side where we were met by our tour guide. At this point we finally knew we were in the right place because he had a list of everyone who was doing each tour. That took a load off our anxious minds. 

Because we were only staying one night, we had to pay an additional visa fee in Jordan. As the only couple on the two day excursion, we were the only ones who had to do this. We waited quite a while behind another group at the special visa window but once it was our turn, it went very quickly. Finally, the rest of the tourists joined us inside the building, and we all went through passport control. This part went much more smoothly than I expected. We had our irises scanned as a security measure. We then walked outside and had our luggage scanned. Then we got on the bus where they once again checked our passport stamps. The whole procedure was very long, and it was very hot out while we were waiting for things. Finally we got on the bus and were on our way.

The first stop was Jerrash where we saw extensive historical ruins. On the way there we had a quick stop for lunch where our choices were falafel or schwarma. I wanted the schwarma but forgot that it wouldn't be kosher, so I switched to falafel. There were two wraps in each package so Mark and I shared one package and saved the other package for later which I was very grateful to have done. During the bus ride, we were lucky to have wifi and USB charge ports under the seats. The driver's name was Itar.

In Jerash, the tour guide walked us around the ruins for about 2 hours. It was very hot, and he warned us that there were people who would "help" us take a nice picture and then try to charge us money for their help, so we just said "no thank you." After the long tour of Jerash, and the extra time in the Jordan border crossing, we did not have time to stop at Mount Nebo where Moses is said to have looked out over the Promised Land. That was disappointing. During our time on the bus, our guide, Khalid, spoke a lot about history. However, he never once said the word Israel. He only called it Canaan. That was disappointing and made us a bit uncomfortable. However, we were very grateful for his assistance at the border crossing and for the extensive information he shared about Jerash. 

view from the bus

snacks in Jerash

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We had another long bus ride to Amman to drop off the other tourists, most of whom were at the 3 star hotel, and one of whom chose the 4 star hotel. I had the pleasure of going to the restroom there, and boy was it gorgeous and fancy! The air conditioning felt great in there too. At this point, we were given a driver named Ahmad to take us to Petra. After a 3 hour drive, we were finally at our hotel. Luckily, the dining room was still open so we could grab some food. On the way there we stopped at a huge store for snacks and a bathroom break. The whole day was very long and very hot with a lot of stress and uncomfortable moments. The 3 star Oscar hotel worked out well for us. Dinner and breakfast were included, but we had to pay for our drinks. I did not enjoy the hard bed, but the room was spacious and comfortable otherwise. 

On Wednesday, we had an adequate breakfast at the hotel, checked out, and went to Petra itself. A driver came to the hotel to pick us up, and first stop allowed us to drop off our bags at the travel company's office. The backpacks waited for us there all day. The driver then brought us about 5 or 6 blocks down the road to the entrance of Petra. Our private tour guide's name was Shadeez. I very much appreciated the morning's cool breeze. Shadeez was very knowledgeable and guided us through the first 2 hours of our walk through Petra. At one point he asked, "how long have you been dreaming of seeing Petra?" and my answer was "no time?" It had not been a big dream of mine the way it has been for other people. Anyway, the structures were HUGE, beautiful, and very decorative, and it is obvious that there is still much excavation to be done to find even more parts of the beautiful ancient city. At one point during our long walks, Shadeez asked us if we were "real Americans," which meant he was wondering if we were Jewish. Very uncomfortable. Of course we said "yes, we are real Americans," but he seemed unconvinced. At the deepest part of the tour, Shadeez said goodbye to us. Mark took an additional hike up a mountain to a monastery, but I stayed at the outdoor areas of the restaurants at the base. It was a very hot and long walk back to the Visitor's Center and Museum. When we got there, I sat on the floor for about a half hour to recover in the air conditioning. During our walk back, there were about 400 rockets fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip. We kept receiving Red Alert after Red Alert. Very scary. And we were worried about getting back into Israel from Jordan.

    

        

         

After seeing the museum, we returned to the touring company's office at the appointed time and waited there for our bus to the border. We did not purchase any souvenirs in Petra even though there were many stands all along the way. There was one last lunch in Petra that was included, but it didn't happen until 3 pm! The bus drove us to the Eilat border crossing (south). Leaving Jordan we were told we would need to pay again but that didn't happen. On the Israel side, it felt so good to leave Jordan behind, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. But when we tried to renew our visas, the border agent called over her supervisor. The supervisor proceeded to yell at us saying "do you know it's illegal to extend your visa a border crossing?" We said, "no, obviously we didn't know that" and agreed to make an appointment at the Misrad Hapanim to extend our visa for the extra month. Sadly, we couldn't even make an appointment to make an appointment, though we tried. Instead we took a flight to Cyprus and were able to renew our visas at a machine in the airport upon our return to Israel.

Our final leg was a very long bus ride to Jerusalem. We arrived at the David Citadel at 12:30 a.m. and walked home to our apartment, arriving around 1 a.m. It was an interesting and challenging trip. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Shabbat experiences throughout our sabbatical in Jerusalem

Our very first Shabbat did not allow us much time to prepare. We were only here for one full day before our first Friday night. Our first week in Jerusalem, we chose to attend an Orthodox synagogue called Yakar because it is so close to our apartment. It is known for beautiful singing and the unique way they arrange Saturday mornings. More on that later in the post. For our first visit, we chose the upstairs Kabbalat Shabbat because they daven more quickly than the downstairs one. On the first Saturday morning we walked all the way (about 40 minutes) to Ma'ayanot, a Conservative synagogue in Arnona. It was very warm and welcoming and we were even hosted in a home for kiddush lunch afterward. We saw Rabbi Adam Frank there, who is married to Lynne Weinstein, Debbie Weinstein's sister. Debbie is not only a member of  Temple Beth Abraham but she is also one of the people I am studying Hebrew with in Oakland. Debbie, Judy Bloomfield, and I have been studying with our teacher Ditza Oren. I do absolutely notice how much I have learned from those sessions, and how I have been building upon it here, both on the street and in my Ulpan classes. 

Yakar: https://www.yakarjlm.org/english

Ma'ayanot: https://www.maayanot.info/home-english

 

During Pesach, our second Shabbat, we attended Yedidya for Kabbalat Shabbat services, a modern Orthodox community that has a side by side mechitza and allows inclusion of women in the services. There were English speakers there so it felt very welcoming. It was a bit of a long walk, but a lovely service. For Saturday morning, we chose to give Moreshet Yisrael, the conservative shul at the Conservative Yeshiva. Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing. The rabbi was away; we later found out that she has only taken off one or two Shabbatot in the span of several years! The students leading did a nice job, but the davening was a bit slow for Mark's taste. We shared the third aliyah, and I got to wear my new red lace tallit from Yad Lakashish. The turnout was very low but we did meet a former JTS Talmud professor and his wife who were visiting from New Jersey. They didn't have a kiddush, so we had a "light dairy lunch" at home. 

https://yedidya.org.il/new_site/index_eng.php

Moreshet Yisrael at the Conservative Yeshiva:
https://masorti.org/moreshet-yisrael/

During Passover, we did not attend services on the first day and on the last day we were in Bet Shemesh and went to shul with Brenda and Steve. It is an Orthodox shul and the women sit upstairs. There is a lot of ruach, and it feels very welcoming because we are with our friends.

The third Shabbat we tried a new trend in Jerusalem, the musical renewal service called Nava Tehila. It takes place in the Kol Hanishama building, and we got there early but weren't allowed in. The rabbi asked us to wait outside so they could welcome us with a wall of musical sounds. There were several musicians and singers sitting in a circle and the congregants seats were all around the outside of that circle. There was a carpet in the middle of the circle where some children sat and played.  Many people danced around the outside of the room and in the aisles. The service itself only consisted of 4 phrases/sentences from liturgy. Each one was sung and danced to for a significant amount of time. There was a lot of ruach and participants were very energetic. Between each song, the rabbi spoke some short words, using both Hebrew and English which was helpful. Afterward, though it was lovely and moving and I got to sing and participate and dance near my seat a bit, I didn't feel like I davened or prayed the service. For me, something was missing. But I can certainly see what others find appealing. For dinner that night, we were hosted by Alan and Dana Edelstein, parents of our congregant Jason. They are fantastic conversationalists and made us a delicious meal. It was wonderful. The next morning, we tried Saturday morning services at Yakar. We arrived a bit late and were surprised when five minutes later the service seemed to end. It turns out that was a break for a small oneg and some learning (shiur). They do two separate ones - one in Hebrew and one in English. We attended the English one of course. I enjoyed the discussion about lashon hara compared to kashrut and the importance of both what comes out of your mouth and what goes into your mouth. The service resumed and went for another 45 minutes to an hour. Then we went home for lunch.

Nava Tehila: http://www.navatehila.org/?lat=en

Fourth Shabbat we attended Beit Prat which is an egalitarian yeshiva program. It was an outdoor service which featured a mechitza for the first 5 rows and then mixed seating for the rest of the rows; all of the chairs were on the grass. There were a lot of English speaking guests attending. In the mechitza area were mostly young people and the yeshiva students/young adults. Standing around the outside were many more young adults. The numbers kept growing throughout the entire service. I had fun connecting with a visitor named Norman who used to be the Johns Hopkins University and Towson University Hillel Director. We shared a lovely Goucher moment praising Rabbi Josh Snyder of Goucher Hillel! The drash was given in both English and Hebrew and was about tzaraat and keeping ourselves open to other people. On Saturday, Mark went without me to an Orthodox shul called Beit Ohel Avraham because it is a similar name to our TBA. I decided to watch the TBA stream instead. 

Beit Prat: https://beitprat.org/en-about-us/

Our fifth Shabbat we were in Tel Aviv. We attended one of the Conservative synagogues there called Kehilat Neve Tzedek. Again the rabbi was away so we didn't really get the full experience. It was a small group, there was a little singing, and they announced an upcoming Bat Mitzvah who also led the kiddush at the end. We thought there was going to be a potluck dinner afterward so we brought a cake. Alas, no such dinner existed. We just returned to apartment and had cake for dinner. :-) In the morning, Mark went to the other Conservative shul called Kehilat Sinai where they have couches and serve cocktails during the evening services. I stayed in to preserve my feet as it would have been a very long walk.

Kehilat Neve Tzedek: https://en.kehilanevetzedek.com/

Kehilat Sinai: https://www.facebook.com/kehilatsinai/

For our sixth Shabbat, we went to Tziyon where they started by singing all of Shir HaShirim. It was long. There were also two sermons, both in Hebrew. Maybe one of them was announcements but we didn't think so. We wanted to try it because it is a place where men and women sit together. It was not as welcoming as we would have liked. On Saturday, we had a wonderful time at Shira Chadasha in the German Colony. First of all, it is a warm and welcoming Orthodox place with a mechitza where women get to lead prayers, read Torah and Haftorah, and have aliyot. I had the honor of opening and closing the ark as well as taking the Torah out of the ark and giving it to the Torah carrier, and then taking it from her and putting it back into the ark at the end of the readings. That felt wonderful. I was thrilled to meet Barbara Sofer from Hadassah in person, and we also ran into Mark's Northwestern friend, Ruth Eberstein. The congregation was celebrating a baby naming with some enthusiastic singing and a little dancing as well! Our Oakland congregant who lives in San Diego now, Beth Sirull, was there with her group and it was great to see her. There was also a fantastic oneg lunch in the courtyard followed by some learning that we didn't attend.

Tziyon: https://www.facebook.com/KehilatZionJerusalem/

Shira Chadasha: https://shirahadasha.org/en/

During our seventh Shabbat, we hosted a dinner for Mark's Crocker friend Lisa Makin and her husband Steve. My cousin Michelle Brint was also there and brought her friend Tsvi. It was a very fun evening with great conversation and the food turned out well too. Michelle had met me in the women's section at Yakar, the downstairs minyan this time, and didn't recognize me in my Shabbat gear (long sleeves, skirt, and hat). The singing was really good. On Saturday morning we attended Sod Siach and had the pleasure of meeting the Wildmann's nephew who is the Gabbai. It was fun for me to be in an egalitarian space where men and women sit together and women lead prayers as well as read Torah and Haftorah. They had a cute little oneg after the service on the ping pong tables outside in the school yard.

Sod Siach: https://sodsiach.wordpress.com/english/

Eighth Shabbat we went to Cyprus. We were unable to make it anywhere for Friday night services, but for Saturday morning we went to the Chabad synagogue and hotel. We got there super early because we didn't know what time they would start. It was very Orthodox. There was a big luncheon afterward that we didn't pre-register for so we made a donation after Shabbat. It was a lot of food, and we were seated with a couple of Israeli couples and some young Israeli men. The rabbi gave a drash in Hebrew at the end of the lunch, before dessert. 

Chabad: https://www.chabadcyprus.com/

The ninth Shabbat was the day after Shavuot. Mark did an all night study session with Pardes Thursday night. Friday we met Barry and Lauren at Kol HaNishama for a Reform service. But they didn't have anything happening that we could find. Next door at Nitzanim, there was a family shabbat celebration with ice cream and they invited us to have some of their leftovers. :-) But no services worked out for us that night. Barry and Lauren came to our apartment for dinner. All I wrote in my journal about that is that it was yummy. :-) In the morning we decided to try the Italian synagogue in the City Center. It was very traditional Orthodox and the building looked exactly like the one in the Israel Museum (as I would find out later that day when we went there)! I was WAY upstairs behind a thick wood lattice mechitza and the air conditioning wasn't working so well. It was not pleasant for me. Mark enjoyed the service and noticed some of the differences of traditions.  Barry and Lauren joined us for lunch at our apartment.

Pardes: https://www.pardes.org.il/

Kol Hanishama: https://www.en.kolhaneshama.org.il/

Nitzanim: https://kehilatnitzanim.org/ (not functioning at the moment, but the shul is!)

Italian Synagogue: https://www.moija.org/en

The women's section in the balcony:

Our tenth Shabbat, Mark and I separated for Friday night services. He went to Orayta Yeshiva's celebration and last service with his young classmates. I went to Shira Chadasha because I love it there, and it's close, and I wanted to check it out before we brought out congregants there.  A woman led the first parts of the service and a man led the second half. On Saturday, Mark went to the synagogue that is under the Kotel, in the tunnels under the Wall. He said the service itself was very traditional Ashkenazi and not too exciting, but the location and environment were a beautiful and meaningful place to be. I went back to Moreshet Yisrael to give it another chance. It was again very lightly attended and the Baal Koreh canceled at the last minute so the rabbi's husband read the entire Torah portion while the rabbi used hand motions to indicate the trope. I found that kinda cool. I was honored with an aliyah. Mark popped in for a few minutes to scope out the scene then went home to prepare our hosting lunch. Ronn and Joan come over for Shabbat lunch. We very much enjoyed the time together.

Orayta: https://www.orayta.org/

Wall Tunnel Synagogue: Shaarei Teshuvah Synagogue: https://thekotel.org/en/visitor_information/shaarei-tshuva-synagogue/

Eleventh Shabbat we chose to go back to an old favorite of Mark's, Kol Rina. The men's section has a lot of ruach and they dance around during the kabbalat shabbat nigunim. In the women's section, Naomi Rosen sat next to me; it's always so good to see her. The women's participation is minimal. On Saturday morning we tried Nitzanim. The mechitzah puts the women on both sides, raised up just a little bit. The services were fine, the sermon was in Hebrew, and no one really talked to me. I did see one of my Mah Jongg friends whose name is Natalie there so we got to chat after the service which was nice. We were supposed to host Susan Simon for lunch but her flight got cancelled and she didn't make it to Israel in time for Shabbat.

Kol Rina: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kolrina/

For our twelfth Shabbat, the congregational trip was here. On Friday, Mark led a service overlooking the old city and joined by four of our students who were on the trip. For shul, we chose Shira Chadasha for Friday night and Sod Siach for Saturday morning. About ten people joined us for Kabbalat Shabbat at Shira Chadasha, and just four came with us on Saturday morning. We did a big Havdalah ceremony on our balcony at the Dan Panorama hotel where we had a nice suite with a large outdoor balcony. Mark led the singing with his guitar. The students helped! Everyone enjoyed.

On our thirteenth Shabbat in Israel, we were hosted by Barbara Sofer and her husband. They had some lovely friends and family there. There was SO much yummy food; we contributed some fruit for dessert. Mark went to services at Shir Chadash (not to be confused with Shira Chadasah) and joined us late. I skipped services that evening. On Saturday, we went to Shir Chadash together. I enjoyed the moment when they brought the Torah to the mechitza and let the women use their prayerbooks to touch it and kiss. There were many English speaking congregants and everyone was very friendly. The kiddush lunch was small but nice; there was cholent and kugel. 

Shir Chadash: https://shirhadashjerusalem.com/

Our fourteenth Shabbat featured three Friday night elements. First Mark went to hear the musical service early at Moreshet Yisrael at the Conservative Yeshiva. He loved it for the first five minutes. Such beautiful singing and music! Then, it became repetitive and he didn't enjoy as much the rest of the hour he spent there. Next, we went together to the Baka Community Center where in the gym there was a service. We were early so it seemed like no one was coming but it filled up quickly after the first part of the service. We were then hosted for dinner at Lynne Weinstein and Rabbi Adam Frank's home. It was fantastic. We met some very warm and nice people and they made us a fantastic vegetarian meal. One of the guests named John was even in the brand management department at Clorox after Mark was! On Saturday morning we went to Yakar again. Mark went earlier than I did. I got there just for the shiur and got to learn from the rabbi's mother in English which was lovely. We both left after the shiur; Mark had a young American visiting person to go meet, the daughter of one of his Hillsborough friends, and I didn't want to stay for davening in the women's section.

During our fifteenth Shabbat, I was feeling pretty sick. The combination of the heat and possibly too much of some kind of food made me very sick on Friday. I skipped the Friday night service but Mark went to Nitzanim without me. On Saturday morning, I felt a little better and was able to join Mark at the HUC Alumni service. There was a catered lunch afterwards. The service was lovely with a lot of singing led by several cantorial students and a drash by the head of the school. 

HUC-JIR: https://huc.edu/about-huc/our-campuses/jerusalem/

This past week was our sixteenth Shabbat when Micah arrived! Hooray! Mark went to Yakar without me, and I stayed home to welcome Micah. On Saturday morning all three of us went to Yakar. Turns out there is no shiur during the services where Rosh Hodesh is announced. They have the shiur later in the day on those Shabbatot. It was a nice service, and there was a larger oneg than we usually see, which they had indoors and upstairs with air conditioning because it was so hot out. I enjoyed the Yerushalmi kugel and we all had a bite to eat. The big surprise was Shoshannah (Susan) Somerville approaching us and asking us if we were from Oakland. It had been so long since we'd seen her that I didn't even recognize her at first. It was so lovely chatting with her and catching up. She is very busy living and learning here in Jerusalem!

Next week for Shabbat we will be in Tel Aviv. Our final week here we will be back in Jerusalem. Who knows where we will decide to go!

It's July ALREADY! Long overdue update here!

 Since I haven't posted anything here for about 6 weeks, this is going to be a long one. TL/DR version: everything here is going great. I love Ulpan, seeing visitors, hosting and being hosted, eating out, and soaking in the atmosphere. Now, for some more details...

First of all, the thing that centers my experience here, is my ulpan class. I am enrolled in Kitah Alef at Ulpan Morasha located on Queen Shlomzion Street in the City Center. Last post I was unsure if the class would continue, well, it did continue as a morning class through the month of June. 5 days a week (Sunday through Thursday) from 8:30 am to 12:45 pm. I learned SO much. The teachers are all really dedicated and wonderful and my classmates are also great. As a matter of fact, several of us from the morning class are having a BBQ tonight at Gan Sacher to say farewell to each other. At the end of June, the class closed and many of us were transferred to other classes. I was very grateful to be able to join the English based evening class that meets three times a week: Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Most of the students are taking the class on Zoom but there are a handful of us who go in person. We have the same teachers that we had for the morning classes and the learning is still wonderful! We can't do as much as quickly but we do have the in between days for review, study, and absorption which helps with retention. I love it so much that I hope to continue learning in the class from California after the August break. Classes resume Sept. 3 and would be at 7:30 am for me. If my teaching schedule permits, I get to continue studying Hebrew! So fun!

Another thing keeping me busy overall is my continued work for Hadassah. I meet often with my Educators Council co-chair Gail Hammerman on Zoom, always in the evening for me which is the morning/early afternoon for her. I visited Hadassah Ein Kerem twice, the first time with Stacy Margolin (May 8) and the second time on July 4 on my own. I visited Hadassah's Youth Aliyah Village, Meir Shfeya on June 4th and spent a lovely day there with Lauren Stern Kedem. On July 10th I was able to visit the Mt. Scopus campus, and on July 18 I will visit Hadassah Neurim, the other Youth Aliyah Village. I will publish a separate blog post with ALL of that after the last scheduled visit happening on July 18th. I do have lots of photos to share! Also in the Hadassah realm, I had a zoom meeting at the end of May with Gail Black who is my Speakers' Bureau mentor. She gave me some really good tips, and we got along great. It will be nice to work with her over the course of the next year or two.

We have taken two trips outside of Israel: In May we went to both Petra and Cyprus. I will do separate blog posts for those trips as well. In addition, we took one weekend trip to Tel Aviv in April and traveled all around Israel with our congregational trip in June (that week and a half definitely deserves its own blog post). In early June, we rented a car for a few days and one of those days we drove to the South to pick up a tallit Mark ordered online and to visit the Yatir Winery. 

Virtually every Shabbat we try something new. I will do a separate blog post about all of our Shabbat experiences as we near the end of our four months here. 

At the end of May I was fortunate to connect with an English speaking Mah Jongg group. So grateful, so much fun, and of course there will be a whole separate post about it!

We have hosted some scheduled visitors, both friends and family, connected with Birthright trip participants we know, and do our best to go out of our way to connect with anyone who is visiting Israel. When we had the rental car, we took a trip to Netanya where we saw former congregants, Bernard and Alison Hazen, and their children. We were honored to be able to host Alison and the children for a circus performance during the congregational trip's closing dinner while we were in Tel Aviv. In Netanya we were supposed to see my 2011 Ulpan friend, Corinna, but they had a medical emergency in their family so we have postponed. I'm currently scheduled to see her this coming Tuesday, the same day that I plan to visit Neurim. We also traveled to Hertzilya at the end of April to see our friends we made on the cruise, Dany and Hazel, and they treated us to ice cream. We spent the end of Passover at Brenda and Steve Ganot's home and friends of theirs had us over lunch while Brenda and Steve gave us two dinners and a breakfast! Such gracious hosts.  

Here at home in Jerusalem we have hosted Hannah Reback for a beer at a local spot, Shabbat lunches for Mark's fraternity brother Mark Stovsky, relatives Barry and Lauren Bloom, Ronn Berrol and Joan Korin, Michelle Brint and a friend of hers named Tsvi, and Mark's Crocker friend Lisa Mackin and her husband Steve. We had lunch with Sarah Liron, enjoyed Passover and Yom HaAtzmaut with the Swidler family, burgers near the Shuk with Amy Wittenberg and Talia Bornstein and Ari Bornstein (who later spoke to our TBA congregational trip and we took him to Pizzaria Flora afterward). We got to meet two long lost cousins of mine: in Jerusalem cousin Michelle Brint (who we later hosted for Shabbat as mentioned above) and in Tel Aviv, cousin Maia Brint (Michelle's first cousin).  At the same cafe with Maia we got to have lunch with Cousin Sharona Guggenheim Plumb and her husband Nathan. We had a dinner with Brenda and Steve at the phenomenal taco place across the street from my ulpan where we also had dinner once with Tracy and Leon Waxman who we know from our year in Australia. We saw David Reback in Tel Aviv, Jennifer Long and her husband also in Tel Aviv, had dinner with Taylor and Amikam also in Tel Aviv, hosted a friend named Shanna from Singapore from my ulpan class, were hosted by Aliza Greyevski's parents in Jerusalem surrounded by their friends and family, were hosted for Shabbat by Barbara Sofer and her husband, including others of their friends, had a lovely dinner at Joy in Mamila with Luisa Narins from Hadassah and two of her WRJ friends, saw Mark's cousin David Lazarus a few times, my cousin David Krefetz for a day in July, saw Dumisani Washington and Joshua Washington in Jerusalem where Joshua was performing a concert, spent several times with Mark's friend Ruth Eberstein, were hosted by Debbie Weinstein's sister Lynne Weinstein and her husband Adam Frank, Dana and Alan Edelstein hosted us for a Shabbat dinner and a lovely Agur winery visit, saw Eliza Kaufman in the Old City, saw EJ Miller, Gabriel Bostick who was in Gan at TBA with Micah, and his brother Max, had an amazing vegetarian lunch cafe moment with Jennifer Greyber (though I wasn't able to eat due to an upset stomach), and my sincerest and deepest apologies to anyone I've forgotten. Micah is coming to visit us for the next week, and we are very excited about that.

My other apologies go to all of you who waited so patiently to hear about how things are going here. I have promised five more specific posts and will work on them diligently instead of binge watching Netflix, I promise.

I've discovered Gaga

No, not the Israeli game Gaga that is placed with a ball in an enclosed space, Gaga the dance form. I was lucky to have met my cousin Michelle Brint (thank you cousin Sammy for connecting us) and when I mentioned that I used to be a dancer, she suggested it. We met there and went to the class together. It cost only 65 shekels. It was an amazing experience. It's hard to describe but I'll try. It's a gathering of people who want to move their bodies organically in a dance like way but without strict requirements for what something has to look like. The instructions include increasing or decreasing effort, increasing or decreasing speed, getting low or high, moving across space or staying in a personal space, making soft shapes or circles, shaking or stretching, etc. The music supports the movement and the energy of all of the participants feeds off of one another. I really loved it, and hope I get to do it again at least one more time before we leave Jerusalem. If you're curious and want to know more, here is the website: https://www.gagapeople.com/en/