Classes, Shabbat, and a Rave

I. Classes

A. Bio

1. self taught

2. hard

3. awesome

4. I chill in the bio study center

B. Human Development

1. sit with Julia

2. videos of infants and children

3. what's not to love?

C. Nutrition

1. prof is hilar

2. learning a lot already (autonomic nervous system)

3. prof talked about fight or flight responses as they relate to orgasms today in class, we all had heart attacks. he's ooooold

D. Hebrew

1. prof is my best friend

2. good level for me so far

3. helped me meet one of my actual best friends, Adina, who went to Israel last year and is awesome

E. English

1. prof talks in a British/snoody/A Separate Peace boarding school accent

2. reading Russian literature so I feel smarter

3. not seeing where it's going quite yet

F. Ballroom

1. hasn't started yet

2. doing it with Joe D so how can it not be great!?

II. Shabbat

A. Beit Midrash

1. pre Shabbat learning in the Beit Midrash

2. one other girl there

3. lots of arguing

4. possibly social suicide, still unclear

B. Services

1. I lead Kabalat Shabbat

2. I rocked

3. the conservative minyan was good but I want to try others

C. Dinner

1. madhouse

2. not a lot of food

3. pareve desserts are bad in America

4. made friends!

D. L'Chaims

1. Jewish "frat house" thingy (Center for Jewish Living) hosts "L'Chaims" post dinner

2. lots of drinks and Jews

3. I didn't drink but I mingled

4. weird concept

III. Rave

A. Getting in

1. Arrived with Jesse, Ranan, and Jake

2. recognized new friend Conor

3. Conor, bless his lil heart, let us in

B. Entering the rain forest

1. climate was 100% humidity, about 95 degrees F

2. very crowded

C. Bartending

1. I liked the idea of having a purpose

2. I liked the idea of having a sturdy, high wooden table between me and potential rapists/unwanted dance partners

3. I asked drunk people to use their manners and reminded them to drink water

4. I handed out beers

D. Dancing

1. insanity

2. insanity

3. fun

4. sweaty

5. they played Stereo Love and it brought me back to the days of Yerucham and Crack Square

E. Leaving

1. said goodbye to our many friends (yay!!!!)

2. used my orientation skills to read the campus map and navigated us to the next house

3. entered the next house but the party was over

4. found a pole in the empty basement and tried to turn upside down on it but failed

5. walked back home to North campus and saw a beautiful doe on the way

NOW IT IS TIME TO SLEEP!!!!!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow, I will begin classes. I am nervous and excited. I hope I like my teachers and my courses and I hope they like me and my outfits and my writing style. I hope I am smart enough to absorb all the information that is contained in the 400 dollars worth of textbooks I purchased today. There is a lot of information in there.

Tonight we had to go to a theatre troupe thing about diversity and talk about tolerance. It was worthwhile but some people said some pretty dumb things in the discussion. Also it brought up affirmative action which is always a confusing topic. The liberal-let's-all-hold-hands-and-talk-about-peace side of me says YES! and the competitive-wants-a-good-job-and-money-based-on-my-abilities side of me says OH HELLLLL NO!

To relax before bed, I went for a run around campus. I got further than I thought I would and I saw a lot of campus and some great songs came on my iPod. After I cooled off, I hung out with five kids who all spent the year in Israel last year and we are becoming great friends. They didn't do it tonight, but they smoke pot pretty regularly and I am worried that I won't be as close with them because I don't want to smoke. I really, really want to be friends with them though-they feel like my people, where I fit in. But I guess I don't really fit in if I feel pressure from them to smoke. Which I don't-I just want to be included in their outings, but they know I don't smoke, so I'm not included in those outings. We'll see what happens. Right now I'm just glad I have people to hang out with and they don't mind if I don't smoke.

Besides the Israel kids, I have been getting close with some more kids from my floor and also from my major/pre-med in my college. I love recognizing people when I'm walking all over campus.

Also, today, on my walk to the pre med meeting, I crossed a footbridge that passes over a gorge and a waterfall. The sun came out for those few moments when I was crossing the bridge and there was a beautiful rainbow in the mist. It's a sign!

WAHHHH VICTORY IS MINE!!!

At long last, I finally have a SCHEDULE!

I am a full-time enrolled student at Cornell University. Instead of only being signed up for three classes, two of which were at the same time, I am currently signed up for:

1. Self Taught Bio (weekly quizzes, you do the rest yourself, plus it's a year long course)

2. Nutrition, Health, and Society

3. Human Development Infancy and Childhood

4. Writing About Literature-Telling Stories

5. Elementary Modern Hebrew III (that's right, I placed into the THIRD semester of Hebrew!!! I am scared that it's going to kick my butt, but I've heard suuuuch amazing things about the professor that I have to do it)

6. Ballroom Dancing with my bff Joe D from USY!!!!!!!

I am going to be a doctor!!! WOOO!!!!!!

O-Week cont.

6. EATING-everyoneeeee is scrambling around. We have to wait in line to get our cards swiped and then again at all the different counters. Lots of options though, and everything is marked "vegetarian," "vegan," "contains wheat," etc. It's nice, and it tastes really good. But it's so crowded and overwhelming. When I had dinner with Hannah last night, we waited in lines with each other even if we weren't getting the same food just so we wouldn't get separated. Because we wouldn't find each other for another week.

7. Weather-here it comes...it's raining and dark and windy in Ithaca. Surprise. I just thought we'd have a few more nights of summer!

8. Collegetown-explored more last night, went to a lot of different frat "annexes" (where the seniors live). I met up with this girl Cora, who is from Michigan and totally chill and not like a let's-get-dressed-up-and-impress-boys-with-our-heels kind of girl. I like her! It's literally a city of party houses. Hundreds and hundreds of drunk kids in the streets and going in and out of houses, the smell of pot every so often, lots of late night food places, and a few cops rolling around writing people up. Doesn't that sound like SO MUCH FUN!?

9. Professors-I've started meeting them! I went to meet with the Hebrew professor tonight and she was HYSTERICAL amazing loved her. So Israeli. They are the best. Then I tagged along with my friend Ranan so he could talk to a professor about Earth Science, and while he was there, I started a conversation with a professor. He literally blew my mind when he started talking about global warming and pollution and stuff. He said, "people read about pollution and oil spills as if it's someone's house getting broken into that they don't know, and they say, oh, that sucks for them. Well, it's MY FUCKING HOUSE!!! It's YOUR FUCKING HOUSE that's being broken into. People should really ask me before polluting my atmosphere. You can't just build a fucking smokestack and start polluting my atmosphere without asking." I was like, whoa, this is a lot to handle. Also, today, we went to a lecture on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the professor didn't talk about it at all. Instead he played a lot of bad homemade videos of other horticulture professors talking about plants. His best line was, "sometimes the best way to be a purple iris is to be yellow." It was a great bonding experience for me and the person sitting next to me.

This place is effing nuts.

O-Week

Orientation is CRAAAAZY. These are things that are crazy:

1. Down time-how should I make the best use of this time? I need to meet people, figure things out with registration, set up my room, see my friends, explore campus, sign up for things...

2. Hall Meetings-there are 90 people on my floor. 3 RAs, and 6 floors in my building. We are supposed to learn about living in a "community" and how to be a "family" and how to avoid getting caught with "illegal" drugs in our rooms.

3. College information sessions-dean's welcome, advisor meetings, friendly suggestion panels-all these people telling you what to do in order to be successful and saying there are so many people to answer your questions and then leaving before you can get any questions answered.

4. Parties-last night I went into Collegetown (only a 25 walk from where I live, uphill both ways) and visited two houses associated with fraternities and saw some people I know and met a whole lot of new people. There is also a whole lot of free alcohol and it was hot and crowded and sweaty and loud. It was fun for a while and then I just wanted to be clean and have some personal space. I did meet one girl though who was extra super nice to me and she introduced me to a lot of people and we talked a lot. I really like her and I hope we are friends!

5. College Judaism-hundreds of people were at the Hillel dinner, everyone is Jewish, I met like six Israelis last night, everyone loves being Jewish, but no one keeps Shabbat. Me included, I guess. Still figuring that out.

Going Away To College

Wheels ended with teary goodbyes and a really long day in the airport. I finally realized how much the kids and my co staff meant to me all summer when I had to face the fact that I would be interacting with people outside the lovely Bus C Bubble. When the kids told me they looked up to me and were appreciative of everything I taught them, I felt amazing. When I buried my face in Tali's bosom for the last time, heard Jake sing, hugged Aaron, and laughed with Andrew for the last time, I felt so sad and depressed. The last day was the hardest. I miss them all so much now, but I haven't had enough time to process just how much I changed and learned over the summer.

Over the past week, I have tried to see a lot of important people in my life, tried to unpack, pack, organize, buy things (which does count as a challenge), plan things, and just figure stuff out. Being home has been weird. So comfortable and familiar, wonderful. Having very few responsibilities helped too, and I slept in soooo late almost every day. I liked meeting the new rabbi at our synagogue and I think she's going to do a great job.

On the other hand, I felt like I should have been putting kids in their rooms or answering their stupid questions or helping them find their iPods. Or something else entirely. It wasn't like last summer or any other time I've been home. College is a whole new animal.

So I move in tomorrow. To Cornell. University.

I'm nervous and excited and scared and happy. Saying good bye to Chelsea and Julia tonight was really sad but at least they will be nearby. I hate not having a routine, not knowing where things are, who my friends are, which are the cool frats and which are known for date rape. These are things I would really like to know.

Wish me luck!!!!!!

Heat Wave

Shalom from Atlanta, GA!

It is HOT AND HUMID HERE! When I left you last, I was making my way across the great state of Tennessee. I went to Graceland, Beale St, and the Lorraine Motel/National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, then on to the Paperclips School in Whitwell TN (the movie about the middle school and the Holocaust and the 6 million paperclips), then to Ruby Falls and Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, TN.

Ruby Falls is an underground waterfall inside a cave and it looks like diamonds are falling from the sky, also there is a Guster song about it, so how can it not be great?

Today we went to Dialog in the Dark, which is a blind museum! We had a blind tour guide and it was completely dark and there was no light and we had no vision and we got canes and we had to feel around different areas. I could just cry thinking about a blind person in a supermarket. The museum was really incredible. I hope I will have it in me to step up and help a blind person the next time I see one.

Then we went to the Martin Luther King Jr. gravesite and memorial. He was a truly inspired individual. His speeches were so beautiful and moving. He really was a modern Moses. In his last speech made before he died, he said "I have been to the mountaintop, and although I may not get there with you, I know that we as a people will reach the Promised Land."

Tonight we had dinner at a synagogue here, we did gender bonding with opposite gender staff, then we went to a Braves/Mets game! We were there for about an hour and a half, which is really my limit. I crocheted and got a milkshake.

Now I am sleepy and in my hotel, while the kids are in their host homes. It's nice to have a break. Laila tov!

The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Center

Shalom from Little Rock, Arkansas!

Our first stop in Little Rock, Arkansas was the high school where the crisis of school integration broke out in 1957 regarding the Little Rock Nine. It is hard to walk on the steps of the beautiful high school and imagine the scene half a century ago as black children tried to make their way to class. I tried with all my might to feel the power of the place and absorb the information in the museum, but I can hardly wrap my head around the thought that people could hate with such strength and fury.

From the high school, we went to the Bill Clinton Presidential Center. We had about an hour and a half there to wander the exhibits and watch a short film. That hour and a half was inspiring and powerful. Being there, reading quotes and looking at the timeline of events, I couldn’t help but feel determined to do something. Just to contribute in some way, to do something of importance for someone, somewhere.

I am often seduced by the idea of public service in the form of elected office. It is glamorous, powerful, influential, consuming, and there is a whole culture of campaigns (late nights, junk food, good looking people debating politics and world affairs) and offices that I have seen a little bit of on a local level that I can only imagine intensifies as one moves up. And then there is the actual work side of it--trying to improve health care, economic conditions, the state of the environment, education, foreign relations, working to create peace between countries. It is an all encompassing job that requires such broad knowledge and understanding. I can't imagine someone feeling qualified to be a decision maker in all of these areas, but that's essentially what politicians do, all the while defending their positions with speeches and rhetoric.

I think what it comes down to is that I will always be lured in to the world of politics, but I know myself well enough to stay clear of running for office of any kind. I will put my talents to better use in a doctor's office somewhere, and I will improve lives in other ways. I don't want fame or glamour, but I do want to make a difference. I want to feel useful, meaningful, helpful. I also don't want to have to sacrifice having a private life or family life.

Only time will tell. Stay tuned at shalomfromhome.blogspot.com for breaking news flashes!

Laila tov!