Highlights

It’s been a really long time since I posted anything! See if you can understand that as a good thing, like when you didn’t get letters from camp (mom) and saw that as a sign that I was busy and having fun.

I’ve been busy and having fun! I don’t think I could even remember everything that’s gone on the last week and a half, nor would you want to read about it. Some highlights:

1. Our “Jerusalem Days” program last Thursday was in the Old City. We were right next to the Kotel, at the southern retaining wall excavations for much of the day. (The Kotel is the western retaining wall, more of a prayer site simply because it was closer to the Holy of Holies in the Temple.) Some of my recently posted pictures are from this day. The new (long) skirt I bought the day before was great and I love it, but the dye is less than permanent, and my legs were very blue by the end of the day. It was impressive. In the late afternoon, we also walked through the Western Wall tunnels, which are currently under the Arab quarter, but run next to currently-buried parts of the Western Wall that have been excavated. In spite of my not-love for tunnels, it was an interesting place to be. There were even people sitting and reciting psalms at the place believed to be the closest point to the Holy of Holies. When we emerged from the tunnel and made it back to the Kotel, we were surprised to see a very interesting sight: approximately zillions of Chasidic Jews, in their black suits and black hats, praying very loudly at the wall. It was war-related, but our professor couldn’t enlighten us more than that. It was a very long, but looking back, very interesting day.

2. I was chopping vegetables all day Friday, and couldn’t possibly be ready in time for services at HUC where most of my friends were going. So I called my friend Rebecca and asked her to let me know when services were over, and I’d head to dinner then. Instead, I got a call from her about 45 minutes into services, telling me that she hadn’t gone either. She came over with her guitar, and the two of us had a service in my bedroom. It was beautiful. We enjoyed each other’s company and voices, picked our melodies, prayed at our own pace, and really welcomed Shabbat. (Also: our service ran about a half hour, with some singing afterwards. The HUC service went about 2 hours.) Her roommate called us after the other service, and we went to meet the group. Someone in the class had decided that a progressive dinner would be fun, so we went over to house number one. Somewhere between 40 and 50 people participated, and we stopped at 6 different houses. The apartments in Jerusalem mostly don’t have elevators. It was a LOT of stairs by the end of the night! My house was stop number 3, salads. (Before were the Kiddush/Hamotzi house and the appetizer house. After us were the main course house, dessert house, and hang out house.) My roommates and I put together about 7 different salads. I made a delicious bean salad and an Israeli salad—hence the chopping. The food all night was great, and while many of us were nervous about the logistics of moving that many people so many times, it went really smoothly. We sang Shabbat songs as we walked from house to house and had a wonderful time.

3. I am a fan of cease-fire, and I hope it holds. War is no fun. Even though I am not near it.

4. I led (optional) Shacharit services with Rebecca. I’ve been going to the optional services most mornings, mostly because I love them. It’s a great community of about 15 regulars plus some people who come sometimes, and I have really been enjoying it at the beginning of my day. It’s all student led, at least for the summer, so I decided I should take a turn, and we led one. On Monday another friend and I are in charge, and that one has a Torah service as well, which is a part of a service I have never led. Now seems like a good time to start!

5. I got a Hebrew test back on Sunday and did really well on it. That was exciting! I tend to get frustrated a lot during class, because the oral part of Hebrew is really difficult for me, but I do very well with homework, reading, and writing. My teacher promises me it all balances out, and it does seem to, so I just have to keep reminding myself that I’m doing fine, and go over things again at home. I love that I am capable of reading stories (ok, page-long stories) in Hebrew and discussing them!
6. I crashed boys-night yesterday afternoon. (It was a boys’ night, but given our schedule, it was late afternoon so we could get to an evening program.) A couple of my friends found a (kosher!) restaurant with an all-you-can-eat meat special. The lunch special is fairly reasonable (although the dinner one, less so). Basically, you get six different courses of meat: chicken wings, chorizo sausage (except, kosher), turkey, empanadas, entrecote steak, and roast beef. They bring out small amounts of each one, one at a time, to ensure that you get to taste everything. (Also, the pace makes sure you fill up, because there’s a good amount of waiting time.) After you’ve had some of everything, they’ll bring more of anything and everything that you want. A group of guys decided it would be a lot of fun, but I was sitting there at the time, and I was invited as well. It eventually became a boys’ night activity, but I was already invited, so I crashed the party. I kept pace with them pretty well! Apparently they were impressed with my meat-eating abilities. It was a lot of fun, and then we all more or less rolled into our program. I’m working on finding a group of girls who would go back with me eventually.

7. Herb and Karen: Mazel Tov!! He’s adorable:)

That’s about all I can think of right now. It’s been a long week! I will update again soon, for real this time! There are also some new-ish pictures on my Flicker site, which will probably make more sense now that I’ve told you where I’ve been. Most of them are from the night of the progressive dinner. (Mom, Dad, Debbie, Michael: I know you’ve seen them already. I’ll work on taking more!)