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And so I learned my lesson to never, ever attempt to blog for more than ten minutes without saving a draft of my entry. That’s two hours of effort down the drain.

To summarize the entry that might have been: We got to Jerusalem, eventually finding a place in Baaka. Getting an apartment took longer than anticipated, and our friends Joel and Eliana put us up for an entire week at their place. They are awesome people, despite Eliana’s allegiance to the Yankees, and we owe them more than a little bit of gratitude.

Our place is only one room, but it’s one fancy room. We’re in the attic of an old Arab house on a quiet street, but we’re very close to a number of supermarkets, coffee places, restaurants, and friends in Jerusalem. We have hardwood floors, whereas most floors in Jerusalem are high-school-hallway tile. Seriously, the outsides of the buildings here are made out of Jerusalem stone, and all the floors I’ve seen are made out of this ugly, grainy grey tile. It’s like all the Jerusalem contractors got together and decided they would put down the ugliest color imaginable inside buildings on all the floors, just for a bit of contrast. Anyway. We have a washer/dryer (uncommon in Jerusalem), central air/heat (less common in Jerusalem), and a Jacuzzi (are you kidding?). Yes, we have a Jacuzzi that also functions as the shower, and it doesn’t work right now. To clarify: The shower works, but the Jacuzzi function needs repairing. The place came fully furnished, and included dishes and cooking utensils. We have a porch that I’m sitting on right now that’s perfect for a group of 6-8 people. The previous tenant had allowed all of the plants to wither to near-death, so we’re trying to nurse some flora back to health. There are few drawbacks to the place. It’s a little small. The fridge could be bigger. The oven is actually a toaster on steroids. That’s all that really comes to mind.

Oh yeah, and the toilet is a little temperamental. We moved in on a Saturday night, and around 6:30 in the morning on Monday we were awoken to the sound of water rushing through our apartment. The toilet, at some point during the night, broke, and the tank filled well past the point of being full. We had about an inch of water over about half of the apartment and no electricity. The entrance to our place is actually on the 2nd story of our building, so we also had to sop up water inside our place and underneath, as water had leaked through our floor into the 2nd floor hallway. And did I mention that the circuit box was soaked? After a few hours and ten rolls of paper towels, things were mostly dry and I bravely flipper the breaker, giving us power once again. So in the end, just a minor annoyance and a couple of hours cleaning up water, right?

Well, not exactly. Two days later, when I tried to shower, there was no hot water. So I flipped the “dude chashmal” (In Israel, your water heater is located on your roof and is accompanied by a solar panel, known as a “dude shemesh.” It’s a brilliant way to save energy, as the sun gives you hot water in the summer, and in the winter, you can flip a switch inside (the aforementioned “dude chashmal”) to electrically heat your water), figuring that the water just needed an electric kick in the proverbial pants. The power went out. I went downstairs, flipped the breaker, tried the “dude” again, and the power went out again. So I took a very cold shower. When I left the apartment shortly thereafter, a downstairs neighbor was waiting for me and pointed out that we had a waterfall flowing from our apartment roof. We called the plumber and he explained that an electrical surge had caused the “dude” to “explode,” thus explaining the lack of hot water and the waterfall. By the end of the day, we had a new “dude,” but were still without power. As the plumber was leaving, we showed us that our electric meter had been holding about a liter of water, possibly explaining the sensitivity of the electricity since the flood. He assured us that once the meter had the chance to dry out, we’d have power again. We left for the evening, and when we came home at 10, we were still without power. The 24-hour electrician (do these guys exist in the US?) showed up rapidly but couldn’t help us and called the electric company to take a look. The guys from the electric company showed up around 12:30am and fixed whatever wire had atrophied from being under water for several days, and miraculously the power was back. Now our only reminder of the flood is slightly warped hardwood floor and the lingering concern that it could happen again. I think we’ve been largely drama-free since then, and we’ve been settling in the past couple of weeks.

I’m currently enrolled in an intensive Hebrew ulpan, where I’m learning the language five days a week, about five hours each day. I’m learning at an absorption center called Beit Canada (House of Canada) about 30 minutes from our place. I’m in a class of eight or so recent immigrants to Israel who hail from Argentina, Russia, Iran, and France. It’s amazing what a difference just a couple of weeks has made in my confidence speaking and understanding Hebrew.

I’ve also gotten a temporary, part-time job with a caterer, helping to prepare food for the Holidays. The other night I made gefilte fish for two and a half hours. Guh. Tonight, I think it’s shnitzel and meatballs. Hopefully, within a month or so, I’ll feel confident enough with my Hebrew to try to get a job in a restaurant or bakery. Annie is still finalizing her plans for organizations to work for, after interviewing with almost a dozen places. When she decides, I’m guessing she’ll blog about it.

In other news, the Eagles got killed by the Cowboys last night and I stayed up til 1am listening to the massacre on the Internet. I’m 0-4 in my Fantasy Football League. We switched to Standard time this past weekend, so I think it’s only a 6 hour time difference with the East coast of the US until whenever.

Want to visit? Northwest and American have very inexpensive fares for the end of December / beginning of January. I’m talking less than $650 round trip. So get over here! The pastries alone make it a worthwhile trip.

Wow, I still have to write about Rosh Hashanah. And I have some general observations about Jerusalem, Israel, etc. But this is a good start. Shanah tovah all!