my journey

Hafsakah (break)

8/26/2013

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This week we got a few days off from school after our finals. Tuesday we had our Hebrew final and an end of Ulpan party. During this party, each class sang a song or did a skit before we were served Holy Bagel (a delicious bagel and shmeer restaurant chain) for lunch. My class wrote new lyrics to Bob Dylan's Blowin in the Wind, in Hebrew, and based on our summer class. It was a lot of fun. Especially when we ended with the chorus of the song we sang during our last zimriah (song session), which everyone has learned and sings randomly during breaks. It was a lot of fun. After Ulpan, and choir, and a review session in the school museum, I went to my friends' apartment to start studying for our biblical history final. We got there around six, ordered pizza, ate pizza, and then started studying, working our way through the study guide, answering questions and solidifying our understanding of the material. I went home around 11:30 that night with the intention of returning the following morning to continue where we left off. I got back around 9:45 while my classmates were waking up. We started studying around 10 and continued until 1230, when we decided to take a break and make some lunch (we made quesadillas). After lunch, I was done studying. If I talked about this material any more before the test, my head was going to explode. So I went to school to relax and settle in before the final. As you may recall, biblical history as not been my favorite class this summer. I've really struggled trying to follow the material and discern what is relevant from our lectures and field trips for our quizzes and tests. The quizzes throughout the term have been mainly true/false, which is really challenging when you are not very sure of the material. It's been a frustrating learning process. So I wrote a paper to make my final exam count for less, and walked into the final feeling well prepared after our study sessions. Compared to the quizzes throughout the summer, this final was a breeze. I felt confident as I walked away from that final that I had done well enough to pass (something that never happened after the quizzes). I walked away from that final into a five day break. 

Wednesday night, to celebrate the end of finals, one of my friends organized a showing of the movie "Keeping the Faith" about a rabbi and a priest who are best friends and in love with the same girl. It seemed like a perfect movie to be watching after the first term of seminary :) Thursday I awoke to begin looking at apartments because my living situation fell through and I needed to find a new place to live. I had responded to several adds earlier in the week and spent Thursday looking at them to try and find my new home (which I did, but more on that later). Thursday night I also packed because I was off to Tel Aviv for the weekend on Friday. 

Going to the beach with four friends was probably the best decision I made for break. I wanted to go and be away from most HUC people (a majority of whom had gone up north for the break), get out of Jerusalem, and be able to do nothing but relax. Which is exactly what I got with a trip to Tel Aviv. We got there around lunch time, checked into our hotel, changed into our bathing suits and headed straight for the beach. We found some sand, laid out our towels, put on sun screen, made some lunch, and waded into the water. I love the Mediterranean Sea. The water is just perfect. We saw some signs posted in the water that said "warning! rocks (boulders) in the water" This was exciting because we had just learned the words for warning and boulder in ulpan for our final. I successfully swam in the Mediterranean Ocean WITHOUT getting stung by a jellyfish. Major success. major. After we had our fill of ocean for the day, we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for Shabbat. We left more than enough time for five girls to shower and spent the extra time watching Arthur in Hebrew (the cartoon TV show staring and aardvark and his best friend Buster the Bunny). It was quite amusing to follow the kids show in Hebrew and be able to understand it :) We were all very excited. Then we went out to the port for Shabbat (the same services we went to when HUC brought us to Tel Aviv for the day) and went out for dinner (the only meal we ate at a restaurant). After dinner, we went back to the hotel and hung out in our pjs on the roof talking before crashing. Let me tell you how impressive it was to squeeze five girls into a hotel room designed for two. We barely had room to walk, but made it work, and it was an experience :) Saturday we got up, checked out, and went back to the beach. We spent most of the morning out in the water and relaxing on the sand. We left around 1 to get ice cream before heading back to Jerusalem after an amazing break. 

Sunday, I spent the day packing to move to my new apartment. I successfully found a place not too far from where I was originally living that was decently sized and priced. My new roommate is named Sara and is an art student at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. After packing and cleaning, I went to my friend Allie's apartment to make some homemades (homemade spaghetti). We were talking about pasta at our dinner in Tel Aviv, and I told my friends how I can make pasta from scratch. They wanted to learn, so Sunday night we got together for a pasta making lesson. We each made one eggs worth of spaghetti and made a garlic-parsley-parmesean-oil-sauce to go with it. The sauce smelled delicious, and I think my friends had fun. They said they're up to try ravioli some time :) 

Monday I moved. I have some really awesome friends who agreed to help me shlep all my stuff from one apartment to the other. I probably could have managed by myself, with several trips, or the use of a cab. But this way, we got to save me some money and spend some time together. It took three trips to get all of my stuff over here. Somehow I accumulated a lot of stuff in the past two months. Not quite sure how it's all getting back to the states, but I have 9 months to figure that out. After we dumped my stuff (literally) on the bed and in my room, we left to go to Women of the Wall, to support them with their sit in. Allie and I stayed for about three hours, singing, studying, talking, sitting, until the end of the afternoon service, for which they needed 10 people (a minyan) to participate. Allie and I were numbers 9 and 10. After the service, we left. I headed for HUC to pick up some stuff (including my Biblical History final which I aced! meaning I passed the class!!) and headed for my new home to unpack and settle in for the night. And that's where we are now. 

Tomorrow, the fall term starts (I can't believe the fall term is already starting). We have orientation all day and Wednesday and Thursday I'll be up north for our first Israel Seminar tiyyul (trip). Until next time, Shavua Tov (have a good week)!


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The End of Ulpan

8/20/2013

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I know it's been a while since I last wrote, and I know that I say that at the beginning of every post, but I just haven't had a lot of time. They keep us pretty busy here in grad school! 

So the past week and a half. I left you last when I was making brownies for Shabbat dinner. Three classmates are living in the same apartment in Rehavia (a neighborhood in Jerusalem near HUC). They decided last week to host a shabbaton (essentially an open house all weekend). Friday night there was services and dinner. They planned and organized everything. Saturday after services at school they hosted lunch, two learning sessions, some down time, third meal/snack and havdallah. I only went on Friday night. Services were lovely. They started with Kabbalat Shabbat, the welcoming of Shabbat, with a series of psalms getting our energy up, letting go of the previous week, and really getting into the mood to welcome Shabbat. Then we prayed Maariv (evening service) before dinner. Everyone brought food for dinner and everything was delicious. Good company, good food. After noshing and schmoozing, we sang. Lots of songs. It was a really fun evening. Saturday I woke up to go to services at HUC and went to my friend Ashley's house to hang out for the rest of the day for challah French toast and homework. It was nice. 

Sunday, school started again. It's still weird that our weeks run Sunday to Thursday and that Friday and Saturday are the weekends, but I'm adjusting. It was a busy week of ulpan, cantillation, biblical archeology, and education seminar. We had two Ed seminar classes this week. In the first, we explored an article that compared high schools to shopping malls. I thought it was interesting. However, Ed seminar with only two people is pretty awkward. Not that it's much better with three, but we have a very small class. It will just make discussions that much less varied because there will only be so many different voices being heard. But, everyone has ample opportunity to participate. We're adjusting. The second class that week was at my teachers home. She invited us over to her gorgeous (!) apartment ten minutes from my house. I had been there before for a meeting, but we stayed in the living room. This time, we met the whole family, got a complete tour of the house (including the roof with a fantastic view over Jerusalem). It's really beautiful. We then had a potluck dinner (I made spinach macaroni and cheese cups that I found on Pinterest, they were really good if I do say so myself) before settling in for the educational component of our evening. We watched Mr. Holland's Opus. I was the only one who had never seen this before. I really enjoyed it. We watched it to help us better define what education is, and it definitely showed a lot of examples of good and bad (whatever that means) teaching. 

This past weekend I went to services at Kol HaNeshama, the reform congregation five minutes from my apartment. I was there with two classmates and about half of the HUC faculty it felt like. We saw a lot of familiar faces, in addition to the two groups who came to visit this shul. After services, I met up with a few friends to walk to Shabbat dinner together. We went to my friend Ben's apartment for a delicious meal with some really nice company. Saturday I spent the day in bed watching movies. I really wasn't feeling well. But a day in bed with lots of water and sleep seemed to help. 

Sunday started my last week of ulpan! It's crazy how fast this time has flown. I took my final in cantillation (Torah Chanting) and passed. (All classes at HUC are pass fail, unless you request grades, which seems like an interesting system). Today was my last ulpan class. Tomorrow we have the final and a party. Wednesday is my biblical history final (ugh). And Thursday starts a five day break before the fall semester. A few friends and I are going to Tel Aviv for Shabbat and some relaxing beach time. The first month of fall semester is chock full of high holidays (which means days off of school). By the time we get into a regular routine, it will be October, and I'm coming home for a weekend then! This year is zooming by already! I'll write again during my break this week (I hope!). Until then, shavua tov!  I hope you all have a great week!
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This past week

8/9/2013

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I meant to blog more frequently, but somehow I ran out of time. This past week has been incredibly long, mostly because I woke up before 6am more days than I would have liked. But lets start at the beginning. 

I last left you the night before I was off to Tel Aviv. HUC organized a beach day for us, and almost everyone went to the beach for the day. We got up and went to HUC where we had minibuses to drive us the hour to Tel Aviv. A group of friends, Lyz, Maya, Jenn, and I started off by wandering around the artists fair at Shuk HaCarmel. There was a lot of really cool art for sale, like melted wine glass clocks, judaica, jewelry, paintings, and more. We walked around for an hour or so, stopped for iced coffee, and headed to the beach. We found a spot under a canopy, dropped our stuff, put some sunscreen on, and headed for the water. The Mediterranean Sea is incredible. The water is warm and clear, and for most of the day, not too rough. I was probably in the water for about three straight hours. It was glorious. We found some other HUC people and hung out with them in the water and then a group who had gone out to breakfast at Dr. Shakshuka had made their way to the beach. We got out of the water to hang with them and eat some lunch before returning to the ocean. I reapplied sunscreen and headed back into the sea for a bit. Only to exit a few minutes later when I got stung. I have only been stung by jellyfish twice in my life. Twice in the Mediterranean Sea. Not fun. So I got out to go dry off on the sand until it was time to go to the dock for Kabbalat Shabbat services. Now, I mentioned several times that I put on sunscreen. However, I apparently did not put on enough because I got badly burned on my shoulders. But I survived. We rinsed off and walked to the dock (about an hours walk) for services. We got there kinda late and there were no chairs left. Well there were chairs, but it was like one here and one there. So a few of us found seats on the floor right up front. Services were on the dock overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was beautiful. So were services. Lots of songs and instruments. They had this cool part where they took the microphone around to people in the audience and asked them what they were thankful for. One of the people who spoke was the husband of my education professor. So it was cool to see her there. After services, we got dinner at Pasta Factory and ate on the ground before making our way to the buses for the ride back to school. Our bus was pretty awesome. We played a few games on the trip, and I got to learn more about my classmates (maybe even more than I wanted to know). But it was fun. 

Saturday we had services at school and I went over to my friend Ashley's for challah french toast afterwards. We hung out, did homework, practiced cantillation, made quesadillas, cleaned the kitchen (well she cleaned, I played games on my iPad), and got ready for havdallah with HUC. For havdallah, we went to this park overlooking the old city, which was gorgeous. We had wine and cheese and snacks for a bit before it was time to start havdallah. But before our service, we had a little goodbye ceremony for our interns who were leaving this week. Our interns organized a lot of programming for us, during orientation especially, but also throughout our first month at school. They were wonderful and we wanted to thank them. So we bought them presents and sang them a song and made them cry. It was fun. Then we had one of the most beautiful havdallah services. I think celebrating havdallah with this class has been my most favorite experience. It was just lovely. 

Sunday started another week of classes. Ulpan, cantillation, T'fillah, and biblical history. I really love all of my classes, with maybe the exception of biblical history. I think it is a very interesting class, and I like the lectures, I just don't like the structure (or lack there of) in the presentation of the materials and what we are expected to know. My professor is brilliant, but a little all over the place with his lectures, making it really hard to study for quizzes and tests. I was not sad to see the end of my biblical history tiyyulim (field trips). Yesterday I had to be at school at 7am to get on the bus. Which meant I was up at 530 to get ready and walk to school. Too early. So yeah, the trips are cool, but I would prefer to not be tested on the information. I think it would allow me to enjoy the trips better. Maybe assess us on a paper at the end, not quizzes that focus on the minute details of our extensive readings. 

But enough ranting. Wednesday morning, I had the wonderful privilege of welcoming the new month of Elul with Women of the Wall and their monthly Rosh Hodesh (new month) prayer services. I was up at 5am to get ready to get to the buses by 615. We boarded the buses (most of my HUC classmates were there) and headed for the kotel. We were escorted by the police to the entrance gate, and because of last month's fiasco, waited  until Anat Hoffman (the president) went in to see if we had space to pray on the women's side of the wall. While we were not allowed on the women's side, the police and military had set up a barricade towards the back of the Kotel Plaza where we were allowed to pray. So they herded us into our pen and created a human wall, in addition to the gates, between us and the Haredi who were not happy that we were there. I donned the tallis I made with my mom at a women's retreat more than ten years ago, and joined in with the many men and women who were singing in the new month. The Haredi men and women who were protesting our presence blew whistles and shouted and had posters expressing their outrage. But we prayed, we celebrated a Bat Mitzvah, we sang, we danced, we blew the shofar, we ignored them and went on with our service. Afterwards, we walked as a class back to HUC for our ulpan class. It was a very interesting experience. I am still trying to gather my thoughts and reactions. Maybe next month will bring more clarity. 

Today, I slept in, am working on homework, and am going to make brownies to bring to Shabbat being held at my colleagues' apartment. 
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Shabbat with my little brother

8/1/2013

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No I do not have a little brother, but as you read this post, hopefully you will understand this title. 

My cousin Caleb came to spend last Shabbat with me. His ridiculously unorganized program told him when he would arrive in Jerusalem about ten minutes before he got on the bus to come here. Nevertheless, I had about an hour to figure out where exactly to meet him and how to get there. Earlier in the day, I had a meeting with my Ed Professor. At the end of our meeting, I asked her which bus to take to the central bus station, as this was where I assumed Caleb would be getting dropped off. I was told to take the 74 or the 75. I found a Jerusalem bus app for my phone, but it's all in Hebrew. I managed to pick out a few words and find the stop that I needed to get off at, but it was probably not the most useful tool. Anyway, I got on the bus, which was supposed to take about 30 minutes. A half hour into my ride, I was still not at the central bus station. Did I miss it? Did I make a mistake? No. There was just construction and Israeli drivers not wanting to let a bus in front of them that slowed us down for fifteen minutes. Anyway, I passed the shuk and knew that there were only like two or three more stops until the main bus station. I finally made it (all by myself without getting lost, two major accomplishments)! But then I had to find Caleb. He told me he was standing on the platform where the bus stops are. Well duh. There's really no where else to stand. And there are a lot of bus stops. I eventually found him and we got back on the 74 going in the opposite direction to head back to my apartment. Naturally we missed the stop near my place, but we only went like a block or two out of our way. It could have been worse. 

Our first order of business was making the guacamole I had purchased the ingredients for in the shuk the day before to bring to my friend Ashley's apartment for Mexibat (Mexican style Shabbat dinner). We (read Caleb) made the guac while I finished my laundry and skyped Elliot. I asked Caleb if he needed help and after I chopped the onion and garlic, I was relieved of my kitchen duties. We got changed and went to services at Shira Hadasha, a modern Orthodox minion about ten minutes from my apartment. A lot of HUCers were going to services there, and since they have a mechitza, I wanted Caleb to have people I knew to sit with. It was a nice service. They have a woman lead their Kabbalat Shabbat service which was an interesting twist before a man took over for maariv (evening service). After services, we made our way with a few friends to Ashley's place. Once we got there, I introduced Caleb and almost everyone who met him asked if he was my younger brother. We thought it might just have been because we were both coincidentally wearing orange, but apparently everyone thought we were brother and sister. Caleb and I were a little surprised by this, seeing as we have never gotten that reaction before. Maybe we've just always been surrounded by family who knew that we were cousins, but apparently we look like siblings. Dinner was really nice Friday night. We walked home with a few other people and went to bed around midnight. 

Saturday we woke up to go to services at HUC and afterwards we went to my friend Lily's apartment for lunch and cards against humanity. Again, at schaharit services, we got several people who came up to us and asked if we were brother and sister. This time it definitely wasn't the clothing as we made sure not to wear similar colors. I don't know. I guess I could have a little brother if I wanted. The Dean of the Jerusalem campus came up to Caleb after services and asked what he was doing in Israel. After they chatted for a little, they discovered that Rabbi Kalman also knows Rabbi Balin, a rabbi at the New York campus who also happens to be Caleb's aunt. So that was fun. We walked with a few friends to Lily's apartment for lunch with HUC and JTS (Jewish Theological Seminary, the conservative version of HUC) students. After a delicious lunch and some awkward conversations, we played cards against humanity, a game similar to apple to apples but with a much darker twist. I have learned that it is a very interesting game to play with rabbinical and cantorial students. I was a little worried that Caleb might be too innocent for a game like this. But after he won the first round, my fears who smashed and we commenced into an awfully fun game of CAH. 

After lunch and cards, we walked home to relax and eat dinner for a few hours before taking Caleb to the central bus station to get on the bus back to Beer Sheva. We called parents and siblings on the way and walked for about an hour and a half to the central bus station (about three miles from my apartment). We only got slightly turned around once. If Caleb hadn't been there, it would have taken me twice as long and I would have seen much more of Jerusalem by taking the wrong paths. But we made it, and he found his friend to ride on the bus with, and it was a wonderful weekend. I think he'll be back in Jerusalem again before he leaves, so we'll try to meet up one last time for the year. After I dropped him off, the busses had just started running again (the busses don't run during Shabbat, which is why we walked the three miles in the first place) and the bus I needed was not in sight, so I walked home and ran into a friend who lives near me on the way. All in all, I walked about 10 miles that day. It was a really nice Shabbat. More about this week to come later; now time to shower and sleep. Tel Aviv in the AM. 
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