In twitter form this time, ein li koach. (I have no strength)
After iROCi Freedom and before New York, I watched all six seasons of WEEDS. I felt purposeless at the end of season six.
New York: drive with Mama and Barbara, chill with grandparents, see Moss, pick up MEIR!
With Meir: Cornell Art Gallery, Ground Zero, Greenwich Village, Subways, Buses, Restaurants, Football on TV, Basketball on TV, Shabbat in Queens, Synagogue with no doors or windows or congregants, Walks in the cold, Central Park, Metropolitan Museum of Art, reunion with Nativers and SHOSH!, Natural History Museum with Shira and Tyler
Worrying about the storm, bus canceled, worry more, book a train
Rochester: sledding, snow man fail, snow fort success, Wegmans, Chelsea, Julia, Julia, Stephanie, Shabbat at Beth El, Walking walking walking, cookie baking (twice!)
Rush week: Meir gets hooked on Weeds while I SHMOOZE, KISS ASS, SCREAM, DANCE, WALK, WAIT, FREEZE, SMILE, LAUGH, OMG ME TOO!, MY MAJOR, MY GRADE, MY ACTIVITIES, I'M JEWISH, GAP YEAR, ISRAEL, HEADBANDS, ALPHABETICAL ORDER, MAKE UP, FUN, GIRLS, LAUGH, SMILE, FREEZE.
Shabbat at Cornell: Potluck dinner at the Center for Jewish Living, finally some normal conversation, Meir makes friends with Jews, everyone chills out, L'chaim!, potluck lunch, more normal conversation
Bids: I requested a bid from Kappa Delta and was given a bid. We have had two events so far and I like the girls! Very nice and cool and interesting! I would go so far as to say the LEAST sorority-like sorority on campus. Pleased pleased!
School Begins: Hillel board, Calc, Bio, Hebrew, Civil Rights Movement, Social Gerontology. Friends, homework, forms, appointments with my counselor. Meir left on Wednesday morning and has returned to beautiful Los Angeles weather.
Weather: cold, snowy, and now 30 feels balmy. But pretty! Thank goodness for my SNOWBOOTS!
Life: eventful, emotional, exciting, friends, work, school, teachers, new faces, old faces, Shabbat, missing people, meeting people.
It's good to be back.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
New Resolutions
This week, I wrote the D'var Torah for the Hillel listserve Shabbat email! It is on this week's Torah portion, Mishpatim ("laws"). I believe it is especially relevant now that many of us are joining Greek life (go KD!). I will blog about my rushing experience shortly...it was quite something!
At each beginning, there is an opportunity for renewal and improvement. Here we are, at the start of a new semester and a new year that is brimming with promise. When looking to make our New Years’ Resolutions, our first thought is probably not to turn to the Torah, but why not? Although this week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim, will most likely not be helpful to any of us in the ox goring moral dilemma department, it is chock full of important and relevant laws (as the name Mishpatim suggests!).
The parsha can be broken down into three major categories of laws. The first, laws on serfdom and injuries, deals with freeing slaves after the seventh year (but only male slaves, of course), various reasons for capital punishment, and other retribution for injuries, including injury inflicted by animals. In this section, the similarities between the Torah and our favorite sixth-grade-history-class set of laws, Hammurabi’s Code, are too great to ignore. In 21:24-25, we are taught “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise,” but allowed to understand that this meant monetary retribution. Also, Hammurabi deals with ox goring, but I am proud to report that the Torah considers many more possible scenarios, giving the benefit of the doubt to an owner with a first-time goring ox but coming down hard on an owner who has been warned of his ox’s goring habits.
Another section tells the story of Moses ascending the mountain for forty days and forty nights. We hear the thrice-repeated law that it is forbidden to boil a kid in his mother’s milk, we learn about how to observe the Shalosh Regalim, and there is instruction to violently destroy the altars and pillars of neighboring tribes.
The last section I will discuss, laws on property and moral behavior, deals with borrowing, stealing, committing bestiality, seducing virgins, and the treatment of orphans and widows and strangers. And here we come to the resolution portion of this week’s portion! “You must not carry false rumors; you shall not join hands with the guilty to act as a malicious witness. You shall neither side with the majority to do wrong” (23:1-2). Rashi interprets this to mean that we should not blindly follow a majority if our conscience demands otherwise, and we must not trust a majority without question.
At the start of second semester, a large portion of students here are joining Greek life and getting more involved in their activities. Regardless of the specific nature of these activities, it is always important to remember these words of Torah. Rumors are bad, and even witnessing evil, without correcting it, is evil itself. The will of any group should never come before the will of our own instincts, beliefs, and conscience. Not only is this vital to our own sense of morality, it is also vital to our sense of originality—something that is sometimes more comfortable to put on the back burner at college.
In the coming week, semester, or year, consider making this your resolution. Do not spread false rumors and act by your own conscience. The world will be a little bit brighter!
Shabbat Shalom,
Jordana Gilman
Your 2011 Chair of Jewish Education and Culture!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Operation iROCi Freedom: Failure
I didn't want to go to Toronto. I don't like spending money, I don't really like drinking, and I've already been legal for a year (in Israel) so I'm over the novelty. I was very vocal about my non-excitement before the trip. This is our story:
We were going to make restaurant reservations, but then decided just to skip that. We were going to book two hotel rooms so we could each legally have a bed, but we decided to forego comfort to save money. When I found out that clubs require tickets for their New Year's Eve parties, we were going to get tickets, but we decided to just go to bars instead of clubs so we could talk more with the locals and grind less with them.
David and Kristine picked me up at 9:15 am. We sang, we danced, we discussed, we drove our way to Toronto. It was a great road trip! At the border, David was sketchy and forgot to take off his sunglasses but once we moved past that, the patroller was really nice and suggested we go see the celebration outside City Hall in Toronto with bands and stuff. We arrived in Toronto, parked in a parking lot outside our hotel, and began to explore.
There was a homeless man in the parking lot so when I saw a friendly looking local, I asked him if we were in a good neighborhood. He had an earring and an attitude. He asked me what I meant by a good neighborhood and then he said that to our left was great and two blocks to our right was "Cracktown." Ok, thanks.
We made our way leftward. The city was vibrant, pretty, clean, and the people were nice! We were standing outside a restaurant, wondering about it, and a girl came up to us and gave it a great recommendation. Then we were outside a jewelry store and started talking about blood diamonds, and a real live African man gave us his take. By the time we had scoped out the area a bit, the next car was at the hotel. We all got lunch together at Daybreak Restaurant, per the recommendation of Pretty Nice Girl. The lunch was delicious and we all got so much food! We were brimming with hope for the future.
After lunch, the seven of us shopped around. No one was buying anything though, so then we just got down to business; Jonathan asked an employee in Urban how to get to the nearest liquor store, and we were outta there. The liquor store was INSANELY PACKED. There were many disagreements about our purchases. Finally we settled on something and waited in line for many many minutes. It was hard to find each other afterward, but we did it. And then, Starbucks + Baileys in hand, we made our way back to the hotel.
Jonathan and Chelsea checked into the hotel. David, Kristine, and I went to our parking lot to get our things, RAN into the parking garage as a car was pulling out of it (there was a door that couldn't be opened by something that was not a car looking to park), met Julia and Emily there, and finally we went in the elevator to our room.
Room 301 was spacious. It truly was the Best of Westerns. There was a full bed and a pull out couch and floor space. We had champagne and celebrated our victory. Then we headed out for dinner at a pub. It was a good pub with great music and food. My friends ordered drinks and it was very exciting to show their real ID and get served alcohol. Woo!
We went back to the hotel. The girls started getting ready, and I went with David and Jonathan to try out the sauna on our floor! The saunas were not co-ed. Oops. Jonathan checked to make sure it was clear and then we all sauna-ed together in the men's bathroom-sauna thing. We chanted. It was so hot. I didn't hold out for very long. I returned to the room and began the primping process. We all looked wonderful! Time for another round of champagne! And pictures galore.
Around 9:30pm, we decided to go out. We staggered our exit from the elevator so the hotel wouldn't think we were all in one room. Ten feet out the door, we had a man down, let's call her Ally. Ally got right back up and we kept walking. We made our way to the main street with only a few more falls. Then we simply spent two hours wandering around downtown Toronto trying to a) find a place to go for New Year's Eve, b) get Ally to sober up, c) keep the whole group together without having to use our roaming cell phones, d) get pictures of the fun, e) maintain friendships during a time of stress. These were all difficult tasks. We failed on every account, although we did get some priceless pictures.
Finally, we came to the conclusion that walking home was not a possibility. I ran into the street and begged several taxi drivers to bring us back to the hotel. Finally one agreed and I brought Ally back to the hotel with another friend. We were in the room by 11:30. The others had to walk back and it was difficult to get everyone into the hotel. Jonathan was legal to come in because he had checked in with Chelsea, but there was a bouncer at the elevators checking IDs to make sure illegals didn't get into the hotel rooms! There was a complicated plan that involved exiting and reentering the parking garage in the car to pick up the remaining people in our group, because the elevators led directly from the garage to the rooms without having to go through the lobby and get IDs checked.
Finally, we were all together. Emotions ran high. Ally was being difficult and people were angry that we hadn't found a bar. We weren't even all together at midnight. There were tears. Finally we settled on a sleeping arrangement: three in the bed, three on the pullout, and Ally on the floor. When we were being too loud for her to go to sleep, she VOLUNTARILY assumed the fetal position in the bathtub. She stayed there, sound asleep, for about four hours.
A full bed does not easily accommodate three people, but we did our best. We were wired, so no one got a lot of sleep. Finally, it was morning. We dressed, we debriefed, we cleaned, we tried to make sense of our lives. Chelsea and Jonathan checked out of the hotel. David, Kristine and I found the car we left in the parking lot with the homeless man completely intact and not broken into at all, so we were happy about that. We left Toronto without even eating breakfast there, and did not stop for sustenance until the Pembroke rest stop on the Thruway. My car took a scenic detour through Niagra Falls, which was nice, but I daresay that arriving somewhere after Chelsea was a blow to David's ego, because he likes to think that he drives fast and she drives slow. We had a nice lunch at the Pembroke Rest Stop, although there was still lingering tension from the night before. Operation iROCi Freedom had failed.
PS. I had a great time. All that really matters to me is that I was with my friends that I love and we were together in Toronto which is a cool city, and I'm glad we didn't get booted from a hotel. A lot of good things happened, but the trip was just so not what we expected that people were disappointed. Also, to explain the title of this post: it's pronounced "Iraqi Freedom," because ROC is a name for Rochester so we just sandwiched it with i's to make it a joke. Get it?
Happy New Year!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Finals Week
Finals week at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York is a lot different than finals week at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.
Here is a comparison:
Weather: cold+snowy vs. hot+sunny
Company: stressed out college students vs. Mama, MB, B, and Nativ friends
Stress level: moderate to high vs. low
Number of finals: 3 vs. 2
Content of finals: biology, human development, nutrition vs. art history of Israel, society and politics of Israel
Perceived/predicted difficulty of finals: very difficult vs. not very difficult
Consequences: affect my GPA that will get me into medical school that will allow me to pursue my career dream vs. no consequences besides personal pride
Weekend before finals week: Shabbat, study study study and dorm formal vs. weekend at Kibbutz Saad
I don't want to take final exams. They are annoying.
On the bright side, Shabbat this week was lovely lovely as always and I am now on Hillel board!
Here is a comparison:
Weather: cold+snowy vs. hot+sunny
Company: stressed out college students vs. Mama, MB, B, and Nativ friends
Stress level: moderate to high vs. low
Number of finals: 3 vs. 2
Content of finals: biology, human development, nutrition vs. art history of Israel, society and politics of Israel
Perceived/predicted difficulty of finals: very difficult vs. not very difficult
Consequences: affect my GPA that will get me into medical school that will allow me to pursue my career dream vs. no consequences besides personal pride
Weekend before finals week: Shabbat, study study study and dorm formal vs. weekend at Kibbutz Saad
I don't want to take final exams. They are annoying.
On the bright side, Shabbat this week was lovely lovely as always and I am now on Hillel board!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
My Past Life
"She'll say, look what I had to overcome from my last life/ I think I'll write a book.
How long till my soul gets it right?"
-Galileo, The Indigo Girls
In eighth grade, my father took me to see a medium. A medium, according to Wikipedia is a person who claims to be an intermediary between the physical world and the spiritual world. I do not know why he took me to a medium but I will never forget it as long as I live and also I wrote it down in my eighth grade diary just in case.
I went into a house on East Avenue and she took me into a room that was dark and there was a candle on a low table between our chairs. We faced each other and she seemed to look through me. I know, you say, that's what she's getting paid to do. But it felt that way.
Think of me then, perhaps not yet 14, my bones still fractionally cartilagenous and my ligaments still partly unattached, certainly not the imposing individual I am today. I would have been cynical but there was no one else in the room. There were no "normal" people for me to show that I was still normal too, so I allowed myself to be taken in by the frangrant candle and the flickering shadows it cast around the dimly lit room.
The medium spoke in a soothing voice. I was the one who asked her about my past life. She might have told me about other things, had I not been assertive at the beginning, but let's face it, even as an eighth grader I was still Jordana, and therefore assertive.
She might have hummed or closed her eyes or done some sort of ritual, but I don't remember anything too bizarre happening so let's just say she was quiet for a moment, and then she opened her eyes. She told me the following:
I was a French princess named Marielle ("diminutive of Maria," I just looked it up). I lived in a castle and I was lonely. I was betrothed to an older man whom I did not love. Instead, I loved a young and vibrant man who was, for some reason I cannot recall now (money, family, something like that) not an appropriate suitor. I rebelled. I refused to marry my betrothed and instead opted for a lifetime of solitude in the castle. I corresponded for my entire life with my beloved via carrier pigeon. I died quietly in my castle, with my pigeons around me.
Now, in this life, I must correct the mistakes I made before. I must strive until my soul gets it right. I can only imagine what kind of mistakes I made as Marielle living in a castle in France. The opportunities for mayhem are endless...
How long till my soul gets it right?"
-Galileo, The Indigo Girls
In eighth grade, my father took me to see a medium. A medium, according to Wikipedia is a person who claims to be an intermediary between the physical world and the spiritual world. I do not know why he took me to a medium but I will never forget it as long as I live and also I wrote it down in my eighth grade diary just in case.
I went into a house on East Avenue and she took me into a room that was dark and there was a candle on a low table between our chairs. We faced each other and she seemed to look through me. I know, you say, that's what she's getting paid to do. But it felt that way.
Think of me then, perhaps not yet 14, my bones still fractionally cartilagenous and my ligaments still partly unattached, certainly not the imposing individual I am today. I would have been cynical but there was no one else in the room. There were no "normal" people for me to show that I was still normal too, so I allowed myself to be taken in by the frangrant candle and the flickering shadows it cast around the dimly lit room.
The medium spoke in a soothing voice. I was the one who asked her about my past life. She might have told me about other things, had I not been assertive at the beginning, but let's face it, even as an eighth grader I was still Jordana, and therefore assertive.
She might have hummed or closed her eyes or done some sort of ritual, but I don't remember anything too bizarre happening so let's just say she was quiet for a moment, and then she opened her eyes. She told me the following:
I was a French princess named Marielle ("diminutive of Maria," I just looked it up). I lived in a castle and I was lonely. I was betrothed to an older man whom I did not love. Instead, I loved a young and vibrant man who was, for some reason I cannot recall now (money, family, something like that) not an appropriate suitor. I rebelled. I refused to marry my betrothed and instead opted for a lifetime of solitude in the castle. I corresponded for my entire life with my beloved via carrier pigeon. I died quietly in my castle, with my pigeons around me.
Now, in this life, I must correct the mistakes I made before. I must strive until my soul gets it right. I can only imagine what kind of mistakes I made as Marielle living in a castle in France. The opportunities for mayhem are endless...
But Now I am Six
I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six
now and forever.
The poem is misleading, but it is a favorite of mine. Since my last post I have had another birthday, and now I am 20, and as clever as clever. So I think I'll be 20 now and forever.
The events leading up to my birthday were most joyous. First, I finished all of my Bio units!!! Jubilation!!! Then on Wednesday, the first night of Channukah, there was a Latka House and people performed etc and it was very nice. I lit candles in Rachel and Amanda's room with a whole slew of Jews and also Ryan, who is not Jewish, so he photographed the event.
On Thursday, it was a busy day. We celebrated our last Hebrew class, which was actually quite sad because we love Shalom, our professor, and it provides me and Adina with a structured lunch schedule. Then Adina and I had lunch, and it was wonderful, because it was us having lunch. Then I went to our last Human Development class with the whole gang, and it was funny and fun and I realized I would miss that too.
Later on Thursday, I went to dinner with a group of Meinig scholars at Vice Provost Laura Brown's house. It was really lovely and interesting. She is a self-proclaimed "humanist," and although she is currently working in administration, her passion is literature. I identified with her and she was really cool to talk to. She told us about her high school experience in a strict Miss Porters type all-girls boarding school, undergraduate at Stanford (where she met her husband the first week of freshman year in the dining hall-they grew up together through the anti-war movement-precious), and graduate school at Berkley, where she met my current English professor, Harry Shaw, whom I adore!
The dinner was truly a delight. It came to an end just in time for me to attend Hillel's Next Latka Chef, where chefs from several fraternities competed to make the best latkas. It was a very cool event, although I did not try the latkas. I was very hyper and excited because it was my last day of being 19 and I couldn't be bothered with latka competitions.
On Friday, I wrote my last paper for English about Forster's A Room with a View, really one of the best novels I've read. Then Adina picked me up and we went to lunch at Waffle Frolic and observed some most unusual characters in their natural locally-grown-eatery-in-Ithaca environment. The lunch was happy happy! What a treat to be out and about in the world!
Then, my last Nutrition class! Not going to lie, Professor Levitsky started to get a little weird by the end. Like, his ideas were always a bit unconventional, but he was too much on Friday. Anyway, it was good to chill with Juhi and talk about our lives etc, because she was my main motivation for coming to class.
Then, my last English class! It was quite sad, and awkward, in the best way. I really had become friends with some of the people in my class, and we really read amazing things, and the teacher was only the most insightful, interesting, bizarre teacher I've ever had. I will miss watching his eyebrows, his hands as they made milking motions as he searched for greater detail and depth, his accent that was always somewhat British but really impossible to place, his sweater vests, his almonds in sandwich bags, his last search in the hallways before class started to see if he could find any additional students to attend class, and of course, the way he graded my papers.
I dawdled a bit and changed for Shabbat. I led Kabalat Shabbat at Koach services, which was fun, and then Andrew led Maariv, which was also fun, but he didn't do the lovely tune for Vshamru, sadly. Matt told a great story in between (actually it was the parsha, it was just a really good story) and there were some bad/great jokes in there too. They also all sang to me and we talked about how it was my birthday several times. Then I went to JORDANA'S BIRTHDAY SHABBAT DINNER! Everyone was there, even Kim (Asian, not a Jew) and Alyssa came out for the festivities (woooo D6!!). The Jewish a capella group was performing and they sang happy birthday to me as well! I was a star, as I should be.
After all, I was French royalty in another life.
Then Josh M-- came to nag me about being in my blog and I explained that I was busy living so as to have material for my blog and I daresay I was not taken nearly as seriously as French royalty really should be. (epilogue: he nagged me AGAIN today! unbelievable)
I sang with the usual singers after Shabbat dinner and Ranan even joined us, and lived up to his name (which means Song of Joy!). Then he and I and Adam and Matt all walked back to North and I prepared for more birthday festivities by putting on a dress and somewhat-shiny, somewhat-heeled boots!
Andrew, Adina, Ilana, and I went to the AEPi Channukah party. I have been to better parties. We left and hiked around Cornell and tried to get in elsewhere (we saw Juhi and Nihaal on the way!!!!) and that proved futile because they weren't Jewish frats so--really--how are we supposed to know anyone inside? We returned via the suspension bridge (exciting) to AEPi and spotted Hilda and Felix on the way, always a pleasant surprise. Once at AEPi, we took over a room and played music from all the clubs that American teenagers on gap years frequent in Israel (think: Stereo Love, After Basdinim, Replay). We were about to die of broken hearts from our trip down memory lane when someone had the brilliant idea to play MIRACLE by MATISYAHU, only my new favorite song.
The dance party was a major success. We whipped our hair back and forth, we showed all our haters love, we asked, "oh na na, what's my name?"
The night ended with a visit to Mews 2 to see my favorite guarders of the sabbath: Ari, Jake, and Ari.
Saturday, I babysat as usual. L was having a rough day of sorts, which is therefore a rough day for me. It was rewarding as always, though, and her parents are wonderful people to be around. Then I went to Shabbat lunch at Aaron and Avi's house with many friends and a few new faces. It felt so nice to be experiencing Shabbat through warm hospitality that I experienced so often in Israel last year. We had hummus and pita and Israeli salad and meatballs and potatoes and latkas and even though there was too much parsley I ate mostly everything!
After lunch, I chilled with Adina and showered and prepared to welcome my radiant friend, Rachel (the first). She drove in the snow, she traversed the Cornell campus, she parked somewhat illegally, she brought me The Fountainhead which is already great, she embraced me and sang Happy Birthday at every chance. We dined with Jesse and walked to Collegetown to attempt attendance at Vodka and Latkas, but alas, we lacked the proper identification. We opted for an evening of people-watching and dairy-guzzling at Insomnia Cookies (we drank a pint of skim milk). At our return home, we tried to watch a movie but Rachel had fallen asleep by the time Netflix had finished loading it.
We brunched the next morning with Jesse, and with Ranan in spirit. We had run into Ranan the previous night while he was on an exciting adventure as part of his frisbee team (read: initiation to the team via hazing) so it was understandable that he was not able to make our early-to-bed, early-to-rise brunch. We collected him for our nature walk though, and the four of us made our way around Beebe Lake, the path newly dusted with snow. From there, Rachel took her leave of us and we dispersed.
I watched a movie in Rachel (the second)'s bed called Boys Don't Cry, with Hillary Swank, about a transgender individual in Nebraska. Ah! Heartbreaking! Then I was almost addicted to LOST but left before I could be completely sucked in by the merciless vacuum of souls that is LOST: Season II.
We lit candles at RPCC and I ate with D5 friends and then went to Ari's concert at Sage Chapel with Geoffrey Chaucer and Adina. Now I shall share the wisdom of E. M. Forster with you, Jordana Junkies:
"The chief parallel to compare one great thing with another--is the power over us of a temple of some alien creed. Standing outside, we deride or oppose it, or at the most feel sentimental. Inside, though the saints and gods are not ours, we become true believers, in case any true believer should be present."
This was the story of my experience at Sage Chapel. Ari is in the Glee Club and the Glee Club was performing and I am Ari's friend so I went to see the Glee Club perform. The songs were religious songs about Christmas and Jesus, and they were beautiful. There were times when we had to rise and most people were singing along so I just stood and listened. I did get the hang of "Glo-o-o-o-o-o-ria in excelsis deo!" which was catchy so I sang along, seeing no harm in the Latin I could somewhat translate. There were eight "readings" about baby Jesus, and the build-up to the virgin birth, and so on. I didn't expect it. I was expecting a Glee Club concert. I didn't feel moved by the readings but I couldn't help but feel moved by the songs. Ave Maria was incredible. There are many people who will disagree with me (but this is my blog and I say what I want): sometimes I feel as if music is proof of God's existence itself, because it can be too beautiful to come from men alone. That is how I felt during Ave Maria, and I became a true believer, though the saints and gods were not mine.
Afterward, we congratulated Ari and hot chocolated at CTB, where we ran into our favorites, most especially Keren! She used the words "inextricably linked" when discussing the connection between social and environmental justice. I do adore that girl.
On Monday, I studied, I Hillel-ed, I helped coordinate the lighting of an ice menorah on Ho Plaza, I saw many friends, I ate some sufganiyot, I watched a comedian juggle and knife while riding a unicycle. Then I went to Leslie's house in Collegetown where Joe and Leslie were hard at work making dinner. It was delicious! I even helped peel potatoes. I was proud of my contribution.
Today, I studied more. Adina met me at the library and then I ate dinner with Eli to talk about my Hillel board position. I hope I am able to reach my goals! There is a big task ahead. It was then time for a Dreidel Study Break, and we watched the Hebrew Hammer, and now I am writing my blog.
I leave you with this:
She comes with a volume of Talmud. Happy Channukah.
So I think I'll be six
now and forever.
The poem is misleading, but it is a favorite of mine. Since my last post I have had another birthday, and now I am 20, and as clever as clever. So I think I'll be 20 now and forever.
The events leading up to my birthday were most joyous. First, I finished all of my Bio units!!! Jubilation!!! Then on Wednesday, the first night of Channukah, there was a Latka House and people performed etc and it was very nice. I lit candles in Rachel and Amanda's room with a whole slew of Jews and also Ryan, who is not Jewish, so he photographed the event.
On Thursday, it was a busy day. We celebrated our last Hebrew class, which was actually quite sad because we love Shalom, our professor, and it provides me and Adina with a structured lunch schedule. Then Adina and I had lunch, and it was wonderful, because it was us having lunch. Then I went to our last Human Development class with the whole gang, and it was funny and fun and I realized I would miss that too.
Later on Thursday, I went to dinner with a group of Meinig scholars at Vice Provost Laura Brown's house. It was really lovely and interesting. She is a self-proclaimed "humanist," and although she is currently working in administration, her passion is literature. I identified with her and she was really cool to talk to. She told us about her high school experience in a strict Miss Porters type all-girls boarding school, undergraduate at Stanford (where she met her husband the first week of freshman year in the dining hall-they grew up together through the anti-war movement-precious), and graduate school at Berkley, where she met my current English professor, Harry Shaw, whom I adore!
The dinner was truly a delight. It came to an end just in time for me to attend Hillel's Next Latka Chef, where chefs from several fraternities competed to make the best latkas. It was a very cool event, although I did not try the latkas. I was very hyper and excited because it was my last day of being 19 and I couldn't be bothered with latka competitions.
On Friday, I wrote my last paper for English about Forster's A Room with a View, really one of the best novels I've read. Then Adina picked me up and we went to lunch at Waffle Frolic and observed some most unusual characters in their natural locally-grown-eatery-in-Ithaca environment. The lunch was happy happy! What a treat to be out and about in the world!
Then, my last Nutrition class! Not going to lie, Professor Levitsky started to get a little weird by the end. Like, his ideas were always a bit unconventional, but he was too much on Friday. Anyway, it was good to chill with Juhi and talk about our lives etc, because she was my main motivation for coming to class.
Then, my last English class! It was quite sad, and awkward, in the best way. I really had become friends with some of the people in my class, and we really read amazing things, and the teacher was only the most insightful, interesting, bizarre teacher I've ever had. I will miss watching his eyebrows, his hands as they made milking motions as he searched for greater detail and depth, his accent that was always somewhat British but really impossible to place, his sweater vests, his almonds in sandwich bags, his last search in the hallways before class started to see if he could find any additional students to attend class, and of course, the way he graded my papers.
I dawdled a bit and changed for Shabbat. I led Kabalat Shabbat at Koach services, which was fun, and then Andrew led Maariv, which was also fun, but he didn't do the lovely tune for Vshamru, sadly. Matt told a great story in between (actually it was the parsha, it was just a really good story) and there were some bad/great jokes in there too. They also all sang to me and we talked about how it was my birthday several times. Then I went to JORDANA'S BIRTHDAY SHABBAT DINNER! Everyone was there, even Kim (Asian, not a Jew) and Alyssa came out for the festivities (woooo D6!!). The Jewish a capella group was performing and they sang happy birthday to me as well! I was a star, as I should be.
After all, I was French royalty in another life.
Then Josh M-- came to nag me about being in my blog and I explained that I was busy living so as to have material for my blog and I daresay I was not taken nearly as seriously as French royalty really should be. (epilogue: he nagged me AGAIN today! unbelievable)
I sang with the usual singers after Shabbat dinner and Ranan even joined us, and lived up to his name (which means Song of Joy!). Then he and I and Adam and Matt all walked back to North and I prepared for more birthday festivities by putting on a dress and somewhat-shiny, somewhat-heeled boots!
Andrew, Adina, Ilana, and I went to the AEPi Channukah party. I have been to better parties. We left and hiked around Cornell and tried to get in elsewhere (we saw Juhi and Nihaal on the way!!!!) and that proved futile because they weren't Jewish frats so--really--how are we supposed to know anyone inside? We returned via the suspension bridge (exciting) to AEPi and spotted Hilda and Felix on the way, always a pleasant surprise. Once at AEPi, we took over a room and played music from all the clubs that American teenagers on gap years frequent in Israel (think: Stereo Love, After Basdinim, Replay). We were about to die of broken hearts from our trip down memory lane when someone had the brilliant idea to play MIRACLE by MATISYAHU, only my new favorite song.
The dance party was a major success. We whipped our hair back and forth, we showed all our haters love, we asked, "oh na na, what's my name?"
The night ended with a visit to Mews 2 to see my favorite guarders of the sabbath: Ari, Jake, and Ari.
Saturday, I babysat as usual. L was having a rough day of sorts, which is therefore a rough day for me. It was rewarding as always, though, and her parents are wonderful people to be around. Then I went to Shabbat lunch at Aaron and Avi's house with many friends and a few new faces. It felt so nice to be experiencing Shabbat through warm hospitality that I experienced so often in Israel last year. We had hummus and pita and Israeli salad and meatballs and potatoes and latkas and even though there was too much parsley I ate mostly everything!
After lunch, I chilled with Adina and showered and prepared to welcome my radiant friend, Rachel (the first). She drove in the snow, she traversed the Cornell campus, she parked somewhat illegally, she brought me The Fountainhead which is already great, she embraced me and sang Happy Birthday at every chance. We dined with Jesse and walked to Collegetown to attempt attendance at Vodka and Latkas, but alas, we lacked the proper identification. We opted for an evening of people-watching and dairy-guzzling at Insomnia Cookies (we drank a pint of skim milk). At our return home, we tried to watch a movie but Rachel had fallen asleep by the time Netflix had finished loading it.
We brunched the next morning with Jesse, and with Ranan in spirit. We had run into Ranan the previous night while he was on an exciting adventure as part of his frisbee team (read: initiation to the team via hazing) so it was understandable that he was not able to make our early-to-bed, early-to-rise brunch. We collected him for our nature walk though, and the four of us made our way around Beebe Lake, the path newly dusted with snow. From there, Rachel took her leave of us and we dispersed.
I watched a movie in Rachel (the second)'s bed called Boys Don't Cry, with Hillary Swank, about a transgender individual in Nebraska. Ah! Heartbreaking! Then I was almost addicted to LOST but left before I could be completely sucked in by the merciless vacuum of souls that is LOST: Season II.
We lit candles at RPCC and I ate with D5 friends and then went to Ari's concert at Sage Chapel with Geoffrey Chaucer and Adina. Now I shall share the wisdom of E. M. Forster with you, Jordana Junkies:
"The chief parallel to compare one great thing with another--is the power over us of a temple of some alien creed. Standing outside, we deride or oppose it, or at the most feel sentimental. Inside, though the saints and gods are not ours, we become true believers, in case any true believer should be present."
This was the story of my experience at Sage Chapel. Ari is in the Glee Club and the Glee Club was performing and I am Ari's friend so I went to see the Glee Club perform. The songs were religious songs about Christmas and Jesus, and they were beautiful. There were times when we had to rise and most people were singing along so I just stood and listened. I did get the hang of "Glo-o-o-o-o-o-ria in excelsis deo!" which was catchy so I sang along, seeing no harm in the Latin I could somewhat translate. There were eight "readings" about baby Jesus, and the build-up to the virgin birth, and so on. I didn't expect it. I was expecting a Glee Club concert. I didn't feel moved by the readings but I couldn't help but feel moved by the songs. Ave Maria was incredible. There are many people who will disagree with me (but this is my blog and I say what I want): sometimes I feel as if music is proof of God's existence itself, because it can be too beautiful to come from men alone. That is how I felt during Ave Maria, and I became a true believer, though the saints and gods were not mine.
Afterward, we congratulated Ari and hot chocolated at CTB, where we ran into our favorites, most especially Keren! She used the words "inextricably linked" when discussing the connection between social and environmental justice. I do adore that girl.
On Monday, I studied, I Hillel-ed, I helped coordinate the lighting of an ice menorah on Ho Plaza, I saw many friends, I ate some sufganiyot, I watched a comedian juggle and knife while riding a unicycle. Then I went to Leslie's house in Collegetown where Joe and Leslie were hard at work making dinner. It was delicious! I even helped peel potatoes. I was proud of my contribution.
Today, I studied more. Adina met me at the library and then I ate dinner with Eli to talk about my Hillel board position. I hope I am able to reach my goals! There is a big task ahead. It was then time for a Dreidel Study Break, and we watched the Hebrew Hammer, and now I am writing my blog.
I leave you with this:
She comes with a volume of Talmud. Happy Channukah.
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