Well, I have a funny story to share that might only happen in Jerusalem! First though, let me share the sad news: a week ago, my laptop died. I know it's not a battery or power cord problem because it will get as far as the startup screen, and then freeze for about 5 minutes, and then shut itself off. This is pretty unfortunate in general, but especially so with finals coming up in a few weeks, with term papers and online research and materials to study, etc. It doesn't help that for some reason, there's not a single Apple store in Israel. So wish me luck figuring out what to do! Unfortunately, that also means I've lost access to all of my photos and many other things that were on my computer. If I can ever afford one, I think investing in an external hard drive has found its way toward the higher end of the priority to-do list.

Anyway, the story! I've been pretty busy and haven't gotten around to going grocery shopping in a while, to the extent that dinner the other day was Nutella and cookies. So the other day, I decided to get myself some pita at the bakery around the corner from my church on the way home, to go with the almost kilo of hummus that I had (with nothing to dip in it). I was happy to discover when I got there that this bakery actually has a little grocery section in it, so I decided to get some basics besides the pita: milk and yogurt (for the oatmeal and granola I also had in my cupboard).

Well, this particular shop is right outside the Damascus Gate, in the Arab part of town, so nearly everything was labeled in Arabic. I did discover, however, that they carried the Hebrew-labeled brand of milk and brand of yogurt that I typically get. But I felt like branching out and trying the Arab brands; who knows, maybe they're better? You only live once. So I took my Arabic bounty and went home. I was happy to discover that the pita this place makes is the same price as the stuff you get at the shook, but much bigger and fluffier and tastier, plus it's right by my church and thus way more convenient than the shook! Alas, I couldn't extend that same satisfaction to all of my purchases. I had borrowed milk from my roommate Sefi a few times in the past week, and had thus bought a big jug of it at this Arab store (even though I typically don't use much milk and thus get the small cartons) so I could pour a bunch into Sefi's now half-empty jug.

Thank God that for some reason I was possessed with the impulse to sniff the milk before pouring it in, though: it smelled like cottage cheese. I looked at the jug suspiciously and called Jacq over for consultation. Together we took this mystery to the all-knowing internet (on Jacq's laptop, of course) with the 3 unfamiliar words written in Hebrew on the whole label. Between Google translate and Wikipedia, we learned something new: apparently in Arab culture, there's a culinary oddity called "soured milk." And I had bought a whole big jug of it. Upon looking up what we can do with it, we eventually concluded that substituting it in a buttermilk pancake recipe is the only plausible recourse. So we'll be having a lovely breakfast in the apartment sometime this week, and I will never buy milk labeled in Arabic again. Lesson learned.

In other news: I think I have exactly 4 weeks left until I'm done with finals and the semester! Wow. 5 months flew by SO FAST! Originally I was supposed to fly home exactly 3 weeks from today, but for those who don't know already, I hereby announce that I'll be taking a leave of absence from the university to spend some time volunteering with my church here (which is also an NGO that does anti-terror education in the Arab community, distributes food and clothing to poor families, does rape crisis counseling, etc.). I'm very excited!!

The photo with this post is from last night, when I lit the candles and said the blessing at a Shabbat dinner at my church's ministry house. It's traditional for the "mother" in the family to cover her head, light the candles, and begin the ceremony with a blessing in Hebrew, so this week I was the mom. It was fun! And tonight my roommates and I are having a sort of end-of-our-time-together dinner just for the 5 of us. It's a bit early, but we know we're going to be pretty busy toward the end of the semester, so we just wanted to take advantage of having a time we knew we were all free. There probably won't be candles or head coverings or much Hebrew at this dinner, though.

Another very exciting bit of news: my wonderful boyfriend Joe is visiting me, and he arrives in 3 days!! He'll be here for 2 weeks, meaning he'll be around for Christmas, which will be lovely! I'm so delighted to get to see him. Yaaaaay!! And we're going to try to get around to see some of the sites I haven't yet gotten to in the Old City (which, honestly, is most of the sites), so there should be more pictures and stories forthcoming soon!