I arrived in Jerusalem on Monday night. I spent my first day, Tuesday, unpacking and going grocery shopping. The markets are mostly small stores that have no fresh produce, etc.  The supermarkets are bigger but nothing like the ones we have. Produce and meats are limited. Things are identified in Hebrew with little or no English. So shopping is an adventure to say nothing about having to walk up and down hills to do your shopping. It turns out that my apartment is the high spot in the area.  Boy am I going to be in shape soon. So I have found an assortment of salads like baba ganoosh, humus, tomato/cucumber salad, beet salad, olives. I have been really enjoying those. I had fish for dinner the first two nights. Now I have a small steak and a few days worth of chicken. I have to plan ahead because I won’t be able to buy much on Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah. They celebrate Rosh Hashanah for two days. My class is a twenty minute walk downhill and a half an hour going back. It is very intensive. I was feeling frustrated yesterday but I have a more positive attitude today. Because of the holidays I don’t have class again until next Wednesday. After breakfast tomorrow I think I will walk over to the Old City, have some lunch there and check out the shuk. I figure it is a half hour walk but not as hilly as my walk to class. I still haven’t made contact with anyone. Will probably go to Kol Haneshama for erev Shabbat even though it is downhill. Hopefully I can get a ride or taxi back home so I am not walking back in the dark. I do feel very safe. I am mainly in a residential area and my neighbor two blocks down is Netanyahu. They have his street blocked off so I had to go a little out of my way to the market the other day. Also with the funeral for Peres tomorrow, they are expecting a lot of road closures and heightened security. Both the pope and Obama are supposed to be here. I would love to see some of this but I don’t think I am even going to try. An early Shabbat Shalom greeting.