a lot can happen in a day or two

its funny how the stories seem to accumulate. Even something as simple as wandering the street has started to turn into an adventure. Yesterday was hectic, but fun. Starting Sunday my head was once again bothering me so I returned to the doctor I had gone to a few weeks ago and told him that the problem had returned. He gave me a prescription and I decided to make an evening of it and go to an insurance-company-approved pharmacy on the other side of town, halfway between my grandmothers house and my uncle dannys. That way I would be able to visit my grandmother as well. And, since shed only be free between 6 & 7 I decided to go to the pharmacy between 5 and 530 and then visit with her. Arriving at the bus stop at approximately 4.45 I was expecting the bus to come any moment. It didn't. After a while I started talking with a woman who was standing there and since we were both waiting for the same bus we jointly expressed our frustration. After nearly half an hour I called Egged, the bus company, and they said that the next bus should be there at 5.15. 10 minutes away we eagerly waited as we both wanted to get a move on things. While waiting I was pleasently surprised when my cousin Eliezer stopped by to get his bus. We spoke for a bit but his bus arrived pretty quickly and off he went. By 5.25 my bus still hadn't arrived. Nervous/frustrated, I once again called Egged and they siad they didn't know why the bus hadn't come, but there should be one there in five minutes. This one came, and unfortunatly that was only half the story.
When the bus came it was packed. Everyone was standing as there was 1 and 1/2 hours worth of people waiting to get on that line. Sardines to start with, the bus only became more full as we went through town. The driver stopped at every stop and picked people up, but when the entrance to the bus became too full he simply started letting people crowd the back exit and letting them on for free. We could barely breath. When I got off, after around 1/2 an hour, I went straight to my grandmother and had a very pleasent evening with her. I then went to the pharmacist and to summarize the story I couldn't fill the prescription. Stupidity but whatever. Thankfully the evening wasn't over yet.
Monday nights are my "Media Noche" (Cuban Salsa by students for students) class nights and they are simply superb. It was my second lesson and I moved up from basic to beginner. It was fun. Class started off with learning one specific dance to King Africas La Bomba and then we went back to learn the routines of salsa (and hour and a half) followed by another hour of sweaty intense latin dances, not all salsa. I got back to the student village past midnight and then spent an hour on instant messanger with one of my Madrichim.
THis morning my schedule --Drisha, in hebrew_ was to go to the Ultra Orthodox neighborhood of Meah Shearim and then to go to the Souk. The former to get a new pair of Tzitzit + a new Yamulka and the latter to get some groceries. SO i go and get a bit lost. I asked one man for directions to a store and he said he didn't know. The second man I asked not only knew where there was a store but agreed to take me there and proved to be very nice conversation. Well, we arrived at the store 10 minutes before it opened and as we were in the midst of a discussion about faith and other philisophical/theological topics he said we should head to the building next door where there was a Beit Medrish, study hall, we could learn in for a few minutes. Turns out it was the main Breslov study hall in Israel and he was a very devout Breslov Chasid. So we sat and learnt, me feeling a bit out of place in jeans and a yellow button down shirt while everyone around me was wearing full chasidic garb of bekeshes and long peyus. After nealry 20-30min of study they announced that there was about to be a Brit milah, circumcision ceremony. Okay, I thought, this is kinda cool. So we're watching and the baby is placed in a chair, as it is traditionally, but its not just any chair. THey took this chair out of a very special locked and gated glass cabinet. At first I thought it was simply a special chair, but the oens used at circumcision ceremonies always are. My host leaned over to me and whispered to me that this was not any old chair but the chair of the founder of the Chasidic sect and that in the two years he'd been attending this synagauge he had yet to see it used. When the ceremony was over he insisited that I get a a blessing from one member of the ceremony, who is considered like and infant and thus without sin. Then we sat down to make a blessing on a peice of cake, considered blessings of merit by a Brit. When we finished a man sat down next to us and my host once again insisted that I get a blessing from him. He then explained that both are very well known rabbis, whos names are unfortuantly slipping my mind. THough the latter is the son of a rabbi who lost sight at an early age and stopped speaking other then the bare minimum.
By now it was 11 and I had to get to the souk and back to campus by 12.15 for class. I ran as fast as I could, stocked up on some fruit vegetables and bought a new pot and made it abck just in time.
Thats it for now but I must admit that I am absolutly loving the random experiences that this land is throwing towards me!