So as you can imagine, I was a little nervous about how this birthday was going to be, and if I was going to have fun, how I would celebrate, if I would talk to my parents or hear from my friends...
Well yesterday (9/19), most people in my WUJS track had interviews for their potential internships, including my roommate who was up and out before I was even awake. I had no agenda and nothing to do until...about 5pm. So I woke up, again, just on my own, with no real clue of how the day would go. I figured eventually I'd leave the apartment for some food shopping but that was probably it.
While I was eating my breakfast (cereal, shocker, right?), I decided to at least open my apartment door as an indication that I was around, people in the building could pop in to say hello and come in and chat for a bit. Good thing I did because Carolyn was walking back to her apartment from the office upstairs, and she passed by. "Hey, do you wanna go to the market today by any chance?" "Machane Yehuda?" "Yeah, the shuk." "YES!!! Give me 10 minutes to finish eating and get dressed." "Cool, Rachelle is there too after having her interview; we can call her to meet up when we get off the bus." Metsuyan! Fabulous!
Carolyn and I wait 15 minutes for the bus from Derech Hevron to the market, and during that time, we got to know each other a little bit better (this early in any program is great get-to-know-you time). We get on the bus, knowing we each need to purchase a card with 10-rides on it called a "cartisiya" but instead of saying anything in Hebrew, Carolyn gets on the bus and says to the driver, "Anglit?" Not, excuse me, do you speak English, or do you understand English, or, may I ask you something in English, just..."English?" Whatever, I thought it was funny. We both get our cards and we wait on the bus until we see the market. A nice woman on the bus helps point out which stop we should get off at, but by the time we get there it is so clear where we are.
We hop off the bus past a big purple tent (which, yesterday, we had no idea what it was...today I found out it is where they sell lulav and etrog, the species for the festival holiday of Sukkot/booths) and continue down Yaffo Street to the market entrance. Call to Rachelle; no answer. She calls us back and we meet up, at the booth we labeled as "chocolate and paste" - yes the most strange combination at one storefront, but who are we to complain. All over the place is fresh spices, fresh fruit, and fresh vegetables. Oh my god I LOVE this place! My purchases of the day: bananas, cucumbers, and MEESHMEESH - apricots! Found the cheapest one by walking around and looking at every sign. Oh, and how could I forget - we went to MARZIPAN! Best rugelach in the world. My first time at Machane Yehuda not on a Friday, so things were very calm, so calm I didn't know what to do with myself. I had some time to look, to smell, to think, to choose, what a privilege. I also found cereal boxes for 10 shekels, quite a steal compared to the grocery store's 24 shekel or 18 shekel. The shekel is about 3.7 times the dollar, so you do the math. Anyway it's great savings for a girl whose main food group was, is, and probably will always be, cereal.
Eventually we made our way out of the shuk/market and back to the bus stop, asking at one of the local stores for directions and which bus to take. We find out that one of them goes to Emek Refaim, close enough to our apartments that we can just walk from there. The bus is driving down Emek and we're planning to get off at the next stop (about halfway down the main area of this fun street) and the bus turns right! Uh oh...ok well we got off as soon as the bus stopped, and just turned around back toward Emek Refaim. Lucky for me, this stop was completely basheret/meant to be, because we saw a sign for RUTH STREET! If I knew how to upload pictures on this thing I would show you. Ummmm just check Ruthie Jewthie Kleinman on facebook and look at recent pictures. That'll prove to you that I was there. Of course, the other example of how basheret this extra stop was, is that we found the Marzipan restaurant on Rachel Imenu Street off of Emek Refaim. I had heard about it being on Emek and so close to where I am now living, and just by chance I happened to stumble upon it. Double basheret!!!
We arrive back at the home of the WUJS kids, with a bit of time to kill until the Ulpan meeting (Hebrew class) at 5pm. At 5, we all go downstairs to the classroom in our building, to meet Ya'ara, the Ulpan instructor, who splits some of us up into our indicated levels as per the evaluation. I was not able to do my evaluation prior to coming, so I listened to a short clip twice and told Ya'ara (b'ivrit/in Hebrew) what I heard in the story, and a little bit about me (also in Hebrew). This helped her to figure out which level I would be best fit. Done with ulpan for the day, time to get ready for our bar crawl starting at 7 led by Yonit. We all go to Derech Hevron to take the bus into downtown Jerusalem, near a street called Ben Yehuda. Most Birthright trips go there at one point or another, so needless to say, I've been there quite a bit. I recognize some of the areas we are in and some bars we go to, but really it was a new world to me, especially, and drum roll please...THE FOOTBALL!!! Seth and Josh, probably the two most sports loving guys on this program, find a bar in downtown Jerusalem, with NFL games broadcast from CBS. No freekin' way! This is like the best day ever. Yonit finishes up her tour of the bars for us (thanks Yonit!) and the group ends up splitting into smaller sections. I go back to this football bar called "The Lion's Den" and we schmooze with the bouncer (who apparently went to college at Arizona with Josh) and meet the owner, Yonah. They tell us that it's too full for them to let us in, but if we wait about 20 minutes, the customers in there watching the current game are going to clear out, and there will be space for us. As a group of about 8, we decide to split up for some food (I had a quick bite to eat before the bar crawl so I'm just happy to keep someone company). Josh wants hot dogs (great, right up my alley) so I keep him company while he makes his dinner purchase. We see another big NFL screen at another bar right across the street, and when we wander over to take a quick look, Josh sees a friend of his from school that is also living in Jerusalem. And so the story goes: Ruth meets yeshiva boys. No handshake, just a polite "Hey, nice to meet you." Since we're all there, we go inside (this places is called Kings) to see the game that's on, and Josh treats me to a pre-birthday beer (how nice)! One of the employees brings out a lit coal for the hookah and the fun begins. Nope, not for me, not my thing, but everyone else around me goes for it! We promised everyone else that after we got a bite to eat (and by we I mean Josh with his hot dogs), we'd go back to Lion's Den because we'd probably get seats. Well, another beer later and we're still at Kings. I somehow convince Josh around 10:30pm that we should go to Lion's Den; all our friends are there, or so we think. We head out, and we see 4 other WUJS kids who had finished their dinner from elsewhere. OK, time to head back to Kings because we had the party spot - a nice little booth right in front of the TV and the hookah! Another hour goes by and I drag everyone out with me, yeshiva boys and all, to go to Lion's Den to be reunited.
Turns out the buses in Jerusalem stop running at midnight, so plenty of people want to get back home before they feel abandoned by the public transportation. All I want is to be in a bar watching football at the stroke of midnight, c'mon guys! We fill up 1 table (everyone else went home) with me, Josh, Denise, and Amy, for some drinks and food to usher in the next year of my life. Midnight rolls around..."Yom Huledet Sameach, Yom Huledet Sameach, Yom Huledet Sameach...Yom Huledet Sameach." A chorus of "Mazel Tovs" come from the crowd; strange to hear something that's the equivalent of "congratulations" when you've aged another year. All that happened was the clock struck midnight, but hey I'll take any happiness I can get! Beer and food all gone; we head up toward King George Street to get a taxi home. Denise haggles with the driver for a set price - 28 shekels! Great deal, 7 each, not bad! Great cab ride home; hilarious driver, thinks Josh is going to marry one of us in the cab (although I don't remember who, maybe at one point he was married to all 3 of us)! To bed around 1am, not too bad! Tonight as I write this, that's another story. But I had to get the details of the day out of my head. More birthday shenanigans to report about tomorrow.
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