An old family friend is in Israel for the next two weeks (with a side trip to Jordan), and I got to meet up with her and catch up yesterday! She was in Jerusalem, so I took a bus there and we hung out for the day. It was lots of fun. We walked around Jerusalem and went to the shuk and various other things. I got starfruit, dragonfruit, brie cheese, and cheese with pesto in it from the Jerusalem shuk, all of which are delicious and all of which I can't get in Ramla. It was really interesting to see Jenifer's reaction to the shuk, to Jerusalem, and to Israel in general. It brought me back to my first few weeks here.
Around dinner time we said goodbye to each other and I headed off to another meeting at the Open House. The English Speakers Group meeting was a text study on the creation of gender in Genesis. I personally am not so into text study, but I still found it to be really interesting. There were a lot of ideas floated around that I had never heard or thought about before. We were learning in chevruta, and I got paired up with a fourth-year student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, which was a little intimidating. Even when we got back together as a group (there were almost 20 people there) I still found myself a little intimidated, as a large portion of the people in the group are in rabbinical school, or are studying at Pardes or another yeshiva. I'm amazed that the attendance at the English Speaker's meetings are so high, and that there are always new faces. The meetings also strike a good balance between social, activist, and academic. I am very appreciative of the group's organizers.
The meeting ended a little after 10pm, and everyone hung out and was social for about a half hour. After that Devora walked with me to the bus station and we got to catch up (I had to make sure that I caught the last bus of the evening at 11:30pm.) I love the bus system in Israel. It seems to be a favorite pastime to complain about Egged, but I really like it. It is incredibly comprehensive (you could probably get from any part of the country to any other part on Egged.) I also feel so safe in Ramla. The bus dropped me off in Ramla at 12:10, and the bus station is about a 25 minute walk from my house. The entire walk back, I felt completely safe.
And when I got home I learned that all my roommates are still sick. It seems as if we've all just been passing a bug back and forth. I really hope that they feel better soon!
And fun fact of the day: Scott Gotikov, MassEquality's Executive Director, is a Hampshire alum.
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