I know it’s been a whole week since I wrote, but it’s because things have been so busy, not because I don’t love you!
Several people have mentioned security concerns, especially with my trips to the Machane Yehuda shuk. To do my best to address these concerns: After September 11, people in the US continued going to work every day, even in high rise office buildings. After the London subway bombing, people got up and took the subway to work. Here, if someone avoided places that had been bombed in the past, there would be nowhere to go. I understand that the shuk has been a center for bombing before. While there are many of us in my class here who avoid taking buses, we all go to the shuk. Most of us avoid the Old City on Friday mornings, when there are crowded prayer services on the Temple Mount. I try to avoid crazy crowds in general. I try to avoid the shuk during its peak times; I go on weekday afternoons after class, and never on Friday mornings when it’s packed with pre-Shabbat shoppers. Security here really has increased recently, especially with the current situation in Lebanon. Please understand that it is almost impossible to live here without going to certain places, and while I am always cautious and I do pay attention, I also want to live and experience Israeli culture this year, and not spend all my time in my apartment or at school worried about walking down the street. I do appreciate your concerns, but please try to appreciate that I am living here, not visiting for a week or two, and that I have to live.
It has been a very busy week though, which is why I haven’t had time to write. I can’t believe I’m already a third of the way through ulpan! I keep trying to use Hebrew when I talk to Israelis, but most of the time they hear my American accent and respond to me in English. It’s really hard to keep talking to them in Hebrew after that! Ulpan is going well though. I’m understanding a lot of what goes on in class, which is always nice, and we’re focusing more on grammar recently, which is great for me, because I am better at grammar than at vocabulary or speaking, so I’ve been feeling better about the class. We had a test on Wednesday, which I did not think was too bad, although we haven’t gotten it back yet. There were a couple people who thought it was horrible, so maybe I’m doing better than I thought! The teacher also keeps telling me to stop looking so worried, because I’m doing well. She recognizes that people in the class have very different strengths, and she promised me that she’s taught this class before, and it always evens out in the end. Yay:)
Classes end by 1:30 every day, which always seems like I have so much time to get things done. But then there are always programs to take up my time. This past week, we had two separate “ritual seminars,” a personalized tour of another part of Jerusalem, text study and field study of the first Temple period, and probably a couple of other things that I’m forgetting. The ritual seminars seem to be a taste of the liturgy classes we’ll be taking during the year. One afternoon we studied Birkat Hamazon, the prayer after meals, and the other afternoon we studied Kiddush, the wine/sanctification blessing, and Havdalah, the ceremony separating Shabbat from the rest of the week. At each of the seminars, we studied the text of the prayer, discussed its origins and differences between different versions of it, and at least started to learn the traditional chant for each of them. There are a lot of tone deaf people here! That said, there are also many, many people with beautiful voices. It all balances out.
The tour of Jerusalem was part of the same series as the one I went to last Tuesday. One of the Israeli rabbinic students is telling us, a week at a time, about his family’s history in Jerusalem, where they have lived for about 150 years. This week, we were talking about the history of his family around the time of Israeli independence. We sat in a classroom first, while he told us an amazing family story about a lost (and then found) family member, and then we walked to the part of the city where it happened, and he pointed things out along the way, like, “this is where my mother used to play every afternoon.” It was actually really cool. We ended up at a building about a 30 minute walk from campus where his mother grew up. He had talked to the people who now own the building and run their business out of it, and they let us come inside and look around. There is so much history here!
Wednesday night we had a text study looking at the first Temple period of Jewish history. On Thursday, we walked around Jerusalem, walking through the Valley of Gehinnom, the Hebrew name for hell. It was apparently a place where child sacrifices used to be offered, making the name much more appropriate. Now it’s a beautiful valley with a nice green park. Then we walked through parts of the Old City, looked in detail at a model of Jerusalem during that time period, and saw a still surviving “broad wall” that was part of the fortifications of the city. I think you could have driven a car across the top of the wall it was so wide. We’re divided into three groups for our Jerusalem Days Thursdays, and I lucked out and got a great group, so we have a great time no matter what, even if we’re sitting in a brief movie poking each other to wake up!
Thursday afternoon I went up to the shuk with a friend. Just on the walk there, I think we ran into a half dozen other HUC people on their way back from the shuk or another shopping trip, and then we ran into another 8 people or so once we were there. It’s a big city, and an enormous market, so I’m not sure why that always happens. Friends showed us which of the several cheese vendors is the “good cheese guy” who speaks English and is very friendly. I went into his booth to get some cheese, and ended up tasting a whole bunch of samples, which was really fun. I also found tomatoes for 1.8 shekels per kilogram. I haven’t done the whole conversion to dollars and pounds, but those are some cheap tomatoes. I also have a newfound appreciation now for the shuk cart, which is basically reusable shopping bag on wheels. I bought a half of a watermelon (in addition to a whole lot of other produce) and it was really easy to transport back on the 25 minute walk home!
Yesterday (Friday) I found a good bakery to buy challah for dinner, and spent much of the afternoon chopping vegetables for gazpacho. That’s right, at home I make it in a food processor. Here, I am the food processor. It looks and smells great, but I haven’t had any yet. It’s dinner tonight…and hopefully for more or less the rest of the week.
In between programs and errands, there have also been plenty of social gatherings. A friend and I made a delicious dinner, one of the best meals I’ve had since being here, of just a chicken with a good sauce and rice, and an Israeli salad. (Yes, mom, your recipe. I use your cookbook a lot and have even had requests for copies!) I was at a game/cards night at another friend’s place, which was a great time, and have had some other nights of just sitting and hanging out and having lots of random conversations about any topic. There have been Hebrew class study sessions, with several of us sitting together to get our homework done or study for a test, which is always more fun than doing it alone, if not always more productive. I’m definitely feeling more comfortable here every day, and recently came to the realization that I’ve been here for a whole month already! Wow.
On the note of the “situation,” my roommate just came into my room to tell me that Hezbollah is considering a cease-fire. I’ll believe it when it happens, but this is a nice step. If you’re looking for better-than-American coverage, try looking at http://www.haaretz.com/. It’s an Israeli paper online in English, and gives more information, less negatively toward Israel, than what you’ll see at home. It’s a nice change. Also, for more websites if you’re still reading, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkarpay/. If you don’t have a yahoo id, you might need to register for one, but that’s where I’m posting my Israel pictures now. It takes a really long time to load them on the blog, and I can only put up a few at a time. On Flikr I can put up lots of them, and quickly, and with fun captions! Only the HUC folder is from since I’ve been in Jerusalem.
I’m trying to personally answer emails, but there are many, and as my parents can tell you, it’s nothing personal! I’ll get there eventually, and I really do love getting them! Have a wonderful weekend, and I’m working on trying to update more often!
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Shabbat, again
Over the weekend, I had yet another great Shabbat. Please tell me if you get tired of reading about them! To me, each Shabbat here has been different and amazing in a variety of ways, and so different from anything I experience at home, which makes them more interesting, at least to me, to write about. If you have questions about anything I'm doing that I haven't mentioned, please let me know!
Fridays in Jerusalem are still so funny to me. I don't think the grocery store in Maryland before a snowstorm can compare to a grocery store in Jerusalem on a Friday. Everyone is stocking up for their Shabbat dinners, and also has to plan ahead a little bit. The stores close around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and they don't reopen until Saturday evening or Sunday morning! Needless to say, aisles are crowded, lines are long, and Israelis are...well, Israeli. I succeeded in preventing a pushy one from taking my place in the checkout line! I met up with a couple of friends to brave the crowds. I've found grocery shopping in a group to be more effective: it's more people to figure out what's on a label or whether what you're buying is really what you think it is. (It usually isn't. I have yet to find out whether my intended tomato paste really is. I'm hoping.) In addition to the three of us who went together, I think we ran into another 8 or 10 HUC people inside the supermarket, and that was just in the 45 minutes we were there, and only at the one supermarket! It's always nice though for making last minute plans and getting extra recommendations on food. Then it was back home to get ready for Shabbat.
I had decided for Shabbat to meet up with a group of people who I haven't spent much time with, but really had fun with during our Jerusalem Days trip on Thursday. A few of us met up before services to walk to Kol HaNishamah, where I had been on my first Shabbat but the later arrivals had not yet experienced. About 8 of us walked down there together, a leisurely 30 minute walk away. We were slightly worried about finding seats together, knowing that this synagogue tends to fill up, but we also have to keep reminding ourselves that early for an Israeli is the published start time. Needless to say, arriving 10 minutes before services were scheduled to start, we had no problem finding seats. And then we watched the door as more and more HUC people walked in. There was a good sized group of us by the time we got started. I liked the service there more this time than I had when I went a few weeks ago, possibly because it felt like a more authentic experience and less like they were performing for so many guests, and possibly because I appreciate the looser form more after having been to a few fairly classical Reform HUC services. I was also excited because the announcements and D'var Torah were given only in Hebrew, and I understood some of what was said!
After services, we went to one of the few restaurants that's open on Shabbat. We had agreed that none of us felt like doing all the work necessary for hosting, and that therefore we were really going to rest, and let someone serve us. Yes, that was the rationalization for going out to eat on Shabbat. It was enough. We ran into two other groups of HUC people there as well. Their food is really yummy, and a great Shabbat dinner was had by all...and I even had leftovers! Shabbats get late though. Services run from about 6:30 until 8, so we didn't get to dinner until almost 8:30. The restaurant is not speedy, so we left there around 10 or 10:30. It just doesn't matter though, because we really have nothing else to do for 25 hours aside from eating, sleeping, and socializing! And some services.
After dinner, we hiked (really...another half hour walk) to Emily's apartment in a part of the city I had not yet visited. Her apartment is beautiful though, and the night was worth the walk! A bigger group, probably about 10-15 of us, got together there for dessert and fun. We hung out, ate some more, played cards, and just enjoyed each other's company for a couple of hours until our exhaustion caught up with us and we all decided to call it a night. A lot of us were walking back in the same direction though, so we took a shortcut through a park. And stopped to play on the playground for a few minutes. (Yes, it was after 1 am. Playgrounds are more fun that way.)
Saturday morning services were not in the cards this Shabbat. I slept until I had to get up to get ready for lunch. Another classmate had invited my roommates and I over, so we went to her place. It turned out that in addition to the three of us, also there were her roommate, a friend from outside HUC, and two other non-HUC friends. The food was really good, and it was one of those long Shabbat lunches that covers almost every topic you can think of. I had a great time! I think we left around 4, all intending to go home and nap. I got around to the nap eventually, after some reading, some laundry, and some phone calls. It was shorter than I would have liked, but it gave me enough energy to get through the rest of the day.
We had another group Havdalah this week. I think Havdalah is one of my most favorite services. It always sounds good and starts the week off right. Unfortunately I couldn't linger for the post-Havdalah jam session that generally occurs, because I had a Hebrew essay to write.
And so the week began. Bonus: today in Hebrew, the teacher told me to stop looking so worried all the time; I was doing great! I thought that was encouraging:) That, and I really understood everything that happened in class today. It was a nice change!
More soon...keep the emails and comments coming:)
Fridays in Jerusalem are still so funny to me. I don't think the grocery store in Maryland before a snowstorm can compare to a grocery store in Jerusalem on a Friday. Everyone is stocking up for their Shabbat dinners, and also has to plan ahead a little bit. The stores close around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and they don't reopen until Saturday evening or Sunday morning! Needless to say, aisles are crowded, lines are long, and Israelis are...well, Israeli. I succeeded in preventing a pushy one from taking my place in the checkout line! I met up with a couple of friends to brave the crowds. I've found grocery shopping in a group to be more effective: it's more people to figure out what's on a label or whether what you're buying is really what you think it is. (It usually isn't. I have yet to find out whether my intended tomato paste really is. I'm hoping.) In addition to the three of us who went together, I think we ran into another 8 or 10 HUC people inside the supermarket, and that was just in the 45 minutes we were there, and only at the one supermarket! It's always nice though for making last minute plans and getting extra recommendations on food. Then it was back home to get ready for Shabbat.
I had decided for Shabbat to meet up with a group of people who I haven't spent much time with, but really had fun with during our Jerusalem Days trip on Thursday. A few of us met up before services to walk to Kol HaNishamah, where I had been on my first Shabbat but the later arrivals had not yet experienced. About 8 of us walked down there together, a leisurely 30 minute walk away. We were slightly worried about finding seats together, knowing that this synagogue tends to fill up, but we also have to keep reminding ourselves that early for an Israeli is the published start time. Needless to say, arriving 10 minutes before services were scheduled to start, we had no problem finding seats. And then we watched the door as more and more HUC people walked in. There was a good sized group of us by the time we got started. I liked the service there more this time than I had when I went a few weeks ago, possibly because it felt like a more authentic experience and less like they were performing for so many guests, and possibly because I appreciate the looser form more after having been to a few fairly classical Reform HUC services. I was also excited because the announcements and D'var Torah were given only in Hebrew, and I understood some of what was said!
After services, we went to one of the few restaurants that's open on Shabbat. We had agreed that none of us felt like doing all the work necessary for hosting, and that therefore we were really going to rest, and let someone serve us. Yes, that was the rationalization for going out to eat on Shabbat. It was enough. We ran into two other groups of HUC people there as well. Their food is really yummy, and a great Shabbat dinner was had by all...and I even had leftovers! Shabbats get late though. Services run from about 6:30 until 8, so we didn't get to dinner until almost 8:30. The restaurant is not speedy, so we left there around 10 or 10:30. It just doesn't matter though, because we really have nothing else to do for 25 hours aside from eating, sleeping, and socializing! And some services.
After dinner, we hiked (really...another half hour walk) to Emily's apartment in a part of the city I had not yet visited. Her apartment is beautiful though, and the night was worth the walk! A bigger group, probably about 10-15 of us, got together there for dessert and fun. We hung out, ate some more, played cards, and just enjoyed each other's company for a couple of hours until our exhaustion caught up with us and we all decided to call it a night. A lot of us were walking back in the same direction though, so we took a shortcut through a park. And stopped to play on the playground for a few minutes. (Yes, it was after 1 am. Playgrounds are more fun that way.)
Saturday morning services were not in the cards this Shabbat. I slept until I had to get up to get ready for lunch. Another classmate had invited my roommates and I over, so we went to her place. It turned out that in addition to the three of us, also there were her roommate, a friend from outside HUC, and two other non-HUC friends. The food was really good, and it was one of those long Shabbat lunches that covers almost every topic you can think of. I had a great time! I think we left around 4, all intending to go home and nap. I got around to the nap eventually, after some reading, some laundry, and some phone calls. It was shorter than I would have liked, but it gave me enough energy to get through the rest of the day.
We had another group Havdalah this week. I think Havdalah is one of my most favorite services. It always sounds good and starts the week off right. Unfortunately I couldn't linger for the post-Havdalah jam session that generally occurs, because I had a Hebrew essay to write.
And so the week began. Bonus: today in Hebrew, the teacher told me to stop looking so worried all the time; I was doing great! I thought that was encouraging:) That, and I really understood everything that happened in class today. It was a nice change!
More soon...keep the emails and comments coming:)
Friday, July 21, 2006
Jerusalem, City of David
Yesterday was our first day trip to really explore Jewish history hands on. Wednesday night we met in smaller groups to do some text study about David and the origins of the city of Jerusalem. They divided our class into three, and the group I ended up with is great! That is always exciting. We met bright and early Thursday morning to head "into the field" to study history. First we went to a series of promenades that overlook the whole city. We had shacharit services outside under some trees overlooking Jerusalem. It was beautiful. (Need proof? In the middle of our service, a small group came past us. A short way down the path from where we were praying, they were setting up for a Bar Mitzvah service.) We then sat under trees to do some more informal study of the city, which was amazing, because rather than point to a map, the professor could point to a specific hill and tell us events that happened right there.
We walked all along a ridge with ever-changing views of the city, and then got back on the buses to head to the city of David. King David was before the first Temple and didn't actually settle the area inside what we think of as the Old City, but rather just outside of it. We looked at some buildings and caves that were probably burial places from thousands of years ago. We were standing on the site where David probably had his palace. We were overlooking buildings below us on the hill and giggling about his view of the city, where, as the story goes, people bathed on their roofs. The king was at the top of the hill. He could see it all, even if he wasn't trying. We then went on to explore the water system, which is how legend (although not history) tells that David conquered the city. This was the part of the day I was the most nervous about. To protect their water sources from potential conquerors, ancient cities used to bury their springs and divert them, sometimes via long tunnels, to somewhere within the middle of the city. We were going to walk through the tunnel built a couple of kings after David, but through his city. Hezekiah's Tunnel is narrow. In most parts, standing with my arms at my sides, both arms were lightly touching the walls to my left and right. In parts I could stand up straight without a problem, but in parts I had to duck down some. I'm not very tall. My 6 foot 5 inch friend who was right behind me had few times when he could stand up straight. We were in the tunnel for about 40 minutes. Also, because it used to be the water source, there is water running through the whole thing. At the deepest, it was about thigh-deep (on me), but for most of the way it was a few inches below my knees. There are no lights. We all held flashlights. There is a big sign at the beginning cautioning anyone claustrophobic about going through. It's also an underground tunnel and underground water source. The air is cold. So is the water. But I made it! In single file (obviously) we all waded our way through, talking and singing as we trudged through. I did not, however, take any pictures, as I was trying my hardest to focus simply on walking through without noticing how small and enclosed the tunnel was. If you google "Hezekiah's tunnel" you can find pictures if you want them, and I will stalk my friends' blogs to see if I can "borrow" any pictures to post here. Nobody walking near me was taking any though.
Once we got back from the field trip, the rest of the afternoon was free, and I did some relaxing, reading, emailing, and other equally productive time-sucking activities. It was nice:) Some friends were making dinner, so I went over there, and we ended up staying there and talking for hours, as seems to happen a lot. Topics ranged from the current situation over here to our Hebrew classes to what else we want to study to gender differences and age differences, to several other fairly heavy topics...but with plenty of fun comments and side conversations thrown in. I came home and collapsed into bed, excited that for the first time in over a week, I didn't have to set an alarm clock this morning!
On the rest of today's program: laundry, Hebrew, grocery store. I know you're jealous. But then it's Shabbat:)
Shabbat Shalom!
We walked all along a ridge with ever-changing views of the city, and then got back on the buses to head to the city of David. King David was before the first Temple and didn't actually settle the area inside what we think of as the Old City, but rather just outside of it. We looked at some buildings and caves that were probably burial places from thousands of years ago. We were standing on the site where David probably had his palace. We were overlooking buildings below us on the hill and giggling about his view of the city, where, as the story goes, people bathed on their roofs. The king was at the top of the hill. He could see it all, even if he wasn't trying. We then went on to explore the water system, which is how legend (although not history) tells that David conquered the city. This was the part of the day I was the most nervous about. To protect their water sources from potential conquerors, ancient cities used to bury their springs and divert them, sometimes via long tunnels, to somewhere within the middle of the city. We were going to walk through the tunnel built a couple of kings after David, but through his city. Hezekiah's Tunnel is narrow. In most parts, standing with my arms at my sides, both arms were lightly touching the walls to my left and right. In parts I could stand up straight without a problem, but in parts I had to duck down some. I'm not very tall. My 6 foot 5 inch friend who was right behind me had few times when he could stand up straight. We were in the tunnel for about 40 minutes. Also, because it used to be the water source, there is water running through the whole thing. At the deepest, it was about thigh-deep (on me), but for most of the way it was a few inches below my knees. There are no lights. We all held flashlights. There is a big sign at the beginning cautioning anyone claustrophobic about going through. It's also an underground tunnel and underground water source. The air is cold. So is the water. But I made it! In single file (obviously) we all waded our way through, talking and singing as we trudged through. I did not, however, take any pictures, as I was trying my hardest to focus simply on walking through without noticing how small and enclosed the tunnel was. If you google "Hezekiah's tunnel" you can find pictures if you want them, and I will stalk my friends' blogs to see if I can "borrow" any pictures to post here. Nobody walking near me was taking any though.
Once we got back from the field trip, the rest of the afternoon was free, and I did some relaxing, reading, emailing, and other equally productive time-sucking activities. It was nice:) Some friends were making dinner, so I went over there, and we ended up staying there and talking for hours, as seems to happen a lot. Topics ranged from the current situation over here to our Hebrew classes to what else we want to study to gender differences and age differences, to several other fairly heavy topics...but with plenty of fun comments and side conversations thrown in. I came home and collapsed into bed, excited that for the first time in over a week, I didn't have to set an alarm clock this morning!
On the rest of today's program: laundry, Hebrew, grocery store. I know you're jealous. But then it's Shabbat:)
Shabbat Shalom!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Kitah Hey, Week 1
A week of Hebrew class under my belt! This doesn't mean my Hebrew's much better. But I have put in a lot of hours of class time.
The summer is going to be exhausting. Hebrew runs from 8:30-10, 10:30-12, and 12:15-1:00, Sunday through Wednesday (with slight schedule changes on days when we have to go to morning services). In addition, we have Wednesday evening seminars about Israeli history (in English), day trips around Jerusalem on Thursdays, and various other required and optional programs all summer long. And plenty of Hebrew homework in between.
I was placed into Kitah Hey, which is the highest of the five levels. Having not done much Hebrew since sophomore year of college, I was surprised (ok, shocked) that I placed so high, and a little terrified to start class. The class is about 12 people, although the number keeps changing as people switch up and down levels. Between half to two-thirds of the class has not spent significant time in Israel, meaning that the remainder has decided to make Aliyah, or has been here studying for a year already, and/or is dating someone Israeli, or served in the Israeli Army for over a year. It's a little intimidating. But while some of their speaking skills and vocabularies are far superior to mine, I understand most of what goes on in class, and I have heard that the class one level lower is doing much easier work. The people who have been switching between Hey and Dalet say that for several of them, Dalet is fairly easy, and Hey is somewhat difficult. I think I'm going to stick it out, and work to keep up with the class. I'm sort of looking forward to the challenge.
What do we do in Hebrew class? It's feeling somewhat similar to a high school English class right now. Part of the time we spend working on grammar, but there's always vocabulary included. Some of the time we're reading stories, also always with new vocabulary. We read the stories, talk about them, answer questions, and write an essay. Just like high school. We read the newspaper, with lots and lots of new vocabulary. I think the teacher is trying to prove that we really can follow what's going on in the world, as long as we have patience...and a dictionary! Yesterday and today we read an excerpt from a story by Amos Oz. Since people read him in English translation at home, I thought it was pretty cool to read the original...and learn that his writing is not too hard to understand! I have to write a (short) essay about that reading this weekend though. I'm not sure how much I'll like him by Sunday.
Tuesday afternoon we had an optional activity, the beginning of a five-part walking tour of the city led by one of the students in HUC's Israeli rabbinic program, Nir. Tuesday's tour was to show where his family first settled in Jerusalem something like 150 years ago, and then where they moved when they left the old city. The walk through the Old City was really cool. His great grandfather (great, great? I don't remember) had a store in the Christian quarter, so that's where we were walking, and we stopped right in front of his former store to talk about it. The current store owners were outside hanging out, and listened to everything he said to us, and then actually stopped him to talk for a minute afterwards. Then we went to the "Austrian Hospice," but apparently it was built as what we would think of as more like a Hostel, right on Via Delarosa, which Christians believe was Jesus's path before crucifixion. We did pass a big group of Brazilian pilgrims following that path. Possibly the highlight of the afternoon was on the roof of the hospice. We had to climb a LOT of steps, but the view was incredibly worth it. The pictures are from the roof. The first one is the Mount of Olives, where tradition teaches the Messiah will come first. If you can't tell, the hill is covered in graves, because since it's supposed to be the Messiah's first "stop," it's a popular burial place. The others are pictures in various directions from the roof. The Jewish Quarter is somewhat downhill, so it's hard to see.
Tomorrow we're going to many more historical sites, so hopefully I'll manage to make good use of camera then as well!
The summer is going to be exhausting. Hebrew runs from 8:30-10, 10:30-12, and 12:15-1:00, Sunday through Wednesday (with slight schedule changes on days when we have to go to morning services). In addition, we have Wednesday evening seminars about Israeli history (in English), day trips around Jerusalem on Thursdays, and various other required and optional programs all summer long. And plenty of Hebrew homework in between.
I was placed into Kitah Hey, which is the highest of the five levels. Having not done much Hebrew since sophomore year of college, I was surprised (ok, shocked) that I placed so high, and a little terrified to start class. The class is about 12 people, although the number keeps changing as people switch up and down levels. Between half to two-thirds of the class has not spent significant time in Israel, meaning that the remainder has decided to make Aliyah, or has been here studying for a year already, and/or is dating someone Israeli, or served in the Israeli Army for over a year. It's a little intimidating. But while some of their speaking skills and vocabularies are far superior to mine, I understand most of what goes on in class, and I have heard that the class one level lower is doing much easier work. The people who have been switching between Hey and Dalet say that for several of them, Dalet is fairly easy, and Hey is somewhat difficult. I think I'm going to stick it out, and work to keep up with the class. I'm sort of looking forward to the challenge.
What do we do in Hebrew class? It's feeling somewhat similar to a high school English class right now. Part of the time we spend working on grammar, but there's always vocabulary included. Some of the time we're reading stories, also always with new vocabulary. We read the stories, talk about them, answer questions, and write an essay. Just like high school. We read the newspaper, with lots and lots of new vocabulary. I think the teacher is trying to prove that we really can follow what's going on in the world, as long as we have patience...and a dictionary! Yesterday and today we read an excerpt from a story by Amos Oz. Since people read him in English translation at home, I thought it was pretty cool to read the original...and learn that his writing is not too hard to understand! I have to write a (short) essay about that reading this weekend though. I'm not sure how much I'll like him by Sunday.
Tuesday afternoon we had an optional activity, the beginning of a five-part walking tour of the city led by one of the students in HUC's Israeli rabbinic program, Nir. Tuesday's tour was to show where his family first settled in Jerusalem something like 150 years ago, and then where they moved when they left the old city. The walk through the Old City was really cool. His great grandfather (great, great? I don't remember) had a store in the Christian quarter, so that's where we were walking, and we stopped right in front of his former store to talk about it. The current store owners were outside hanging out, and listened to everything he said to us, and then actually stopped him to talk for a minute afterwards. Then we went to the "Austrian Hospice," but apparently it was built as what we would think of as more like a Hostel, right on Via Delarosa, which Christians believe was Jesus's path before crucifixion. We did pass a big group of Brazilian pilgrims following that path. Possibly the highlight of the afternoon was on the roof of the hospice. We had to climb a LOT of steps, but the view was incredibly worth it. The pictures are from the roof. The first one is the Mount of Olives, where tradition teaches the Messiah will come first. If you can't tell, the hill is covered in graves, because since it's supposed to be the Messiah's first "stop," it's a popular burial place. The others are pictures in various directions from the roof. The Jewish Quarter is somewhat downhill, so it's hard to see.
Tomorrow we're going to many more historical sites, so hopefully I'll manage to make good use of camera then as well!
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Shabbat Peace
You may not believe it, but I just finished the most peaceful Shabbat I've had here, and one of the best in a long, long time.
Late Friday afternoon, the whole incoming HUC class was asked to be at school an hour and a half before services. We did a Torah study about Shabbat in the Torah, just working in partners and small groups, and it made me look forward, even more, to classes starting for real in September. Just before services started, I was thrilled to see Rabbi Perlin walk into the sanctuary, and even more thrilled to get a great big hug. Hugs from home are definitely needed and appreciated over here! Services, led again by the interns, were one of the most comfortable I've been to since being here, which was great. After services, we had dinner with a visiting alumni group, so I sat at a table with a bunch of students and Rabbi Perlin. It was great to catch up with news from Temple B'nai Shalom and such a friendly face! No, we didn't plan to match.
Saturday morning services were in a different sanctuary, one added much later, which has an entire glass front overlooking the Old City. It's beautiful! The services weren't exactly in my favorite style, but they were nice, and there was a good view to make up for it! All of this weekend's sermons and speakers referenced the "situation," but things really haven't changed here in Jerusalem. It's hard to believe, but we're pretty removed from everything. I spent the afternoon quietly, just hanging out with friends.
Saturday evening, about 20-25 of us got together for Havdalah. We met up on a patio overlooking the Old City. When we first got there, there was another group already doing their own Havdalah, so we waited until they were done. By the time we were ready to get started, another group had arrived to do Havdalah. Apparently it's a good spot! We invited them to join us, but they declined, so since they started first, we sang some other songs and waited until they were finished. There was another couple watching us and clearly enjoying our three-guitar service, which was really nice. After Havdalah, we stayed there and just sang a whole bunch of (Hebrew) songs for peace for a good half hour. While we were singing, another (clearly foreign) group showed up, and when we didn't show signs of finishing, they went elsewhere. But as they were leaving, several people took pictures of our group. So I have now been part of a tourist attraction in Israel! It was only about an hour total, but it was an amazing evening.
Shavuah Tov...have a good week!
Late Friday afternoon, the whole incoming HUC class was asked to be at school an hour and a half before services. We did a Torah study about Shabbat in the Torah, just working in partners and small groups, and it made me look forward, even more, to classes starting for real in September. Just before services started, I was thrilled to see Rabbi Perlin walk into the sanctuary, and even more thrilled to get a great big hug. Hugs from home are definitely needed and appreciated over here! Services, led again by the interns, were one of the most comfortable I've been to since being here, which was great. After services, we had dinner with a visiting alumni group, so I sat at a table with a bunch of students and Rabbi Perlin. It was great to catch up with news from Temple B'nai Shalom and such a friendly face! No, we didn't plan to match.
Saturday morning services were in a different sanctuary, one added much later, which has an entire glass front overlooking the Old City. It's beautiful! The services weren't exactly in my favorite style, but they were nice, and there was a good view to make up for it! All of this weekend's sermons and speakers referenced the "situation," but things really haven't changed here in Jerusalem. It's hard to believe, but we're pretty removed from everything. I spent the afternoon quietly, just hanging out with friends.
Saturday evening, about 20-25 of us got together for Havdalah. We met up on a patio overlooking the Old City. When we first got there, there was another group already doing their own Havdalah, so we waited until they were done. By the time we were ready to get started, another group had arrived to do Havdalah. Apparently it's a good spot! We invited them to join us, but they declined, so since they started first, we sang some other songs and waited until they were finished. There was another couple watching us and clearly enjoying our three-guitar service, which was really nice. After Havdalah, we stayed there and just sang a whole bunch of (Hebrew) songs for peace for a good half hour. While we were singing, another (clearly foreign) group showed up, and when we didn't show signs of finishing, they went elsewhere. But as they were leaving, several people took pictures of our group. So I have now been part of a tourist attraction in Israel! It was only about an hour total, but it was an amazing evening.
Shavuah Tov...have a good week!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Orientation
My two weeks of freely roaming Jerusalem are over, I've had some orientation, and classes start Sunday!
Monday (the day after the Tel Aviv trip) was our last full day off. Some friends and I went down a fun shopping street after lunch, just looking in all the random stores. Amy and I stayed behind at a coffee shop to put in some good long work on our Hebrew placement tests, a take home test they gave us a week and a half to do, but which was due, of course, on Tuesday morning. We met up with a big group for dinner, finding a good housewares/hardware store on the way, as well as another supermarket! We spent the evening playing cards and hanging out, not the early-to-bed night as planned. As usual.
Tuesday was fairly uneventful, but the first day (sort of) of orientation. We had a session with our health insurance provider, where he gave us all the details of the plan. The session basically repeated the point that if it's a pre-existing condition, it's not covered. If there's nothing wrong with you, like a check-up, it's not covered. Otherwise it is. Except it took a while to go over all that... I took a trip to the shuk after that, more as a social event than as a shopping trip, but I couldn't go and buy nothing! So I went to the cheese guy and pointed to one and bought some. Israeli cheese is amazing, and I still haven't met a cheese I didn't like. This new one's good too, although I still don't know exactly what it is. That evening, we had a get-to-know-you session with the interns, which I'm not sure anyone was really looking forward to, since most of us have been here getting to know each other for at least a week. But it wasn't too painful:)
Yesterday was the first real day of orientation: a morning service, welcome speeches by everyone, and the like. I was pleasantly surprised though. Although the service was far more traditional than I expected, the speakers during the day were all good! They were interesting and didn't all repeat each other, which can be rare during an orientation! I felt welcomed and overwhelmed and excited to start and a lot of other things.
Today was more orientation, but slightly less well done than yesterday. This morning's service was more upbeat, which was nice. But our first speaker of the day was talking to us about culture shock, and her basic point seemed to be that we'll never quite fit in with Israelis, so we shouldn't really try. Which I don't think was the point she was trying to make, but clearly she wasn't so effective. The rest of the morning was similarly exciting. After lunch we had an "Israel Update," where the Israel professor talked to us about the current situation. Given the craziness of what's going on, he was surprisingly reassuring. The main point: Jerusalem is not close to either Gaza or the Lebanon border. Life is going on as normal here, just with a little more security than the usual, which is already more than at home. Then we had our Security Briefing. For the record, both events have been on the schedule for a while, and it just turned out to be interesting timing. The security briefing was less focused on the current situation and more on emergency procedures and traveling around Israel in general. I think I'll be staying put in Jerusalem for now, thanks:)
The excitement of the day was when our Hebrew classes were posted this morning. They divide us into five levels, based on the placement test and also, apparently, on the proficiency exam we took at the interview. The levels are not broken at pre-determined points, but instead split up by numbers, so approximately the bottom 20% is in Alef, the next 20% in Bet, and so on, up through level Hey. I was guessing I'd be in about Gimel (3) or Dalet (4) if I was lucky. Somehow I ended up in Hey! I'm excited to be in the highest class, but also shocked, since I don't think my Hebrew is that good, and a little terrified, since there are several people in the class who have been living in Israel already for 6 months and a lot longer. I guess I'll be working hard this summer! Starting Sunday, we have Hebrew for about 5 hours a day, 4 days a week, and then some other seminars and trips around the city in the afternoons and on Thursdays. I'll let you know how it all goes once I get started!
Monday (the day after the Tel Aviv trip) was our last full day off. Some friends and I went down a fun shopping street after lunch, just looking in all the random stores. Amy and I stayed behind at a coffee shop to put in some good long work on our Hebrew placement tests, a take home test they gave us a week and a half to do, but which was due, of course, on Tuesday morning. We met up with a big group for dinner, finding a good housewares/hardware store on the way, as well as another supermarket! We spent the evening playing cards and hanging out, not the early-to-bed night as planned. As usual.
Tuesday was fairly uneventful, but the first day (sort of) of orientation. We had a session with our health insurance provider, where he gave us all the details of the plan. The session basically repeated the point that if it's a pre-existing condition, it's not covered. If there's nothing wrong with you, like a check-up, it's not covered. Otherwise it is. Except it took a while to go over all that... I took a trip to the shuk after that, more as a social event than as a shopping trip, but I couldn't go and buy nothing! So I went to the cheese guy and pointed to one and bought some. Israeli cheese is amazing, and I still haven't met a cheese I didn't like. This new one's good too, although I still don't know exactly what it is. That evening, we had a get-to-know-you session with the interns, which I'm not sure anyone was really looking forward to, since most of us have been here getting to know each other for at least a week. But it wasn't too painful:)
Yesterday was the first real day of orientation: a morning service, welcome speeches by everyone, and the like. I was pleasantly surprised though. Although the service was far more traditional than I expected, the speakers during the day were all good! They were interesting and didn't all repeat each other, which can be rare during an orientation! I felt welcomed and overwhelmed and excited to start and a lot of other things.
Today was more orientation, but slightly less well done than yesterday. This morning's service was more upbeat, which was nice. But our first speaker of the day was talking to us about culture shock, and her basic point seemed to be that we'll never quite fit in with Israelis, so we shouldn't really try. Which I don't think was the point she was trying to make, but clearly she wasn't so effective. The rest of the morning was similarly exciting. After lunch we had an "Israel Update," where the Israel professor talked to us about the current situation. Given the craziness of what's going on, he was surprisingly reassuring. The main point: Jerusalem is not close to either Gaza or the Lebanon border. Life is going on as normal here, just with a little more security than the usual, which is already more than at home. Then we had our Security Briefing. For the record, both events have been on the schedule for a while, and it just turned out to be interesting timing. The security briefing was less focused on the current situation and more on emergency procedures and traveling around Israel in general. I think I'll be staying put in Jerusalem for now, thanks:)
The excitement of the day was when our Hebrew classes were posted this morning. They divide us into five levels, based on the placement test and also, apparently, on the proficiency exam we took at the interview. The levels are not broken at pre-determined points, but instead split up by numbers, so approximately the bottom 20% is in Alef, the next 20% in Bet, and so on, up through level Hey. I was guessing I'd be in about Gimel (3) or Dalet (4) if I was lucky. Somehow I ended up in Hey! I'm excited to be in the highest class, but also shocked, since I don't think my Hebrew is that good, and a little terrified, since there are several people in the class who have been living in Israel already for 6 months and a lot longer. I guess I'll be working hard this summer! Starting Sunday, we have Hebrew for about 5 hours a day, 4 days a week, and then some other seminars and trips around the city in the afternoons and on Thursdays. I'll let you know how it all goes once I get started!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
A few more days
It's been an eventful couple of days, and thinking back, I can't believe how long ago yesterday afternoon seems!
Friday is part of the weekend here, giving us time to prepare for Shabbat. HUC asked people who were more settled to host the more recent arrivals for Shabbat dinner, so my apartment volunteered to be a host. Then, I got invited to Shabbat dinner at my friend Minda's, a friend from Princeton who is in the middle of her two-year program in Jerusalem. So for much of the day Friday, I helped my roommates make dinner. I was disappointed to not be able to participate in our first hosting night, but I know there will be many more, and I thought a night with non-HUC people would be more rare. I found my way over to Minda's in the evening, again marveling at how this city shuts down on Friday afternoons and how many other people I saw, all going to Shabbat dinners all over the city. A few minutes away from Minda's, I heard what sounded like a long shofar blast. It turns out it's the Shabbat warning, reminding the city that it's time to light candles. I'm sometimes amazed that this city finds a balance, as shaky as it might be, between being a religious Jewish city and a modern, functioning city. I was proud when I got to Minda's and found out that people seldom find their way there the first time. I was a good navigator:) There were 6 of us at dinner, and it is always nice to spend an evening with an entirely different group of people, even when you like the ones you're usually surrounded by. We all hung out and talked for a couple hours after dinner, because nobody really had anything else to do that night or anywhere else to be. It was really nice. I also found out after the fact that the dinner proved yet again how teeny the world really is. It turned out that one of the other girls at dinner is a good friend of Michael's, but nobody figured out that connection until the next day.
On Saturday, one of our classmates had invited the class over for a potluck Shabbat lunch. I'm not sure he realized at the time that he had volunteered to host, in his one-bedroom apartment, a lunch for 40-50 people! It was pretty crowded for a while, but a lot of fun. A lot more people came in during the week, so it was a great afternoon of just getting to know a lot of new people and figuring out who we know in common. There's always someone, and often a few people.
Saturday evening we were invited to an alumni Havdalah at HUC, and then a group of us headed downtown. We walked around the stores, many of which reopen Saturday night after Shabbat, and then sat at a bar for a little while. All of the hanging out is fun, but I'm starting to be ready for classes to start and a real schedule to develop.
Today, the interns had organized a trip to the beach in Tel Aviv, so that we would know how to get out of Jerusalem when we wanted to do so. The picture is the group that headed to the beach, in Jerusalem right before we left. It's an easy shuttle van (not a bus) for a little less than $5 each way. The cities are about an hour apart. The beach in Tel Aviv is amazing and beautiful. The sky is perfectly blue, and so is the water. The water is also really warm, which would be even better if it weren't jellyfish season. I didn't go in past my feet. A group of us went shopping when we got bored on the beach, but didn't get anything. We found nothing in Tel Aviv we couldn't get in Jerusalem, and we weren't that impressed. I'll give it another try sometime when I'm not quite as worn out from the beach, although it would be hard to go there without spending some time on the beach.
Tomorrow is our last totally free day, and then orientation starts. I think I'm ready though. I hope so!
Also, I'll work on making the pictures lay out more neatly. Keep the emails coming:)
Friday is part of the weekend here, giving us time to prepare for Shabbat. HUC asked people who were more settled to host the more recent arrivals for Shabbat dinner, so my apartment volunteered to be a host. Then, I got invited to Shabbat dinner at my friend Minda's, a friend from Princeton who is in the middle of her two-year program in Jerusalem. So for much of the day Friday, I helped my roommates make dinner. I was disappointed to not be able to participate in our first hosting night, but I know there will be many more, and I thought a night with non-HUC people would be more rare. I found my way over to Minda's in the evening, again marveling at how this city shuts down on Friday afternoons and how many other people I saw, all going to Shabbat dinners all over the city. A few minutes away from Minda's, I heard what sounded like a long shofar blast. It turns out it's the Shabbat warning, reminding the city that it's time to light candles. I'm sometimes amazed that this city finds a balance, as shaky as it might be, between being a religious Jewish city and a modern, functioning city. I was proud when I got to Minda's and found out that people seldom find their way there the first time. I was a good navigator:) There were 6 of us at dinner, and it is always nice to spend an evening with an entirely different group of people, even when you like the ones you're usually surrounded by. We all hung out and talked for a couple hours after dinner, because nobody really had anything else to do that night or anywhere else to be. It was really nice. I also found out after the fact that the dinner proved yet again how teeny the world really is. It turned out that one of the other girls at dinner is a good friend of Michael's, but nobody figured out that connection until the next day.
On Saturday, one of our classmates had invited the class over for a potluck Shabbat lunch. I'm not sure he realized at the time that he had volunteered to host, in his one-bedroom apartment, a lunch for 40-50 people! It was pretty crowded for a while, but a lot of fun. A lot more people came in during the week, so it was a great afternoon of just getting to know a lot of new people and figuring out who we know in common. There's always someone, and often a few people.
Saturday evening we were invited to an alumni Havdalah at HUC, and then a group of us headed downtown. We walked around the stores, many of which reopen Saturday night after Shabbat, and then sat at a bar for a little while. All of the hanging out is fun, but I'm starting to be ready for classes to start and a real schedule to develop.
Today, the interns had organized a trip to the beach in Tel Aviv, so that we would know how to get out of Jerusalem when we wanted to do so. The picture is the group that headed to the beach, in Jerusalem right before we left. It's an easy shuttle van (not a bus) for a little less than $5 each way. The cities are about an hour apart. The beach in Tel Aviv is amazing and beautiful. The sky is perfectly blue, and so is the water. The water is also really warm, which would be even better if it weren't jellyfish season. I didn't go in past my feet. A group of us went shopping when we got bored on the beach, but didn't get anything. We found nothing in Tel Aviv we couldn't get in Jerusalem, and we weren't that impressed. I'll give it another try sometime when I'm not quite as worn out from the beach, although it would be hard to go there without spending some time on the beach.
Tomorrow is our last totally free day, and then orientation starts. I think I'm ready though. I hope so!Also, I'll work on making the pictures lay out more neatly. Keep the emails coming:)
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Getting used to it?
I've been here just over a week now. I wouldn't say I'm fully settled; I still need a lot of things to make my room feel like home, and there are still a bunch of administrative things that need finishing. But it's definitely feeling far more comfortable now than it did a week ago. I know my way around, in about a 15 minute walk radius, as long as there aren't too many side streets around. Those of us who have been here a week have even caught ourselves giving advice to the people who have only been here a day or two! It feels like it's been much longer. Also, I haven't posted anything for several days, so this one might go long...
I'm not always sure where the day goes. I've been spending parts of days out, shopping a little, exploring, finding new places, and asking silly questions at HUC. We've done a lot of errands. The greatest accomplishment so far was that Amy, Karen, and I had to set up what is basically a property tax in our name. In Israel, this tax is usually paid by the renters, not the owner. Our landlord had told us what street the office was on that we had to visit, and that it was near the big post office. Except that Israeli English usually confuses conjunctions (to be fair, I do the same in Hebrew), so we weren't sure whether the office we needed was near the post office, in the post office, across from the post office, or anything. We also didn't know where on Jaffa street the post office was located. We set out and asked several people along the way how to get to the post office. We only had to turn around once. We didn't see any other official looking buildings nearby, so we went into the post office. We asked a couple people simply "arnona?" (the name of the tax), and they pointed to the long line. So we stood in line. It went faster than we thought it would. Once we got to our window, we explained in a combination of English and Hebrew, that we needed to change the names on the account. She told us we had to go to a different building to do that, and said it was across the street. We went outside, and found very little across the street, except a security guard who didn't speak English. I managed to explain to her in Hebrew what we needed, and she told us where to go. (When someone points you to the building with all the people waiting outside, that's not usually a good sign.) It turns out the crowd outside was just the line to get through security. Once we were inside, and found our way to the massive room where we needed to be, we checked in at the information desk and were handed a number (#106). The board showed they were currently on #92. It was an impressively efficient system. There were somewhere between 8 and 15 desks open, and an electronic sign posted which number was next and which desk they should go to. It didn't take all that long before it was our turn. We learned fast that the first question to ask anyone is "Do you speak English?" This one didn't. So again in the not-so-impressive Hebrew we explained what we needed to do. This time we were in the right place, and got it taken care of! I'm sure the Israelis were amused to see the three of us walking out giving each other high fives and giggling. But we were proud of ourselves!!
The fourth of July was another experience. The HUC interns organized a dinner for us at Norman's, an American-style burger place...but kosher! One of my classmates had been told by a friend to try the kilo-burger. He didn't even look at the menu after he came in late, just told the waitress what he wanted. He also didn't realize that was 2.2 pounds of meat. Needless to say, it was rather large. And he got help from other late people, to whom he passed off a portion of the burger. I think he ate a third to half of it though, which is still sickeningly impressive. I enjoyed my normal-sized burger immensely:) After dinner, we all went to the same synagogue where we had been for Shabbat services. They were hosting a band to celebrate the fourth of July for the Americans in the city. It was...a Simon and Garfunkel cover band. Let me tell you, you've never heard a Simon with an Israeli accent. It was a lot of fun though, and really funny to watch some of the Israelis get SO into it. They were actually pretty good, and it was a fun way to spend the 4th. We then all headed downtown to a bar to celebrate a classmate's birthday. The bars and streets were PACKED with people watching the World Cup, which, sadly, nobody in the program has any interest in. We got a back room all to ourselves. We had no TV. It's been so much fun though, hanging out with my classmates and getting to know everyone in such an informal setting, knowing that orientation and then classes will be starting before too much longer. There are some great people in the class, and I'm looking forward to spending the year together! The picture is a bunch of us before the July 4th concert. Top row, left to right: Mary, Matt, Josh, Karen, Matt, Jesse. Bottom row: Courtney, Amy, Me, Carla, Cassi, Sarah, Sarah. There really are more guys in the class than that.
One more thing I'll put into this very long post...I've now taken my first (two) trips to the shuk, a gigantic Israeli market. Take the biggest outdoor market you can think of, and then triple it and slash the prices. And then do it again. It's an experience, and if I feel like playing tourist, one of the next times I go there, I'll try to remember a camera. It's stand after stand after stand, with aisles going off to the side and all the way around, selling produce, meat, fish, olives, nuts, seeds, spices, cheeses, and anything else you can think of. And it's higher quality and so much less expensive than the supermarkets. It's a 20-25 minute walk, but probably a place we'll be going every week or two this year!
That's all for now...please keep in touch! Comment, send me email, call my skype, I want to hear from everyone! I'm feeling very far away, and I'm not really sure who's still reading this...
Talk to you soon!
I'm not always sure where the day goes. I've been spending parts of days out, shopping a little, exploring, finding new places, and asking silly questions at HUC. We've done a lot of errands. The greatest accomplishment so far was that Amy, Karen, and I had to set up what is basically a property tax in our name. In Israel, this tax is usually paid by the renters, not the owner. Our landlord had told us what street the office was on that we had to visit, and that it was near the big post office. Except that Israeli English usually confuses conjunctions (to be fair, I do the same in Hebrew), so we weren't sure whether the office we needed was near the post office, in the post office, across from the post office, or anything. We also didn't know where on Jaffa street the post office was located. We set out and asked several people along the way how to get to the post office. We only had to turn around once. We didn't see any other official looking buildings nearby, so we went into the post office. We asked a couple people simply "arnona?" (the name of the tax), and they pointed to the long line. So we stood in line. It went faster than we thought it would. Once we got to our window, we explained in a combination of English and Hebrew, that we needed to change the names on the account. She told us we had to go to a different building to do that, and said it was across the street. We went outside, and found very little across the street, except a security guard who didn't speak English. I managed to explain to her in Hebrew what we needed, and she told us where to go. (When someone points you to the building with all the people waiting outside, that's not usually a good sign.) It turns out the crowd outside was just the line to get through security. Once we were inside, and found our way to the massive room where we needed to be, we checked in at the information desk and were handed a number (#106). The board showed they were currently on #92. It was an impressively efficient system. There were somewhere between 8 and 15 desks open, and an electronic sign posted which number was next and which desk they should go to. It didn't take all that long before it was our turn. We learned fast that the first question to ask anyone is "Do you speak English?" This one didn't. So again in the not-so-impressive Hebrew we explained what we needed to do. This time we were in the right place, and got it taken care of! I'm sure the Israelis were amused to see the three of us walking out giving each other high fives and giggling. But we were proud of ourselves!!
The fourth of July was another experience. The HUC interns organized a dinner for us at Norman's, an American-style burger place...but kosher! One of my classmates had been told by a friend to try the kilo-burger. He didn't even look at the menu after he came in late, just told the waitress what he wanted. He also didn't realize that was 2.2 pounds of meat. Needless to say, it was rather large. And he got help from other late people, to whom he passed off a portion of the burger. I think he ate a third to half of it though, which is still sickeningly impressive. I enjoyed my normal-sized burger immensely:) After dinner, we all went to the same synagogue where we had been for Shabbat services. They were hosting a band to celebrate the fourth of July for the Americans in the city. It was...a Simon and Garfunkel cover band. Let me tell you, you've never heard a Simon with an Israeli accent. It was a lot of fun though, and really funny to watch some of the Israelis get SO into it. They were actually pretty good, and it was a fun way to spend the 4th. We then all headed downtown to a bar to celebrate a classmate's birthday. The bars and streets were PACKED with people watching the World Cup, which, sadly, nobody in the program has any interest in. We got a back room all to ourselves. We had no TV. It's been so much fun though, hanging out with my classmates and getting to know everyone in such an informal setting, knowing that orientation and then classes will be starting before too much longer. There are some great people in the class, and I'm looking forward to spending the year together! The picture is a bunch of us before the July 4th concert. Top row, left to right: Mary, Matt, Josh, Karen, Matt, Jesse. Bottom row: Courtney, Amy, Me, Carla, Cassi, Sarah, Sarah. There really are more guys in the class than that.
One more thing I'll put into this very long post...I've now taken my first (two) trips to the shuk, a gigantic Israeli market. Take the biggest outdoor market you can think of, and then triple it and slash the prices. And then do it again. It's an experience, and if I feel like playing tourist, one of the next times I go there, I'll try to remember a camera. It's stand after stand after stand, with aisles going off to the side and all the way around, selling produce, meat, fish, olives, nuts, seeds, spices, cheeses, and anything else you can think of. And it's higher quality and so much less expensive than the supermarkets. It's a 20-25 minute walk, but probably a place we'll be going every week or two this year!
That's all for now...please keep in touch! Comment, send me email, call my skype, I want to hear from everyone! I'm feeling very far away, and I'm not really sure who's still reading this...
Talk to you soon!
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Jerusalem Shabbat
Shabbat in Jerusalem is unlike anything you've ever experienced.
Most of the HUC group that's here already (about 25 of us, plus some spouses, out of 55ish) met up and walked over to Kol HaNeshamah, a Progressive synangogue about a 20 minute walk from where a lot of us live. The walk was in a direction most of us hadn't tried yet, so it was nice to see that there are a whole bunch of stores and restaurants in that direction as well. The service was nice. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. The congregation is made up mainly of people who have immigrated to Israel over the last 20 or 30 years and their families. Many of them are fluent in English as well as in Hebrew. The whole introduction was done in English, although I'm told this is also becuase there were a lot of visitors this week. There was a long kabbalat Shabbat, with lots of singing, all in Hebrew. The rest of the service followed the general Reform service, but in places there were some extra paragraphs. We skipped nothing. I was highly entertained when to hear one or two tunes we use in youth group thrown in with the otherwise very traditional melodies. There was no sermon, only a relatively short D'var Torah, although that was done in Hebrew with a little bit of English paraphrasing thrown in, so I didn't get a lot of it. The closing songs was one of my favorites, and another song I know from youth group and camp, Gesher Tsar Meod. It was really nice to hear a some familiar words and songs in the middle of this new experience! The picture is my roommates, Karen, me, and Amy, dressed for our first Shabbat here.
After services, we all walked back to HUC, where the interns had organized a mostly-potluck dinner for us. We sat and ate and talked for a while, and then did the longest Birkat Hamazon I've probably ever heard done fully aloud, without any muttering through it on your own. It was actually pretty funny, because most of us all know the same version, and this one had a bunch of extra paragraphs, so the whole group would get louder and quieter at once, and we would be left with just the interns singing a paragraph or two, and then the whole group would join in full force once again. I'm sure I'll learn it before too much longer.
After dinner, a few friends came back to our apartment. (Since three of us live here, we have one of the biggest places, with a great living room and lots of seating. I'll post pictures once we're all set up.) We all sat around and played cards and just hung out for a couple hours. On the way up our stairs (we're on the third floor), we could hear a group of people in another apartment singing Shabbat songs for a while.
Since we were up late, we all slept in and got up for our HUC picnic at lunch time. The picnic was really fun, and it was great to talk to some people I hadn't spent much time with yet. We all just sat and talked, threw around a frisbee for a while, and just enjoyed the afternoon. The park the interns had chosen was beautiful!
After the picnic, I went with a group over to one of the cafes that's actually open on Shabbat. (I had gotten to the picnic towards the beginning and eaten plenty, but not everyone did apparently.) This cafe is about a block from my apartment and really good, although in addition to being open on Shabbat, it's apparently one of the relatively few places in the city where you can get a cheeseburger....or a bacon cheeseburger. They make really good salads and vegetarian stuff too though.
After my second lunch, I borrowed hangers from a friend with extras, and finally finished unpacking. It feels great to not have a packed duffel sitting in the middle of my floor! With that finally out of the way, now I can focus on making it really feel like home: getting all the little things to make the room mine and cover up the blank white walls. I'm looking forward to it:)
In the evening, one of my classmates had invited us all over to his balcony for Havdalah. The balcony is amazing! We all sat in a circle on the ground, and there was plenty of space! Two people had guitars, and we just had a really relaxed, camp-like havdalah. It's amazing to look around this group of people, which is really only half of the class. Some of the people I've met and can see them right away as future rabbis. A few of the others...much less so. I'm sure I'll see it eventually, but so far, I'm a little puzzled by some people. Havdalah was great though.
After that, a small group of us (me, my roommates Amy and Karen, and our friend Stephanie) went out to an Italian place, also down the street from our apartment, that reopened after Shabbat for dinner. It was really good!! We'll have to go back to try more different things. We each had something different and tried everyone else's, and they were all delicious. Who knew we'd find good Italian in Israel?! We came back to our place after that, and a few other friends came over as well, and we hung out a little longer. Everyone really wants to get to know everyone else, play another round of Jewish geography, and just enjoy our time together while we're all still figuring out our way around. It's been really fun, but not so good for a regular sleep schedule!
I was blown away by the transformation the city undergoes for Shabbat. Israeli drivers are mostly fairly insane. They do (usually) stop for crosswalks, but not until their front bumpers are within a couple inches (one way or the other) of the edge of the crosswalk. On Shabbat, there's hardly any traffic. As the night wore on yesterday, I heard the city come back to life. This morning I can hear traffic whizzing by as usual. I liked it better quiet:)
Today is back to the craziness of getting settled. (The workweek in Israel is Sunday-Thursday. The weekend is Friday-Saturday.) I still have just over a week until orientation, and I plan to use it and enjoy it! My other goal today is to set up my Skype-In number, where you can call me from the states!
I miss you all, and I'm looking forward to talking to you soon!
Most of the HUC group that's here already (about 25 of us, plus some spouses, out of 55ish) met up and walked over to Kol HaNeshamah, a Progressive synangogue about a 20 minute walk from where a lot of us live. The walk was in a direction most of us hadn't tried yet, so it was nice to see that there are a whole bunch of stores and restaurants in that direction as well. The service was nice. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. The congregation is made up mainly of people who have immigrated to Israel over the last 20 or 30 years and their families. Many of them are fluent in English as well as in Hebrew. The whole introduction was done in English, although I'm told this is also becuase there were a lot of visitors this week. There was a long kabbalat Shabbat, with lots of singing, all in Hebrew. The rest of the service followed the general Reform service, but in places there were some extra paragraphs. We skipped nothing. I was highly entertained when to hear one or two tunes we use in youth group thrown in with the otherwise very traditional melodies. There was no sermon, only a relatively short D'var Torah, although that was done in Hebrew with a little bit of English paraphrasing thrown in, so I didn't get a lot of it. The closing songs was one of my favorites, and another song I know from youth group and camp, Gesher Tsar Meod. It was really nice to hear a some familiar words and songs in the middle of this new experience! The picture is my roommates, Karen, me, and Amy, dressed for our first Shabbat here.
After services, we all walked back to HUC, where the interns had organized a mostly-potluck dinner for us. We sat and ate and talked for a while, and then did the longest Birkat Hamazon I've probably ever heard done fully aloud, without any muttering through it on your own. It was actually pretty funny, because most of us all know the same version, and this one had a bunch of extra paragraphs, so the whole group would get louder and quieter at once, and we would be left with just the interns singing a paragraph or two, and then the whole group would join in full force once again. I'm sure I'll learn it before too much longer.
After dinner, a few friends came back to our apartment. (Since three of us live here, we have one of the biggest places, with a great living room and lots of seating. I'll post pictures once we're all set up.) We all sat around and played cards and just hung out for a couple hours. On the way up our stairs (we're on the third floor), we could hear a group of people in another apartment singing Shabbat songs for a while.
Since we were up late, we all slept in and got up for our HUC picnic at lunch time. The picnic was really fun, and it was great to talk to some people I hadn't spent much time with yet. We all just sat and talked, threw around a frisbee for a while, and just enjoyed the afternoon. The park the interns had chosen was beautiful!
After the picnic, I went with a group over to one of the cafes that's actually open on Shabbat. (I had gotten to the picnic towards the beginning and eaten plenty, but not everyone did apparently.) This cafe is about a block from my apartment and really good, although in addition to being open on Shabbat, it's apparently one of the relatively few places in the city where you can get a cheeseburger....or a bacon cheeseburger. They make really good salads and vegetarian stuff too though.
After my second lunch, I borrowed hangers from a friend with extras, and finally finished unpacking. It feels great to not have a packed duffel sitting in the middle of my floor! With that finally out of the way, now I can focus on making it really feel like home: getting all the little things to make the room mine and cover up the blank white walls. I'm looking forward to it:)
In the evening, one of my classmates had invited us all over to his balcony for Havdalah. The balcony is amazing! We all sat in a circle on the ground, and there was plenty of space! Two people had guitars, and we just had a really relaxed, camp-like havdalah. It's amazing to look around this group of people, which is really only half of the class. Some of the people I've met and can see them right away as future rabbis. A few of the others...much less so. I'm sure I'll see it eventually, but so far, I'm a little puzzled by some people. Havdalah was great though.
After that, a small group of us (me, my roommates Amy and Karen, and our friend Stephanie) went out to an Italian place, also down the street from our apartment, that reopened after Shabbat for dinner. It was really good!! We'll have to go back to try more different things. We each had something different and tried everyone else's, and they were all delicious. Who knew we'd find good Italian in Israel?! We came back to our place after that, and a few other friends came over as well, and we hung out a little longer. Everyone really wants to get to know everyone else, play another round of Jewish geography, and just enjoy our time together while we're all still figuring out our way around. It's been really fun, but not so good for a regular sleep schedule!
I was blown away by the transformation the city undergoes for Shabbat. Israeli drivers are mostly fairly insane. They do (usually) stop for crosswalks, but not until their front bumpers are within a couple inches (one way or the other) of the edge of the crosswalk. On Shabbat, there's hardly any traffic. As the night wore on yesterday, I heard the city come back to life. This morning I can hear traffic whizzing by as usual. I liked it better quiet:)
Today is back to the craziness of getting settled. (The workweek in Israel is Sunday-Thursday. The weekend is Friday-Saturday.) I still have just over a week until orientation, and I plan to use it and enjoy it! My other goal today is to set up my Skype-In number, where you can call me from the states!
I miss you all, and I'm looking forward to talking to you soon!
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Settling In
Every day, it's getting more comfortable and homey here! Since orientation doesn't start until the 11th, we've all been just trying to get settled, learn our way around, and get all the things we didn't realize we needed or couldn't fit. There has been a shopping trip almost every day, and who knew just going to the grocery store could be such an adventure? You're going to have to trust me that it is. Apparently, you can't get cheddar cheese in this country. This might be a problem for me. I am slowly learning my way to various places. I've mastered the route to HUC and several friends' apartments. All of them are within a 7 minute walk. The Ben Yehudah/Yafo street shopping area...I'm getting better. And me and my Streetwise map are better friends than ever.
All the extra people who had been in the apartment left yesterday, so it was finally just me, Amy, and Karen. We spent the afternoon cleaning and unpacking. Things are looking much better, but my room is severly lacking in homey things, so I'm going to work on that before I post a picture. But it's been huge progress in the last 24 hours, when my bags were still just about fully packed.
I've met probably about half the class, and people are great. We're all still getting to know each other, but there are definitely people I've been hanging out with since the plane ride and our arrival in Jerusalem, and we're having a good time together! Lots of them are also headed to Cincinnati with me after our year here, which is really nice. The roommates are fun, and I think we'll all have a fun and peaceful apartment for the year:) Everyone who has come over has been really impressed with our place, so apparently our online apartment hunt was very successful! The daylight picture is me, my friend Stephanie, and one of my roommates Karen at a cafe down the street from our apartment. The one at night is (left to right) Helayne, Jaimee, and my roommates Amy, Karen, and me, at a bar outing organized by the HUC summer interns.
I know it's the middle of Shabbat, but I'm going to wait until tonight or tomorrow to post about my whole first Shabbat at once. For now, I have more things to find a home for, and it's almost lunch time!
Missing you all!
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