Smile, You're Beautiful

Yesterday I ventured out of the realms of Ramat Rahel into the southern part of Jerusalem in search of Emek Refaim, what was rumored to be a cool street with lots of cafes and such to explore. My map does not extend as far as the kibbutz so I set off in the direction of Jerusalem and assumed I'd find a street that was on my map pretty soon. To my dismay and growing anxiety, I found myself quite lost in a series of streets that looped around one another in mockery of my directional difficulties. And then I saw on a bus stop, "Smile, You're Beautiful," and a little of my fear dissipated as I smiled. But I was still in unmapped territory and hardly even sure of where I wanted to go. And then I saw it again, "Smile, You're Beautiful" written on a phone booth. And I saw it on more bus stops and hidden on signs and scrawled on benches; it made me think of Oscar from Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, shaking his tambourine through the neighborhoods so he'd remember that he was still himself. And it made me think of how some days we wake up so full of sunshine that it's easy to be pleasant and in good spirits even when lost or in a less than opportune situation, and then there are other days we wake up on the wrong side of the bed so we work a bit harder to turn our attitudes around. The last time I wrote I was cranky from being bored and lazy, a terrible combination. On one hand you're annoyed because you've got nothing to do, yet on the other hand you're too unmotivated to find something to do! But I woke up in better spirits yesterday, and today also...though today it might also be because I woke up early for a phone call with Noa.

In some ways being lost has its benefits, because when you suddenly find where you intended to go there's such joy and pride. And if you don't find where you meant to go, you run the risk of ending up somewhere even better. With the help of a lady at a bus station, in a mixture of english and hebrew, I got the directions I needed. I've discovered a new problem with learning Hebrew: I can usually figure out how to ask the questions I need, whether or not they're grammatically correct, but then people will respond in Hebrew...rapidly, and I have absolutely no idea what they are saying. Regardless, communication is always possible and I've never not been able to get my point across or find out what I needed to know. So I made my way into mapped territory and then it was easy sailing to Emek Refaim. After being told to go there by at least three different people I guess I expected something a little bit more widespread. There aren't such a lot of stores and it doesn't take very long to walk from one end to the other and back again. That didn't really matter, though. I saw what there was to see, my favorite place being a used book store. I couldn't resist - I bought another book that I really don't have room for. I just can't stop reading! I finished East of Eden the day I arrived at Ramat Rahel, I read all of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in three or four days, and this book was small and on sale and I needed something to read so it was a justified purchase. For those of you who've read Life of Pi, it's by the same author, Yann Martel. I hadn't heard of this book before but it's called Beatrice and Virgil.

Since I left in the morning I had a strong feeling that I was going to see someone I knew at Emek Refaim, and sure enough, who should I run into but a girl I met at Danny's apartment and hung out with on New Year's! She was on her way to work so we didn't talk long but it was pretty cool because how many people do I know in Jerusalem? Maybe a dozen, tops? And everytime I'd walk around Nachala'ot with Danny or anyone else, they would always run into at least one person they knew and I never did. So take that, onlookers of Emek Refaim, I too have friends!

And now it's Friday. Heather and I finished our puzzle on Wednesday night and began a new, even more difficult one yesterday. We're doing pretty well in that we've made some progress, but it definitely won't be finished before I leave. Tonight we're having Shabbat dinner here and some of Heather and John's children and grandkids are coming over. This will be my fourth Shabbat in Israel and I can't help but remark on how time has gone by. I am more than half way through my time here, how strange is that? Sometimes it feels like I've just gotten here, but mostly I feel like I've been here such a long time, in a good way. I don't know that I'll get a chance to write again before I leave on Sunday for the farm in the desert, and once there I'm really not sure that I'll have access to a computer so this might be the last post for a while. If that's the case, then have a wonderful next two weeks! And remember to smile because you're beautiful.