Fun in the Sun: Merchav Am & Beit Shemesh

Shavua tov!

Let the eating began! Wednesday night, I went with a few friends to Emek Refaim and ate a wonderful (milchig!) pre-fast dinner at a restaurant I had never been to called Masyrk (pronounced MAHS-reek). While many of you may know, I am not the biggest fan of eating our Milchigs, I was assured by one of my friends that I'd find something to get there. (I don't think that friend knew the extent of my picky eating-ness, especially dairy...) I asked if they had Fettuccini Alfredo and he said yes, so I was satisfied and we hopped in a cab to grab a rather late dinner. When we arrived, I was nervous as I looked through the menu and didn't see anything resembling my favorite dish from Slice of Life (Skokie, IL), however I noticed a "3 Cheese Pasta" with Mozzarella, Roquefort, and Parmesan cheeses and thought I'd give it a try. One of the reasons I chose it was because of its lack of vegetables, like most of the other dishes there. It was very tasty and I have to say I have never had nor do I think I will ever have that combination of cheeses again, it just sounds too fancy.

Back at my apartment, I decided to snap some shots of the scenery my apartment overlooks. I am clearly not a professional photographer, and couldn't really get a non-blurry shot with my camera, but still it's decent:

Full moon over Yerushalyim!

My fast went pretty smoothly, I worked until around 1:30 and headed back for a nap in my apartment, like many of my friends also had chosen to do. By the time Mincha rolled around I was feeling fine and very well rested. News had been flowing in throughout the day about the beginning of our new battlefront and many people were hovered around any computer to read the latest. While some people began leaving for dinner before the fast so they could began eating right after it was over, I opted to stay for Maariv and departed about 1/2 hr after the fast was over (I would have left directly after Maariv but the bus didn't come for almost 20 minutes...). I met my Uncle in town who had already eaten with the throngs of people he said all placed their order about 10-15 minutes before the fast at Burger's Bar. He said that they all timed the food perfectly to be ready for the customers as the fast ended. Only in Israel. Being that I was a bit late, I missed Ilan who had to be back to his place by 9, so when I arrived at around 9:10, my uncle was fully ready to have a 2nd dinner at my choice of restaurant. I chose one of my personal favorites, Shnitzi's. We discussed plans for Friday over a scrumptious dinner and I met up with some friends and headed back to Bayit V'gan.

I woke up around 8 on Friday morning, I was to meet my Uncle and Ilan so we could aim for a 10 AM departure for our tiyyul to the Negev. He rented a car so we could drive to a Yeshuv of his friend's called Merchav Am. Being that I knew I was going to be going to the Buckmans in Beit Shemesh for shabbat, I knew I had to buy them my traditional shabbat gift of Marzipan Rugelach. I met my Uncle and we picked up Ilan and headed down south. The drive was about 2 hours (that's a lot for Israel, but nothing for the typical American...). We passed sprawling Be'er Sheva (we drove around it on the highway and saw many brand new beautiful suburban neighborhoods) on the way, which looks like a really nice city, I've never been there before.

We arrived at Merchav Am and found (quite easily actually) Eitai's caravilla. (Caravillas are what were given to many of the evacuees from Gush Katif and are also used in newer settlements before permanent houses can be built…) From the outside it looks like a trailer or two put together, but as Ilan and Uncle Lee commented when we were inside (I had been in one previously) you really can't tell that it is a caravan at all! The yishuv is literally in the middle of no where, about 40 minutes from Be'er Sheva, and 10 from Yerucham, a small city of about 12,000 people. There are about 50 families living in this community, they get very cheap housing and a ton of help from the government to live there. It is actually the only religious yishuv south of Be'er Sheva! You could tell it was the middle of no where because for much of the way there were warning signs about camels near the road or army training grounds.

Ilan and I at the entrance to Merchav Am.

We spent about 2 hours there, Uncle Lee asked a lot of questions, we got a brief tour, and then the highlight. We planted a tree. This was not what you'd expect. I got to carry the tools where Ilan and Uncle Lee carried the very heavy tree down to the area we were planting it in. They said it probably weighed at least 90 pounds. Also, we weren't just planting it in soil, we had to dig through the hard desert rock and to make the hole, which was quite fun! We planted a peach tree and Eitai promised if we returned in 4 years we could eat from it.

Starting the hole

Uncle Lee making progress

All done! (with Eitai and cute kids...)

After we had a quick lunch back in Eitai's house we hit the road for Beit Shemesh, where Ilan and I spent shabbat. It was very relaxing, we slept a lot. One interesting story, on Friday night after dinner, we were invited to the neighbors for dessert. They had for dinner some Dutch non-Jewish friends. The parents still live in Amsterdam, but are some of the most zionist non-Jews I have ever met. They are also pretty right wing Zionists as well. The wife has taken ulpan here and speaks some Hebrew. She and her husband were also in Gush Katif during the disengagement last summer. The son who is my age has been in Israel for about a year and a half, he wants to move here and go to the army, but he is going through complications because he is not Jewish. He is currently volunteering for Magen David Adom, but desperately wants to get into the army, which is unlikely. He was in ulpan for 7 months and can speak Hebrew well. Because of his European accent it sounds like he speaks Hebrew better than he does (that's what Ilan & I guessed) but he also speaks English like an Israeli with his accent. After a fun shabbat, we had dinner at KFC in Mevaseret's mall and then headed back to Yerushalyim!