Last Year in Israel...This Year in Ithaca. A different kind of Passover

The week leading up to the festival of Passover was almost as exciting as the holiday itself has been. So I can focus on the juicy stuff, I will briefly mention all of the wonderfully exciting things I have been up to here at Cornell as part of my fabulously adventurous life:

On Tuesday of last week, I read a Hebrew poem at "Poetry and Pasty: an elegant soiree of Near Easter, Francophone, and World Poetry" in the Johnson Art Gallery. What a classy affair! I read a beautiful poem by Yehuda Amichai called Jerusalem.

On a roof in the Old City
Laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight:
The white sheet of a woman who is my enemy,
The towel of a man who is my enemy,
To wipe off the sweat of his brow.

In the sky of the Old City
A kite.
At the other end of the string,
A child
I can't see
Because of the wall.

We have put up many flags,
They have put up many flags.
To make us think that they're happy.
To make them think that we're happy.

The hebrew is more beautiful, without question, because it is a very rhythmic language with easy rhyming. To be honest, I really enjoyed my poem and the other Yehuda Amichai poem that was read, but I didn't really connect well to the other poems. I think that my generation of Americans is out of touch with poetry for the most part and it is hard for us to appreciate it. I want to relate to poetry and feel deep and artsy and hipster, but it just isn't there. I still loved the Poetry and Pastry atmosphere though!

Then on Wednesday, besides my regular slew of excitement and my introductory meeting to being a Residential Advisor (!!!), Rachel and I attended another Multi-faith Ambassadors Meeting. The group is really taking off. Besides planning for events and creating programs for other people to enjoy, I really feel as though the core group is becoming close. I see my new Muslim and Bahai (Bahai!!) friends out and about and it feels totally natural to stop and chat with them, and then when we are at the meetings it is also natural to talk about our faith and religion and what we value in life. So it is not just a surface friendship, but we really dig into topics and I feel like these people understand more about me and my faith than many Jews on campus. Sometimes religious people have more in common with other religious people, even if they call God by different names.

On Thursday, the real adventure presented itself. My friend Alyssa was hosting a pre-frosh and I instantly saw myself in her. Sophie was a nice Jewish girl from the DC area deciding between Barnard and Cornell, and she was going to be pre med. We all had dinner together and then afterward, Alyssa needed to do her own thing for a while, so I said I'd play with Sophie. I took her to Kinkeldey, the most beautiful study room on campus, and I gave her "2.5 Minute Ride" to read by Lisa Kron. She loved it. Then, when I was finished with a reasonable amount of calculus homework, we set out for Collegetown. The goal was: to visit a boy she had a crush on during middle school who then moved away and then she ran into him outside the Cornell store earlier that day, and he was staying at his brother's house in Ctown. Seemed easy enough. We trekked in the rain to the address on Linden and the boy let us in. There was a dog and a couple of seniors chilling around a tv watching 30 Rock. I was down with that.

I let Sophie and Eli talk for a while with all of us in the room, and then the "grown ups" moved into the dining room to give them some added privacy. In the dining room, I met Dylan, to whom I had already been introduced via the installation art that adorned the house walls. Dylan was a fire cracker/hippie/magician/ego maniac/wonderful human being who completely dominated the conversation. First, he made me go turn off the tv because he doesn't believe in tv and the frequency of sound coming from it was bothering him. Then he showed me a mind boggling magic trick and made fun of me when I couldn't figure it out (the solution came to me about two days later while I was walking to class..I can't wait to perfect it!). Then he suggested we all play spoons (the card game) but they didn't have enough spoons so he insisted we play with knives. The night went on like this. While we were playing spoons/knives, my friend Ariella came in the door with Eli's older brother (they might be dating, still unclear). It was great to see her! It felt very sitcom-esque and I basked in the glory. I saw Eli bringing Sophie a beer from the kitchen and I taught her about not letting boys open your drinks for you. People made fun of me for it, but the girl didn't know, and come on, if your parents are completely clueless and think you'll never drink (aka Sophie's parents), then they aren't really going to be bringing up the date-rape drug convo if they don't have to, right? So I was pleased with myself.

THEN Eli asked me if he could walk Sophie home at a later hour because it was a school night for me and I needed to get home soon. Umm...hell no, do I appear to be completely useless as a person? Obviously I wouldn't stand for that. We get too many forcible touching incident emails for me to just let some boy bring Sophie back willy nilly. He doesn't even GO here! They could have gotten lost. Anyway, I was feeling extra responsible that night. And she thanked me later because she actually wanted to walk home with me in the first place but wasn't going to say anything to Eli. Two points to me.

Then, thank you Karma, we ran into my friend Josh who was just pulling out of a driveway in Ctown and heading back to North Campus with a pile of people in his car. So naturally we piled in and we were delivered in style to Donlon. Sophie was, needless to say, pleased and amazed by her Cornell adventures.

On Friday, Adina convinced me to go see Far Away, a play that was showing at the Schwartz. It only had three actors in it. For a while, I thought I knew what was going on. It was some kind of creative way of showing how the normalization of violence in our society is bad. Ok, got that. But then, they started referring to animals as if they were on teams or allies in some war. So then I thought, ok, this is just a metaphor for some world war or something. But then it didn't fit any of the main wars that I know about and it seemed to just be artistic use of animals as war allies or enemies and it was really quite impossible to sort out which team all the alligators and cats and deer and raccoons and monkeys were on, and I was boggled. So although I wouldn't say I enjoyed the play exactly, I do feel as though I got my $3 out of it because it provoked thoughts for a few hours after the show ended.

Then it was time for a lovely Shabbat and a mixer at Phi Sig during which I relived our USY glory days with Joe. Plus beer pong. I really couldn't be worse at that game.

Saturday was full of more adventures. L and I set out for our usual walk around Ithaca. We stopped at Green Star Oasis as usual to pee and collect ourselves. For the first time, I really had to pee and simply could not wait for L to be finished. Well, I really could have, because when I got out of my stall, L was no where to be found. I spent about 10 minutes looking for her in the Dewitt Mall. This was a stressful time in my life. Finally, I found her seated at a table in the grocery store, chomping down on ice cream she had removed from the dairy section. Ok, great. So I paid the clerks (they were very understanding) and brought her coat and hat back to her, and cleaned the ice cream from all over her face. I scolded her a little bit but it clearly made her feel terrible so I stopped. We still made the hike up to Ctown so she could burn off some of those ice cream calories, but I wouldn't let her pause on the way up because every time she slowed down, I was afraid she was starting to poop in her diaper. So we made it to Ctown, and I got a hot chocolate in Starbucks, and on the walk back we ran into about 6 people that I know, and it was a lovely morning.

Saturday's excitement was only just beginning, though. Mama picked me up from babysitting and we went to have lunch at Kappa Delta made by Katie and Kate and it was soooo delicious and since I went to farm school I ate that moz and tomato right up! Then we went to meet Ilana and Joe O at CTB, and I was reunited with Nativ 29!!! Then Ilana and Mama and I went to see Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, which was occurring in a messy fashion on the Arts Quad. Jesse met us there, looking extra colorful for the occasion. Then we went to the Johnson Art Museum and saw many cool exhibits and views and learned many things thanks to Elyse's unfailing caption read alouds.

Despite the rain trying to ruin our plans, we forged ahead with the day's itinerary. This included grazing at a classy dinner reception in Terrace with other Kappa Deltas and going to see the Cornell Fashion Collective Fashion Show! The show started late and was really long, but other than that, it was really incredible! We very much enjoyed critiquing the outfits and walks based on our expert knowledge gained through Project Runway and America's Next Top Model. I practically AM Michael Kors, please.

After the fashion show, we collected Adina and went to Madeline's for some dessert! The restaurant is so pretty and delicious it really felt like a portkey out of Ithaca. Adina's presence was extra appreciated due to the fact that my together-time with Mother had just about reached its limit and I no longer felt her striking similarity to me to be funny or cute but really it just made me want to throw myself out the window. Or her, for that matter. Anyhow, Adina was a great buffer and a great conversationalist and person in general so dessert went well (the dessert itself was also fabulous!).

The next morning, I had three brunches! First, the traditional Sunday morning Meinig brunch to discuss our research presentation, then a brunch with Mom at Kappa Delta, and THEN a brunch at CTB with Ilana and Joe and Jesse as we tried to relive our Nativ happiness. It was just so comfortable and natural and fun to be with them all together. What a good group.

On Monday, PASSOVER BEGAN AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY. I was a "seder monitor" at Super Seder, which was in Barton Hall (a gym that originally functioned as an aircraft carrier or something...whatever, its huge). Although over 400 people actually did show up for seder, the room looked somewhat empty because the seders were set up for 800 people just in case that many people surprised us. But in general the seder was a positive experience. I led the Freedom Seder, which is an incredible hagadah and I encourage you to explore it!! The link is here, and it is from UMASS Amherst. Although there were many people there who were chatting and seemed like they wanted to get out of there, when I asked for feedback afterwards, it was overwhelmingly positive and even the most unengaged girl (by my estimation) said she thought it was super meaningful and was really happy with the seder and so appreciative. So although I would have loved more participation from the seder, I was really happy that my guests got a lot out of it.

On Tuesday, I had a plant lab for four hours and I learned about plant ovaries and how we are eating them when eating fruit! Wow!! And then I led the Freedom Seder again, this time on North Campus, for several freshman Sammy boys and several senior AChiO girls. Again, they seemed chatty and impatient, but when it was all said and done, they were really happy we had done it and genuinely appreciative.

After that seder, Rachel and I went to the Sammy seder that the Emily and Sam (sister and brother team) were leading with the help of another family team, Emily and BJ. The seder was incredible. I am going to petition to be adopted into Emily and Sam's family because I really can't even describe how much joy there was at the table and how we were all laughing during the songs and how Emily was patient and firm and loud enough when trying to lead a room full of impatient and hyperactive fratty Jews. Amazing. I hope to channel her energy when I have to lead a family seder of my own (or not lead, just contribute to, whatever, I'm not making any assumptions about my future husband) because it was motherly in a comforting and firm and smart way but not motherly in an overbearing New York mother nagging way. I fear that escape from becoming an overbearing New York nagging mother is going to be my greatest challenge in life...forget about medical school. I have my work cut out for me.

Wednesday included another beautiful Multi-faith Ambassadors meeting, and Thursday was the ultimate happiness.

To be continued!!!