I CAUGHT A FOOTBALL AND DEBBIE FOUND FROSTING

This has been a particularly momentous week, and not only because of football and frosting! I am writing this to aid in the procrastination process, though, so I don't want to get too involved in a long post because procrastinating makes me feel a little nauseous and I want to start working soon.

On Friday night, I went with Adina to Yakar and it was beautiful as usual. Judah led Mincha and I nearly jumped out of my skin because he fit in so well with the other leaders at Yakar, down to the accent on ברוך אתה השם and his rhythm and tone. An entire flock of Nativ boys came as well, but there is a mechitzah and we didn't have anything to do with them until after services.

Adina and I walked most of the way home with the Nativers, and then we split off to go to her grandparents' apartment for dinner. It was an amazing experience, and I'm not just saying that because she reads my blog. The apartment was beautiful, and it was incredible to look at Jerusalem from the eleventh floor of a building. The streets below were so peaceful, but also surreal in a way, with no cars driving past and only the occasional pedestrian passing through. A component of spontaneity and fun was added by two random men from Holland, whose unlined faces both looked young but turned out to be father and son. The father was a Calvinist, but he says he doesn't believe in predestination, so I don't know what the point of being a Calvinist is if you're not going to buy into the major tenet of the faith. In fact, if I remember correctly, entire wars were fought in Europe over this Calvinism thing and it makes me a little upset that Calvinists can't even believe in the distinguishing factor. Anyway, his son apparently converted to Judaism while spending a year on Kibbutz Yavneh, one of the more religious קיבוצים. We heard a lot about the Masorti movement in Holland, because the son is a leader in the movement there, and the rest of the dinner conversation focused a lot on The War. This was obviously a watershed moment in Adina's grandfather's life, and it was interesting to have the perspective of an American pilot at the same table as a Calvinist from Holland. Adina's grandmother and another woman at the table compared various escape and survival stories, and the general theme of the evening was as WWII as it gets. Besides the company and conversation, the food was fantastic, and I got to eat broccoli, which is a treat now, and schnitzel and real, not-stale challah, and REALLY REALLY DELICIOUS pareve desserts. It felt later than 8:30, but after a huge meal, we were tired, and we walked home not long afterward.

The next morning, קמתי בשמונה בבוקר והולכת לבית כנסת (I rose at eight in the morning and went to shul). If you haven't noticed by now, אני למדתי לכתב בעברית במחשב!!! (I learned to write in Hebrew on the computer. If I have spelling or grammar mistakes, friends -ie Seffi-, please correct them!! אני רוצה ללמוד!! I want to learn!). I went to Shira Chadasha with the intent of sitting with Sue, Joshy's mom. Josh's family came to visit and they wanted to go to Shira Chadasha because it is a really nice service, but there is a mechitzah and Josh's whole family is comprised of men, except for his mom. It turned out to be an outrageously good time, and the two of us literally chattered away for two and a half hours. We were sure to be quiet and we prayed sometimes if the song was good, and I even skimmed the Torah portion translation, but mainly we just became best friends. It caused quite an uproar at Kiddush, when everyone who had been peeking at us through the cotton mechitzah commented on our ability to entertain each other.

I ate lunch back at בית נתיב (Beit Nativ--a Hebrew palindrome!!!) and read A Thousand Splendid Suns for approximately four hours, taking breaks to study Art History slides and cry (I was crying because of the rape and death in TTS, not because of Art History). I don't want to turn this blog into Oprah's book club, but REALLY! You HAVE to read this book if you care about humanity and war and love and peace and family. It is so well written and gripping and heart breaking, but also funny and hopeful. I haven't finished it yet so don't spoil it for me, but if you have read it, I would love to talk about it with you. It is definitely the kind of thing that you have to think about and process over time, and hopefully I will muster up the strength to read it again a few years down the road. It also really enhances my understanding of the political situation, tumultuous history, and Taliban in Afghanistan.

After Mincha, Seudah shlishit, Ma'ariv, and Havdalah (this would be a great time for me to know how to spell in Hebrew...so I will attempt: מנכה, סודה שלישית, מעריב, והבדלה ), I went with a few Nativers to dinner with Josh's family. What delightful and generous people! I sat with Sue again, and Seth was on my other side. The dinner, needless to say, was טעים מעוד, complete with meaty bruschetta, gourmet kajun chicken, and the most heavenly desserts you could ever dream of. Sue was really supportive of my scaredy cat eating habits, and she encouraged me gently to try different things, and I liked them all! It was also really nice to get to know Joshy's little brothers a bit, because they are all spitting images of each other and it's funny to see differences in their personalities. Josh's dad, a proud Cornell alum, led dinner discussions about politics in Israel and asked us all our opinions about peace negotiations and prisoner exchanges. There was a great atmosphere of respect at the table, whereas in other situations with other fathers I have felt an edge of ageism. Mark was genuinely interested in our opinions and the whole table shared input without judgment. We walked home filled to the brim with love and happiness, and then I was about to turn in for the night when Seth asked me to go out.

We walked to our new favorite bar where Nativers were already sitting at a booth. The bar is called Herzl, which is great to begin with, and the sign of the bar has a stylized version of Moses Ephraim Lilien's photograph of Herzl's profile, which is great because we learned about that image in Art History! Connections!!!! To get to the bar, you have to go up a narrow staircase, and it opens up into a large area with leather booths, a nice oak bar, and BOOKSHELVES!! Of course my favorite bar would have bookshelves, and I checked---they are all real books! There is also a fireplace and it is all just delightful. I love to stand on the balcony looking over the sketchy street below that we used to frequent before we knew about Herzl, and I feel so accomplished and classy knowing that I am not one of those lost and wandering failed party-goers. The night was short though, since Seth and I arrived after most people had already finished their beers or what have you, and I was ready to go home after getting bad news about Cecilia the Automobile of Lurrve, my '94 Toyota Camry.

On Sunday, I had my Art History midterm. I am pretty sure I did well on it, since there were no unseen images so it was just a matter of learning 15 slides and their significance. After school, Joe and I video chatted with Tzafon Region's Fall Kallah, and I was SOOO jealous and I stalked all my friends who were there on facebook. I looooove USYYYYY soooo much. It was nice to get a chance to talk to the region about Nativ though, and I hope that people decide to go! After the vid chat, I went to Beit Midrash and studied with a group of Nativers led by Yonina, my faaaavorite feminist Talmud scholar. I really just adore her spunky personality and quirky teaching style. She says she doesn't want to be a pulpit rabbi, but I would so join her congregation in like a second.

After Beit Midrash, Debbie called me to her room and we ate Betty Crocker chocolate frosting with spoons. She had called me on Saturday night to alert me of her find (I love knowing that my best friends understand and care about what is really important to me!) but I was fleishig and couldn't eat it. We made up for lost time on Sunday and ate until we had that perfect amount of nausea mixed with fullness mixed with happiness feeling in our stomachs.

Monday was a long day at school, and I took my Talmud midterm and I think it was a general success. I took a מונית home with Joshy because he was in a hurry, and then I got ready for football. We played the first team again, and they are pretty butchy and scary, and we lost pretty badly; HOWEVER, I caught a football in the second half!! Granted, I freaked out, nearly dropped it, forgot to run, and was immediately de-flagged, but none of that could get me down (Laura, the world's most supportive and incredible quarterback, actually got mad at me a little bit!). I had the biggest smile on my face when the game was over and we lost by an absurd amount of points (we didn't score at all...) and I was in a state of extreme excitement for the rest of the night. I caught a football!

On Tuesday morning, I woke up feeling dizzy and remained a bit ill for most of the day. I managed to get through Art History and Hebrew, which luckily were my only classes that day, and I went to sleep immediately upon returning home for five hours. I woke up for Chevruta with Adina and Rachel, which was a pleasure as always except for the fact that the sugya didn't light my fire and Josh was missing. We went to dinner at home and then it was time for Erev Nativ (ערב נתיב!!). Yossi told us about current events, mainly focusing on developments in the Gilad Shalit case, which is always difficult to talk about. I hate the thought of 450 of the worst terrorists being released in return for this one life. What about all the people whose relatives were killed by these terrorists? And then I hate that thought, because what about the all important life of Gilad? He is alive, which is a miracle, and a human life is priceless. In a sad way, it makes me feel relieved that other people are in charge of this business and that I don't have the responsibility to make decisions about other people's lives and deaths.

Then we broke into קהילה/קיבוץ (kibbutz/kehila) groups (קבוצות??) and we learned about שירת הסטיקר (?? The Sticker Song) by הדג נחש (Hadag Nachash). The song was written using political bumper stickers found on Israeli cars after the death of Yitzhak Rabin, and it has a leftist slant while still maintaining a nationalist tone. It was a nice program and I am really glad to have a better understanding of a song that I love.

Then I studied with Debbie for our Ulpan (אולפן, אני חושבת) for two hours! I know I wouldn't have studied very well if I didn't have her to tutor, and she said that I helped her out a lot too, so it worked out perfectly! I couldn't keep my eyes open by midnight, which was fine anyway since I had to wake up at 6:30 this morning for services.

I just finished my Ulpan midterm, and it didn't take me very long, so hopefully that isn't a bad thing. I felt very confident, though, and when I was reading a long passage about נחלת שבעה (a neighborhood in Jerusalem), I didn't even translate to English in my head for some parts. It was kind of cool because I felt like I was thinking in Hebrew.

Now it really is time for me to get to researching. להתראות!!!

PS. I just published this post and realized that the Hebrew gets messed up when it drops down a line, for which I apologize, but hopefully you can still understand what I intend to say).