Birthdays, Take Two

Yesterday was Rena's golden birthday (she turned 23 on the 23rd) and we celebrated accordingly by seeing Idan Raichel perform in the golden city of Jerusalem.

For those who don't know, Idan Raichel is a musician who has brought African and Ethiopian music back to Israel. For those in the Jewish music scene, you may be familiar with his songs "Boi" and "Im Telech." If you're going to take my advice and buy the new Jason Mraz album, pick up Idan's album as well. It's amazing. And if you're afraid of the language barrier, the message is clear in any language and you'll be singing along in no time.

So in honor of Rena's bday as well as the end of ulpan, many of my classmates and I went to see him perform at the Israel Museum (home of the infamous wine tatsting earlier this summer). It's quickly becoming one of my favorite places in the city. Maybe one day I'll actually see the art that's inside the building!

So the concert...The night air was cool, the stars bright and the smell of the rosemary was so potent- it changed the whole feel of the show and added this organic, earthy feel to it all. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to to smell rosemary and not think about last night. We also had chocolate mouse cake (big thanks to Lauren and Alon for getting it!). Did I mention we were in Jerusalem? It was basically a perfect night.

IR played for two hours with his amazing band- a drummer, bassist, 2 guitarists and 3 *fantastic* backup singers. I've never seen musicians who were so into the performance and looked like they were having fun while performing. The first pic is of the three backup singers- its hard to see them, but you get the idea. The second is of Idan himself- make sure to enlarge the picture so you can see how cute he is!

I've been in Israel for 51 days and have already been to 2 concerts- not bad! Idan also made up for the fact that I missed Dar Williams performing in KOP over the weekend. Not to mention that her new CD is coming out on September 13 and I will be missing her fall tour. :( But I've seen Dar 7 times and Idan once...and I still have 9 months to squeeze in some more shows.

At this moment I am offically done with ulpan! Yayyyy! I'll blog later about today's acedemic orientation and my break plans. But for now, I'm on CHOFSHI KAYITZ (Summer break) and I'm loving it! Love to all who are reading!