It's only Friday, but already a great weekend

Thursday night, after experimenting with our gas oven for only the second time (it was a success, by the way) we decided to take a walk down to Ben Yehuda. En route, we heard a car blasting Israeli pop music. After all the cars had driven away, we realized that that music had not been blasting from the car, but from the free concert in the park nearby, so we strolled over and watched as hundreds of Israeli teens and tweens screamed and jumped to the beat of a handsome, fit, and energetic pop sensation clouded in smoke. It was actually a pretty good show. We then capped off the evening with ice cream.

Today we slept in (hurray for Friday being the weekend!) then hiked to the Old City to see the Kotel, Rina's school, and of course some students. On the way out of the city, we saw a sign promising great hope: The United Buddy Bears were here to bring peace to the Middle East! What could go wrong, with these painted ceramic woodland creatures here to foster love between two factions filled with loathing since the time of the Bible? I know that I will certainly sleep easier after seeing their Care Bear stare in action. For some reason, however, even though the plaque told us that all 138 nations recognized by the U.N. were represented, Canada was absent. Either we haven't cut the cord with the U.K., or the Buddy Bears don't see any value in our esteemed Hockey Stick Defense Corps. After wandering around for a bit, we went to what Rina promised would be outstanding shwarma, and she delivered. Melech HaFalafel was cheaper than whatever swarthy stand I visited last time, and had a salad bar. I'm not sure what their actual policy is, but I hit up the salad bar for three refills. Awesome. We have a new front runner in the Great Shwarma Race.

After lunch, we went to the shuk to buy our cheap-as-free groceries, including dessert for Shabbat. We then headed home to begin cooking and cleaning before the ridiculously early sabbath is upon us. On the way, someone asked us for directions to the nearest pharmacy, and I got to give my first ever "yashar yashar". Hurray!