Life and all its glory

In this post, I will attempt to do justice to the glorious month of March.

Saturday, March 5th, was a particularly glorious day. While babysitting, L and I took our usual walk to CTB in the Commons. Along the way, she pet dogs and even said, "Hand," and we held hands. It was a victory.

Right after babysitting, I went to the KD/Sammy brunch. There was an assortment of brunch foods, pink Andre, and Sammy boys. These are all things I greatly enjoy.

Then I did laundry in preparation for...BIG/LITTLE REVEAL! I arrived at the KD house and waited with my pledge class in the basement. We all received gift bags with apparel in them, so we could get changed and then match the rest of our lineage. Everyone opened her bag and found a cute puffy-painted tank top or maybe, if the lin got fancy, an AmerAppar v-neck with screen print. Then I opened up my bag; there was no v-neck to be found, no plays on words (Gineage...?). I had received...a ONESIE. I proudly donned my onesie and was eventually called up to meet my lineage. Finally-Emlyn and Katie!!! I could not have been happier. We rolled around in our onesies for a while, ate stir fry in our onesies at RPCC, ate a colossal ice cream sunday at Purity in our onesies to benefit the dinosaurs at Museum of the Earth, went to a frat in our onesies and ate chocolate covered strawberries, and then we went to a different frat in our onesies and danced the night away. We took many glorious pictures and loved each other very much. Emlyn dropped Katie and I off at Sammy to end the night there, in our onesies.

That Monday was glorious because we had a snow morning! The next night, 7 members of the Hillel Executive Board dined with 3 members of MECA, the Muslim Education and Culture Association. It was great! The next night I took an exam for KD and memorized many, many bits of useless information ("the purpose of Kappa Delta is to create true friendships among its members by inculcating into their hearts and minds....").

On Friday night, I celebrated Shabbat on North Campus with Gil and some Cornellians and some non-Jews who were there as part of the Multi-Faith Ambassadors group. Services were lovely and then we went to our dinners, then joined back up for hamentaschen dessert! I ran out from Shabbat to go to Sammy for date night. Jesse was already at the restaurant when I got there--there was a bouquet of flowers at my place!! FLOWERS!! And they were beautiful. He proved to be a perfect date and we had a perfect evening of edamame at Miyake. Then we retired as a group to an apartment in Collegetown. At the party, I sort of felt like I was making the rounds at a Saturday morning kiddush, because I made sure to circulate so I could speak to all my friends who were throughout the room.

Jesse really outdid himself as a date when he walked me through Ctown to my next destination-the Phi Tau annex where JONATHAN KRISTINE JULIA AND EMILY WERE WAITING. The gang was reunited (at least in part!). We partied and caught up and walked home together in terrible weather conditions. It was amazing to see my best friends.

The next day after babysitting, I went to Shabbat lunch because a couple was visiting. They were applying for the job of Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, which is basically an Orthodox rabbi and his wife who come to Cornell for two or three years to teach and guide students, and it is partly funded by the OU. I am on the search committee for this position so I wanted to meet with this couple, listen to their study sessions, eat with them, and of course we had to interview them. The interview took hours. It was very interesting, however, to decide (as an all-student search committee) what is important to us for our campus and for our Judaism and just personally. It was a great experience (there will be more couples coming this month as well).

On Sunday, I was initiated as a full sister of Kappa Delta Sorority. The initiation ceremony was a little bizarre, but I was really happy to finally be a sister and participate in the chapter meetings, etc. Then, of course, Adina, Juhi and I danced ethnically.

The next week we had a Purim Carnival at Cornell, which was a grand success and lots of fun for everyone who came! Susu did an amazing job of putting it together. I babysat L again because her mother was at a wedding in Argentina and we took a different walk than usual-Ithaca is beautiful! It was a gorgeous day out and we went around a big neighborhood loop. We stopped and played with THREE kitties!! Lots of older houses with a lot of character and big porches that the residents clearly make good use of, because there were beautiful lanterns and wicker chairs and swings out on the porches. Beautiful. I want a big ass porch when I grow up.

The next day was Dragon Day at Cornell, and there was a big parade and a metal dragon and lots of festivities. It was a gorgeous day yet again, so the whole community came out for the parade and it was a picture perfect kind of day. People wore great costumes and everyone was in a festive mood. Then Adina and I peaced out. We wore really exciting outfits and listened to really great music and talked in the car for hours. We also stopped in Roscoe, NY for a photo shoot. It was A-MAZING. The town had so much character and there were trains set up and we climbed on them. There was a hanging sign outside a grocery store that said "Newspapers Sold Here" and there were people on the sidewalk milling about. It was so American! The most exciting thing about the photo shoot, though, was that I have a friend who is also interested in doing things like this! We took turns being the photographer and the model. We each used our own cameras so we got different kinds of effects, and we are both very different models (Adina is an actress and SO good in front of the camera, while I can't hold a serious face long enough and just end up breaking out into a goofy looking smile). The shots we got were amazing!

We got into Mamaroneck, NY around dinnertime, and chilled with the fam for a while. The dinner was delicious and the house is beautiful. We had a super fun sleepover night that included two episodes of the OC, which really brought us back to our childhood (I liked it a lot more when I was in ninth grade though).

Adina and I got breakfast at a SUPER cute little place the next morning and then we got froyo, mostly so we could just quote the Harvard Sailing Team video. Then Adina drove me to Queens, where she met Mimi and Grandpa Beast! Mimi immediately whisked me off to a hairdresser because my locks were getting a little straggly, and then we watched a Sex in the City marathon (also better when I was 16..hmmm) and had dinner, then went back to Sex in the City. It was just the relaxing night I was craving.

The next morning, I set off for Jewish Organic Farm School with Cornell Hillel. We took a plane to San Diego and vans to Tierra Miguel Farm, which is about an hour and a half outside the city, in one of the most beautiful valleys I have ever seen. We read the megillah when we got there, because it was Purim, and we prepared a feast. The food was INCREDIBLE. Everything was natural, everything started out as raw ingredients, and we just cooked and cooked and cooked the whole week.

Some highlights of farm school:

• our staff members, Gabe and Elana, were amazing human beings. At first, I was skeptical of their serenity but by the end I could tell they were genuninely the most tranquil people I've ever met.
• working on the farm-we weeded chard, we set up a chicken coop, we reorganized a greenhouse, we moved dirt around, we planted tomato seedlings and their companion crops (chives and parsley), and generally just helped wherever we could be of use
• discussing food justice-we talked about food deserts (like West Oakland) where there is no grocery store within walking distance and most people do not have cars so getting produce is near impossible
• the natural beauty everywhere
• helping out in the garden at the San Diego Jewish Academy and meeting with students and staff there
• hanging out with our farming crew-what a mixed bunch! I got to know some really amazing people this week and I got to bond even closer with others
• going to a huge beautiful house in San Diego, right on the beach, and walking along the beach
• walking 5 minutes to a working toilet, sharing a shower with 16 other humans, having our toilets explode multiple times
• meeting the other workers on the farm and learning from them
• learning about Community Supported Agriculture, biodynamics, holistic healing, and organic farming (when we were weeding, we didn't pull out clover plants because they are nitrogen fixers for the chard plants)
• applying my biology knowledge!
• taking really, really beautiful pictures

Now I am back at school and trying to get into the swing of things once again. Of course, with all of my glorious March activities, I also am taking 19 credits. School is challenging but manageable and I like most of my classes (Civil Rights has been a disappointment, Calc is a fine subject but just annoying to have to take it in college).

There's a lot going on with Hillel and Jewish life right now as we prepare for Passover and the end of the year. I've been very busy with that, and I'm now part of the Multi-Faith Ambassadors group on campus so that has been exciting but also time consuming. I think it is very worthwhile though so I will continue to make time for it.

This weekend I am getting initiated as a "Sammy Sweetheart," babysitting, Shabbating, attending a 4 hour lab on the Microbial Ecology of My Mouth, going to an a cappella concert, attending several parties, brunching with Jews, and of course, ethnically dancing.