The Shuk

(The picture was taken from http://www.fonerbooks.com/guide_30.htm)

This morning I met Chad, an HUC SO and extremely friendly and kind person, and we went together to the shuk to do some grocery shopping. I bought:
- cheese
- a cabbage
- lots of cherry tomatoes
- lots of grapes
- lots of fresh mint
- hot peppers
- fresh figs
- two bottles of soda
all for about $20 -- not bad!

The shuk is enormous, covering several city blocks. Rows and rows of vendors sell vegetables, wine, cheese, meat, fish, olives, crackers, and fruit - with the occasional vendor selling kippot, scarves, or skirts. The shuk area is a pedestrian mall and the main road, Mahane Yehuda, has a roof to shield it from the sun. On Friday mornings, the only time on the weekend when everyone has off and things aren't all closed, the shuk is swarmed with shoppers - orthodox and secular alike - who shove one another out of the way to get through the narrow alleys between the stores. Shop keepers shout out the latest prices of their wares, trying to outbid their competitors, and when you want to make a purchase, you pick it up and handed to the storekeeper, who brusquely tells you the price and barely waits for you to pay him before he moves on to help another customer. The variety of fruits and vegetables is phenomenal - giant gourds and squashes larger than pumpkins sit next to apricots, plums, apples, persimmons, pomegranites, and fresh figs. So many varieties of cucumbersd, peppers, tomatoes. Stacks and stacks of bundles of fresh parsely, cilantro, dill, and mint. Spices that are shoveled into bags in large quantities so that you can bring it home and have enough cumin for I don't know, at least seven years. It is hot, crowded, and it is hard to get in and out of the store to make your purchase, but the produce is excellent and cheap. There are some things you can't get at the shuk- prepared foods, milk, eggs in reasonable quantities, but for the experience and for what you can get, it definately seems worth it. Just maybe next time I won't go on a Friday morning?

(PS - yes, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, it is a lot like St. Lawrence Market, only everything is happening fast, and tons of people are there, and it is much bigger, and outside, and everythign is in Hebrew, and the produce reflects the fact that we are in the Middle East.)

A Shuk Misadventure: A Confession

Earlier today I decided to go to the shuk to purchase some much-needed groceries. I left the apartment, map and directions in hand, and nervously proceeded to the market area, just a few blocks from our apartment.
I came to an area full of little one-room stores selling all manner of goods. Rows and rows of juice bars, shoe stores, and clothes stores with rich and vibrant colors bedecked the hot and glimmeringly bright pavement of Jerusalem stone. Lines of busses crowded the road, and pedestrians walked through construction areas nonchalantly, chattering through the noise of a drill grinding into the pavement. They spoke in Hebrew, but their clothing identified them as members of many different communties - Orthodox men with black hats and tzittzit, Orthodox women with long sleeves, skirts, and thick stockings, women who were conservatively dressed but in more Middle Eastern rather than European styles (bright scarves over their heads rather than hats or snoods), men in button up shirts, men and women in t-shirts and shorts, and women in Muslim-looking attire. I imagne that in time I will come to understand better the distinctions that this clothing does or does not signify (a friend of mine who lived for a time in Jerusalem told me that as she came to understand the importance of clothing in Jerusalem as a socio-religious signifier she became uncomfortable with being so labled and categorized), but for now it all merely added to the color and energy of the area.
After quite a bit of wandering, I finally stumbled upon a food store, where I made a few very heavy purchases (cans of beans, a jar of mustard, etc). I needed to find some fresh fruit and vegetables and then I would be content to return home. I carried the heavy bags, shifting them uncomfortably from arm to arm as I found myself on streets I could not find on my little map (granted I am rubbish at reading maps...). I continued to wander, knowing that little was at stake as I would eventually either find myself at home or call Daniel for help. Eventually, quite a bit later, I found myself back on a familiar road and made my way to our apartment, without the fruit and vegetables, tired and with aching arms.
When I returned home, I opened my bags to find that I had taken not only my bags but someone else's as well! I had pilfered someone's bananas and chicken breast! I felt terrible, but knew that the person was probably long gone and didn't know if I would be able to find my way back to the store where I'd made the purchase, so I put the chicken in the refrigerator until we can find a friend who wants it (D and I are both vegetarians).
When I told this story to Daniel, he surmised that I might never have actually made it to the shuk, which is why I didn't see any food stores. So the upshot of all of this is that I went grocery shopping and returned hours later with only some of what I'd wanted to purchase, and some items I'd never purchased at all! Embarrassed and tired, I reassured myself that probably everyone is just as clueless on their first day in Jerusalem, right??