I woke up, showered, went to the store, and ate lunch... All before 1:00. At 1:00, we all met outside the gate to go to B'nei Brak for Lulav & Etrog shopping. Here's a pic:
This is only half of it, but it was crazy awesome!! It was basically this humungous tent, in the middle of a dirt parking lot, filled with tables and tables of lulavim and etrogim. Such a cool scene. I bought a pristine etrog, and a great lulav, only for about sixty shekel- $15. It was a total steal. I loved bargaining with the guy who I ended up buying from, and in general just seeing all that each person had to offer. Great experience!!
After we had all finished we went to a different part of B'nei B'rak, to R' Akiva street, where we just walked around and bought whatever we wanted. I bought a machzor for Succot for the beautifully low price of twenty-five shekel. A.k.a. $6.25. Not as cheap as my $5 Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah machzorim, but I was willing to cough up the extra $1.25. I enjoyed walking around with my friend Zach as he purchased an endless amount of Succah decorations, and slowly but surely covered more and more parts of his body with them... By the end he was a walking Succah!
Then we drove back to our campus and plowed through the massive amount of obnoxious traffic. Ew. Truthfully I was a little bit nauseated by the time we got back, but that wasn't anyone's fault. Plus I didn't really drink enough today, so that was definitely another factor. When we got back to our campus, I got right back in the car with two of my friends because we wanted to go to Yesh (the Israeli Walmart) for a quick shopping trip. Little did we know that "quick shopping trip" was literally impossible on a Thursday afternoon before Shabbat and Succot... Don't know why we didn't think of that, but we didn't. So we just dealt with the ridiculous number of people that flocked the aisles. At first there weren't any carts available, but I utilized my developing Hebrew skills to snag one after I had already filled my hands and arms with things to buy. When I found everything I needed I got in line to pay... Not an exaggeration when I say I waited in line for thirty minutes before it was my turn. And there were only three people ahead of me! Unfortunately those three people decided that it was important to stock up on everything they'd need for the rest of their lives... Ridiculous. So that was pretty overwhelming and obnoxious.
Then I walked outside, where my two friends had been waiting for me for a while, and we picked a direction to walk in because we didn't know where we were going. Eventually we found a main street and decided against the fifteen minute walk to the bus stop, and went with a taxi instead. Let it be known that that was the first taxi I have taken since I got here, because I am that good at saving money via buses. The only reason we did it, though, was because it was cheap since we were splitting it for the three of us, and because we had all of our stuff from the store. Too bad we didn't just walk because it would have taken half the time to get home... The traffic was, again, insane! Super nauseating. And the taxi driver kept turning on and off his car each time traffic stopped, which I didn't understand because that uses more gas. Weirdo, but whatever.
We got home, I hung out for a bit, and then we all headed to bowling at a nearby mall. So fun! I came in third place for my lane.. Not too shabby. After bowling, my madricha challenged me to one of the basketball arcade game things. Let's just say: we each beat our own records, so we both won. When that little duel finished I had dinner with Adina Polack in the mall because food in malls is Kosher in Israel! And it was meat Chinese food, at that!! Sooooo good. Yum.
Since we got back from the mall, I've just been hanging out. Ilana and Adina are both here for Shabbat, which is going to be so fun! Tomorrow we're going to get everything together to make food and preparations for the holy Sabbath, which will of course be a party. Can't wait!
Until later, Lila Tov!
P.S. It's the blackout game for the Huskies tonight-- GO DAWGS.
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