Walking Distance

This afternoon I walked back from the shuk. Turns out it's not the best idea. At least, not when I have groceries to carry. I made it back without incident (luckily I had a big bottle of iced tea with me) but I think I'm just about beat for the rest of the afternoon/evening.

One thing I was looking for was a particular type of cutting board...not really a board, more like cutting sheets. I was able to learn how to say "cutting board" (קרש חתוך/keresh chituch) but I also discovered --to my chagrin-- quite a lot of words that are not in my vocabulary: "flexible," "you can roll it up," "not stiff." The good news is that I was able to communicate what I needed --I would roll up a piece of paper to demonstrate what I wanted or just keep saying "thinner, thinner" whenever they would show me a regular cutting board. The bad news is that none of the four places in the shuk nor the place right around the corner from me had what I was looking for. Some of them said they used to have them and were all out. I think one guy was trying to tell me that the company that used to make them didn't sell them anymore. And one woman did in fact have an example of what I wanted but it was her only one and she said she couldn't sell it to me.

I did a better job of saying "No" to things I didn't want in the shuk this time. I still need lots of practice, but it's a good arena for learning this vital skill.

Next time I will either figure out how to catch a bus that takes me to a bus that goes by my house or splurge on a cab (though the cost of the cab likely cancels out the savings of buying at the shuk).

Oh! And I learned how to say "cardamom." Oddly enough, the word is הל --pronounced "hell." That one I figured out because I recognized the seeds and was then able to ask for the ground stuff (and by "ask for" I mean "point to.")