Journey to Israel part 2

Alright, here is the second part you've all been waiting for.

I think I left off telling you about our first day, which our first few days feel like a blur with getting used to the time change and not to mention a bit of culture shock.

The place we're staying in is perfect for us. It's an apartment that looks pretty old. It has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, and a dining/living room. This is just the space we need. It doesn't have a dishwasher, but does have a washing machine. I have to dry-hang the clothes. That's no big deal, but the funny thing is the dry lines are hanging suspended about 6 stories up. So if I drop one it's kind of a long way down. And it would become especially awkward if one of the clothes I dropped happen to catch on a neighbors line going down. But my first go at it proved to have no incidents. Our place is right on a main road where there's a lot of restaurants, a market (small grocery store), coffee shops and even a yogurt shop. So we've been exploring our options over the last few weeks. We've found some pretty tasty cuisine. I didn't think I was a fan of Mediterranean food but that's probably because I hadn't had it near the Mediterranean. The hummus is to die for. I've never had hummus that good. And the pita bread you dip it in is the best I've had too. Our place is a 5 min. walk to Jeremy & April's and a 10 min. walk to Stephen & Tiffany's. It's so nice to be able to walk to everything. You really can get places faster by walking then driving. It's how it was meant to be I think. So we go to the local market every few days to stock up and we'll probably end up going to the bigger/central market once a week (more on that later).

So the first few days were spent recooperating and the Mowry's were kind enough to have us over for dinner multiple nights while this was happening. We've done a lot of parks just to get the kids out and about. Thursday we took a bus and went to the central market. This was a happenin' place. Everyone was getting ready for Shabbat. Everything (and I mean everything) shuts down from 5pm Fri. till 5pm Sat. So you have to get all you need done before then. This market we did a little food shopping, but we mostly were trying to figure it all out. It was pretty chaotic, but neat to see more of the culture. Friday night we went to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) because every Fri. night its the happening place. I guess its how the Jewish people get ready for Shabbat. There was a lot of dancing and a lot of crowds. It was definitely a sight to behold. It was really cool to see the unity in these people. Complete strangers yet bonded together by millenias of history. It was also a somber sight to see people coming to this wall that has so much history for them and then just beyond the wall is this huge, beautiful mosque. Just the day before this I was reading in Lamentations 5. And in there the author is talking about how their land is being taken over by foreigners. It's crazy to see that, that hasn't changed for these people. (Afterwards, we headed back to Jeremy & April's for a Shabbat meal and gathering/worship time. That was refreshing.)

But a lot is changing. I feel like God has us hear for a reason. And Ben and I are beginning to feel like there might be some longevity in this. We have no idea how or what or when. But we are planning on taking a crash course in Hebrew over the next several weeks. That should be interesting. Jeremy & April and Stephen & Tiffany have done this and we are ready to jump on board. We feel like taking this step is a good way to engage the culture here. We are actually starting tomorrow. Ben and I each will do 3 hours 5 days a week. One of us will do morning while the other will do afternoon. It is one on one, which is good. I know it will be challenging, but I'm excited to get some bearing on the language. I know it will make me feel less frustrated and isolated. Don't worry I know I'm not going to be able to speak it in the next few weeks, but at least we're on a trajectory.

One cool thing we did Sat. night was to attend a Messianic Jewish church. This was pretty neat to see and experience. The pastor and his wife there seemed really cool. He was from the States, but had been in Israel now for 19 years. I believe his wife is Israeli. I'm sure it would be cool to get connected with them more.

What we've been doing so far is getting enough food for breakfast and lunch for several days and then usually going out on the town for dinner. So far we have 2 places we really like to eat at that were recommended to us by Stephen. We need a few more so we don't burn out on these places. We might go exploring tonight to see if we can find another. The kitchen's have to be kosher so it's a bit difficult to cook in them how we would normally do it.

So this next week will look pretty different with the language studies, but it'll be nice to get in some kind of rhythm/routine. I'm still doing some school with the kids. We'll see how I can balance that with the language studies. Man, it's crazy to be doing these language studies. It will be like being back in school again. That's kind of a head trip, but I guess this whole experience is. Alright, well I'm sure I'll be writing a 3rd part to all of this. I'll probably have quite a bit to tell by the end of this week. Another side note: It does not feel like Christmas at all! I have to remind myself that it's just this weekend. Tiffany and I were just talking about this and she feels the same way. I miss some things back home especially because of this. So if you have any Christmas cheer to send my way, I'll gladly receive it. Thanks for reading and caring about us.