It has taken me a long time to return to this post, and it's about time. Because I like to make my titles clever, I will also argue that this post is actually about time, and what I do with my time. So, pun intended.
On Thursday of Pesach, I don't remember exactly what I did during the day, but I know that we had an Executive Board Meeting for Hillel and then...NOODLE WITH THE CHINESE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION! About 30 students, half Chinese-American, half Jewish, gathered in the Kosher dining hall after dinner to watch Noodle, an Israeli film about a Chinese boy in Israel. I have mentioned it before (see September 2009). It was AMAZING. We laughed at the same things, we went "awwww" at the same things, and we nearly cried at the same things. When the little boy was speaking Mandarin, the people sitting next to me translated, because there were no subtitles. Glorious.
After Noodle, a few of us ran out to participate in the Sigma Alpha Mu Road Rally, a "scavenger hunt" of sorts. I decided that I didn't want to get in trouble, take off my clothes, drink alcohol, or get dirty, so I didn't participate in many events, but I was a vital member of my team. I contributed highly to morale, designated driving, and photographic documentation. My team WON! Shout out to Jocelyn, for taking one for the team..you were the woman that night that I could never be <3
On Friday, the multi cultural hubub continued with the Freedom Seder. Seven members of Black Students United joined ten Jews at a table upstairs for Shabbat dinner. We read through the hagadah from UMASS Amherst, schmoozed, sang, ate, and got to know each other. Adam's parents were there too so that was extra special. What great people. We taught them about the Shabbat rituals and about Passover, and they sang the Black National Anthem for us and we talked about race on campus. So Complex[shun]s of us!!! I nearly cried when we were all singing "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley together.
That weekend, I'm sure a lot of really exciting things happened. One notable event was "The Party You Can't Pass-Over" at the Sammy Annex. The gang was all there, complete with potato vodka and Manischewitz. Great board pics were taken, fun was had by all. Adina brought the disposable--so vintage.
The next week was my academic hell week. I had two six page papers, a plant lab practical, a calc prelim, a unit test in bio, and regular homework on top of all that. It was somewhat of a surprise whether I would finish it all or not! I did, though, and everything went off all right. I've gotten my grades back from all those assignments, and nothing blew up or anything. Still going to medical school!
That week was also the end of Pesach, which means the pizza party and Rent-A-Greek auction! The auction was great and we raised over $800 for Autism Speaks. Woo Hillel!!! I really do aspire to be auctioned one day! So now I have another goal in life (other goals: start an inside joke that goes on the back of a group t shirt, be one of the 161 Faces of Cornell, have the New York Times discover my blog and ask me to be a guest writer...)
On Friday of that week, I got together with Emlyn and Katie to celebrate our Oneness. We had such a phenom time talking and eating chocolate covered pomegranate seeds (Rachel the First I miss you). I am going to miss Emlyn so much!
That same day, the Center for Jewish Living hosted Charity Shabbat, where each person donates to the selected cause. This year's cause was Japan, and the event was really beautiful. Four a capella groups came to sing, and Japanese students spoke about their losses. One girl, who was a great speaker, actually began to cry. The room of 200 people was completely silent.
Sometimes after a big disaster like Japan, there is so much media coverage and talk about it when it first happens that when the talk dies down, people stop considering it or even think that the conditions have improved. But they have not improved for many people, and it is just sad that our nation cannot keep focused on an issue long enough to see it through. We get bored of reading the same thing in the papers every day and move on to something else, like Donald Trump. So what I'm trying to say is that this girl, who started crying, really brought us all back. We realized that we've neglected Japan for the last month or so. And she was so appreciative of the whole community, and there were a lot of non-Jews at Shabbat dinner. Everyone was united through a good cause. It was the most Shabbat-like Shabbat I've had here.
Sunday was a really big day. In the morning, I interviewed a couple for the position of Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, along with the rest of the committee. The interview, as the others were as well, was an interesting exercise in what matters in a person, in a couple, in a rabbi. We have our couple for next year and I could not be more excited! They are wonderful, beautiful people inside and out.
After the interview, I went to brunch with Lisa Kron and her partner, Madeline George. Adina, Jesse, and about five other students/grad students were there. We talked for hours about being Jewish, about theater, about identity, about life, about family. I was star struck.
That afternoon I spent driving around Ithaca with Jesse (THANKS JESSE!) and then with Adina to track down the ever elusive mini-DVI-VGA adapter. The search was futile. Three hours, 33 dollars, and one return later, I was adapter-less. Still, the show went off without a glitch. Mama came for dinner (THANKS MAMA!) and then for the show, which was the best treat ever. Then Lisa Kron performed a concert version of her play "2.5 Minute Ride," about visiting Auschwitz with her father.
The show was funny, provocative, sad, tragic. At the end, we skyped with her father, a survivor of kindertransport and an American GI. His parents died in Auschwitz. He said, "it was a blessing to have been born Jewish so I could never be a Nazi." Every word that was said during the presentation made me think about the Holocaust a little differently. And I was so happy to share that experience with my mother, because I knew that she related similarly.
The members of the Cornell community who attended the event really found it meaningful as well. The notes/texts/emails of graditude I received from people in the audience made the whole thing so worth it.
After the Lisa Kron event, I changed quickly and set off in Rachel's car (THANKS RACHEL!) for my formal at the Boatyard! Ace was an excellent date (even though he tried to wear Sketchers Shape Ups at first), and we danced the night away (well, about 45 minutes) and took many pictures! I was kind of channeling the Mean-Girls-ending-where-she-shows-up-to-prom-in-a-mathletes-jacket energy. Success.
Then I changed back out of my fancy clothes (THANKS ADINA!) and went to set up hundreds of flags on the Arts Quad (see picture!) with Adina, Ben, Ben, and Adam. We were out there on a Sunday night from midnight until two in the morning, just so that we could have a display for one day that commemorated those who died in the Holocaust (the different flag colors represent different groups of people who were persecuted).
In the morning, I helped set up a name-reading station on Ho Plaza and I read names of people who died. Other people continued that task until six that evening. Also on Monday, I went to a talk by Dan Senor, author of "Start Up Nation," about Israel's economic success. It made me miss Israel a lot.
On Tuesday, I tried to be academic.
On Wednesday, it was YOM HA'ATZMAUT AT CORNELL! I took pictures of people riding a real camel (her name was Virginia, she was lovely) for an hour and a half. There was a bedouin tent and a bouncy house ("hike Israel!") and pita and falafel and hookah and the like. ACHLA!
Then I went to math for twenty minutes and then Daniel et al picked me up for THIRD EYE BLIND.
We listened to 3eb the whole way to Rochester. Then we took a pee break and jumped in my car to go the rest of the way. When we arrived in Buffalo, we ate at Anchorbar, which is apparently the home of the chicken wing. I ate a caesar salad.
Then, the concert. It was at the Town Ballroom, which, despite the ghetto we had to travel through to get to it, was really a gorgeous, perfect venue. We got there with the perfect amount of time to spare. We missed the lame openers and yet we had enough time to scooch to the front.
Opening chords. Motorcycle Drive By. The crowd goes wild!
Dan and I sang the night away. We were in a group of pretty rowdy fans, but fans all the same. Everyone knew the words, and everyone could identify the song by the first two measures. There was crowd surfing and drunk fighting and people getting belligerent, but Stephen made a speech in the beginning that got us all united and excited. There was such good energy.
The concert ended with a great encore-Don't Believe a Word, Semi-Charmed Life, and God of Wine. I had chills. It was a religious experience.
The next day was a big day also! A bio unit test, a calc problem set, an e-board meeting, Jesse's adaptation (pretty sure I know what happened...either way it was excellent), and TIE DYING WITH THE ONE! Katie and Emlyn happen to be excellent people but out of the three of us, no one had the patience to do the tie dye properly. But we will still proudly wear our blotchy sweatshirts!!!
The next day was the best day of all days: SLOPE DAY. This is the day that Cornellians dream about from the first night of Orientation. Slope Day is when all dreams come true. I woke up early to look my frattiest and head over to Amy's apartment with Adina to get things started (quick detour to drop off my calc problem set on the Engineering Quad-I felt smart). Then we headed over to 120 for a MAJOR PARTY. Everyone I know was just chilling in the sunshine loving up life for hours. The pictures are GREAT.
Then we all moved over to the slope (after some irritating encounters with security-Adina couldn't bring in her camera because it's "professional" and I couldn't bring in my bag because it was "too big") and frolicked there. There was a concert and a festival and kosher hot dogs. Everyone was there!!!
That night, Adina and I hit up "Hungover Shabbat." Table Minyan was beautiful of course (I led!) and dinner was really nice too. Then we headed over to see Brightonians in C-town and Adina met Gabe, which really should have happened earlier. And we were introduced to Chris's Office, a major highlight.
The next morning I babysat and slept slept slept. Finally I dragged myself out of bed to do Hebrew homework with Adina and we grabbed dinner on West. I went grocery shopping at Wegmans (how I wish it was a portkey, and I could just walk into Ithaca Wegmans and walk out into Rochester) for Hillel with Becky and Rachel. We sat on lawn furniture for about half an hour.
Then Rachel and I ran into Ankur at Nasties and decided to make an appearance at Sammy. The appearance consisted mainly of reading/singing Kipling aloud in Daniel's room. There was a party but we were not interested. Oops.
The next morning, we had the Jewish Student Leadership Brunch! We set tables, we took beautiful pictures in the garden, we gave awards! It's not quite the same as high school or USY, but I am truly sad to see the seniors go. They have really given me something to look up to and admire. I will miss them!!!
Then I just studied for six days. and Adina left.
On Friday afternoon, I went to get pedicures with a few of my Kappa Delta Sisters. Jess, Emily, Rebecca and I hit up the mall for some spa treatment. My toes look GREAT, but I really almost keeled over and died on the spot when the man asked for $27. Just thinking about it now is making me a little nauseous, in fact. Oh dear.
I made it back in time for Table Minyan and CIPAC Shabbat dinner. Everything was great. Sam and I quoted Animal Crackers. All was right with the world.
Yesterday I babysat and we walked up a waterfall!!!! Then I packed and watched Glee and enjoyed life. I went to Mincha, Seudah Shlishit, singing, and Maariv with Koach. I led Maariv! It was really great. I love singing with Matt, but it made me miss Nativ unbearably. After Shabbat, the Hillel board went to Friendly's and we got ice cream (hunka chunka peanut butta fudge whaddup) and played together! I am especially in love with my board and I enjoy getting driven around by Susu, it makes me feel really cool, I can't lie. They are the best!! I'm so excited for next semester.
That finally brings me to today. I had play date with Adam and we talked about Hillel and I tried to convince him to date me but he's not willing to make an exception for me. I'm going to continue working on that. My strategy today involved singing to him one of my favorite Third Eye Blind songs,
One in Ten. Still no progress.
Then Katie and Maggie and I went to Banfi's for brunch with the house mom and chef for Kappa Delta! What a glamorous morning! Maggie and I spoke about L a little bit. It's nice to have someone babysitting her that I know so we can talk about it together. It's a great learning experience, and Maggie has such a big heart, I love to hear her perspective. Katie won a TA award for the Hotel School so that's why she took us all out to brunch!! It was delicious! And great to be eating at the Hotel not as an employee but as a guest : )
Then I tracked down books about Myrlie Evers-Williams, Coretta Scott King, and Betty Shabazz, the widows of the Civil Rights Movement. I cried in the library.
And now here I am, my last night in Donlon, listening to "For Good" from Wicked and being sad about freshman year being over.
I surely can't compare my year on Nativ to my year at Cornell. But I will say that when I left Israel, I really thought I'd never be so happy again. I have definitely been that happy this year, and I have had incredible experiences. Even though I haven't hiked all over a country or trekked over Italy with my four best friends, I have been incredibly challenged and stimulated here, and I have met absolutely INCREDIBLE people. I have no doubt that each one of the people I have become close with this year will go on to do amazing things in this world, and that we will push each other to be our best as the years go on.
Donlon has treated me very well. Once I got over my holier-than-thou-gap-year thing I had going on, I met the most perfect people at Cornell. The friends I made here will be ones I keep forever. Jasies, Jeffies, Kim, Alyssa, Mandies, Rachies, Adina, and of course, my roommate Hannah. I don't know what I would have done without their humor, support, beds to cuddle in, arms to be embraced in, frequent towel encounters on the way to the showers, and just stopping by at night to chat about the day. I loved procrastinating with you, having pillow talk, showering in the stall next to you, brushing my teeth at the same sink, stealing your candy from Big/Little week and tampons while you weren't home, and loving you up.
Peace out, freshman year, it's been real.
